CONTRADICTIONS COLLAPSE

Quite different from what you are used to expect from Meshuggah, "Contradictions Collapse" shows their obvious thrash-metal influences well here, as you can compare it to some of Metallica or Slayers most technical moments. It's still not as complex as their later albums, but it gives clear hints of what to come, though you can also hear they were also searching for a sound. Guitarists/Vocalists Fredrik Thordendal and Jens Kidman delivers some really great and complex riffs here, some of them even be up to pair with their more known stuff, though in a less extreme style. These riffs are backed up with Tomas Haake's excellent drumming and Peter Nordin's faultless bass playing. The songs are generally long, most of them clocks in at 6-7 minutes, but they're never really boring, though some of them could have been a bit better.

This one might be their most acessible, though I suggest you start with 1995's "Destroy Erase Improve" concidering that "Destroy Erase Improve" explains better what Meshuggah really are better than this one. A very good, if not excellent debut album, in my opinion. Sadly underrated! 4.25/5

Meshuggah's debut isn't extremely prog, but you can sense the elements within this album. All in all it's an ultra-complex and experimental album, covering lots of ground as far as sounds and styles. The band hasn't completely come into their sound and would prove to be more solid as musicians and songwriters later, but this is a good album. The reissue of this features the None EP, so if you're going to buy, look for that.

"Contradictions Collapse" is the debut full-length studio album by technical thrash metal act Meshuggah. The album was relased through Nuclear Blast Records in January 1991. The original vinyl version of the album features 8 tracks while the CD version features a 9th bonus track in "Cadaverous Mastication". Meshuggah formed in 1987 (shortly functioning under the Calipash monicker) and released the "Ejaculation of Salvation" demo in 1989 and later the same year the "Meshuggah (Psykisk Testbild)" EP. There has been one lineup change since the release of the EP as drummer Niklas Lundgren has been replaced by Tomas Haake.

Stylistically the material on "Contradictions Collapse" is technical thrash metal. Lead vocalist/rhythm guitarist Jens Kidman has a voice and vocal style which is somewhat similar to how James Hetfield of Metallica sounded in the 80s, although generally a bit more monotone and raw and shouting. Comparisons to the most technical moments on Metallica´s "...and Justice for All (1988)" are also valid enough, but Meshuggah are ultimately an even more technically complex and brutal monster. There´s often a fusion edge to the drumming, and lead guitarist Fredrik Thordendal has a jazz/fusion solo style which is strongly influenced by Allan Holdsworth. "Contradictions Collapse" is not an easily accessible release and the material takes a bit of time and a few spins to remember. Given enough spins hooks begin to appear in memorable riffs and drum patterns or a catchy vocal phrase here and there. The point is that the album is more memorable than it may initially appear.

"Contradictions Collapse" features a powerful and detailed sounding production. It´s not the most well balanced sound production out there, and while it´s nice to actually be able to hear the bass on the metal production, the metallic toned bass is a little too dominant in the mix. The guitars should have been slightly higher placed in the mix and the bass a little lower and the album would arguably have prospered from it. Considering it´s a 1991 thrash metal release, "Contradictions Collapse" is still a well produced album though, so the balance of the instruments in the mix is after all a minor issue. Upon conclusion "Contradictions Collapse" is a strong debut album by Meshuggah and while it´s not a perfect release, and fans of the band´s subsequent releases aren´t guaranteed to enjoy this (it sounds very different from the ultra heavy, complex, and groove laden extreme metal of later works), it´s a succesful release on its own terms. Fans of technical late 80s/early 90s thrash metal are recommended to give this one a listen. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is fully deserved.

(Originally posted on Metal Music Archives)

BRÂNTĂ PROASTĂ ÎN BURDUF DE CÂINE

And to think that we live in a world that cares about it's citizens ... If this was true, Contradictions Collapse wouldn't exist. It's outrageous to let such mind altering acoustic wreck add to the world's decrepitude. Such pollution should become illegal and Meshuggah should pay each and every person who might have been foolish enough to spend 50 minutes of their lives listening to the album. In fact, Contradictions Collapse is a bomb. Well, at least sounds like one.

My first encounter with the disc was actually pleasant probably due to the fact that I was playing Starcraft while listening to the album and because of the music's brotherhood with any war noise. After finishing the game I was so exited by the musical background that I had set that I even recommended it to a friend. And just an hour ago I decided to listen again to the record, this time paying attention.

The first thing that hit me was the horrible production: besides the fact that the producer simply didn't play any attention to the way the band was playing, the sound engineering is a total failure. Everything sounds so sharp that head aches are bound to hit your head and the chaos created adds the lack of clarity of any purpose of the music. As for the compositions, Paralyzing Ignorance impressed me with it's jazzy drums, but the good impression wasn't meant to last because the entire album is a failed attempt to emulate the music of Atheist and adding more brutality to it by attaching some hardcore elements. The musicians are pretty good and each one tries desperately to take the other's front forgetting that, as a group, all the pieces must fit in. Practically, the record is a competition featuring the band members, in which the most prominent wins. No wonder Contradictions Collapse sounds like it was recorded on a war filed. You might say it is complex and somehow progressive since there are only two tracks similar to the conventional thrash metal songs, those being We'll Never See the Day and, more or less, Greed, but, paralytically, these two are the only ones that sound good.

The most pathetic, uncool, atrocious, bad, nasty, and so on aspect of the album is the the vocalist's performance. The brutal screams can be reproduced by anyone, ANYONE, there's nothing special, nothing of a musician in them and the backing vocals are so annoying that it makes you curse the day you heard of Meshuggah.

Acoustic guitars appear hear and there, but it doesn't improve the sound, in fact their role is uncertain which gives me reasons to believe that the decision to play the acoustic guitar was taken because it was simply cool to do so. In stead of gaining diversity (and showing people what ingenious musicians they are), Meshuggah offered the album some nice kitsch moments and put them in a unpleasant position - counterexamples for how to use the acoustic guitar in thrash songs.

Furthermore, I am disappointed by the drums. Although the rhythm isn't as typical as you might expect, the drummer isn't inspired enough. The bass doesn't help, although it's dirty sound is wisely chosen but the way it is used doesn't do anything to break the monotony. If today had been 1993 in stead of 2008 I might have been impressed but Korn really made dirty bass sounds and effects, that are louder than the guitar's, too popular and, unfortunately for Meshuggah, I am a Korn fan.

Like all thrash metal bands, Meshuggah plays guitar solos. The problem is that their solos are just like everyone else's and don't even match the technique of the solos of guitarist like Hammet , Kisser or King. However, at least here Meshuggah do good.

Another no-to-be-so-proud-about-as-an-artist thing that bugs me is the contradiction between the titles, that gives the lyrics the appearance of philosophical texts, and the plainness of the text it's self. When you read Contradictions Collapse, while having in mind that Meshuggah is a progressive metal group and knowing that progressive rock usually promotes complex lyrics with philosophical themes, you might expect that Meshuggah's lyrics reflect an inner regression towards the relativity within post-modernism and that it features an utopia-view regarding the unification of senses. Surprisingly, when you read the text, you get something like :

What the [%*!#] happens here.../ NOTHING/ Slovenry.../ DAMN SAVAGERY/ REACT/ We're slowly drowning in our own mistakes.../ DEEPER7 Drowning.../ BREATHING UNDERWATER-DEATH/ HELP.../ I wish I felt much better/ Feels like I'm dying inside/ By murdering this world/ we'll all commit...SUICIDE/

Obviously, nothing to do with the first impression. I believe the solution for such an album would have been inviting Fred Durst as guest appearance. Too bad Limp Bizkit debuted in 1996. Which is not to say that I have anything to do with Limp Bizkit, but I seem to enjoy tracks with Fred Durst as guest. Well, that's another story.

To conclude, don't buy this album, I haven't. 1.5 stars rating, that 0.5 being for the solos, the only good aspect of an almost total failure.

When we listen to Meshuggah today it is tough to imagine they began as thrash metal influenced by Metaallica. However, you can hear it on this album. Contradictions Collapse is deeply rooted in thrash metal. You can hear it in the drumming and especially in the guitar riffs. However, we do see hints of what was in store. For a thrashy album there are some serious signs of technicality, use of various time signatures, and bits of jazz fusion, (in the solos). This is not a prog-metal album, I would say it is technical metal but it is a great work regardless.

This album does have a different sound from their later works. The guitars are not as heavy sounding and instead of their soul crushing, staccato, riffs this albums uses tremolo picking thrash metal riffs. However, even back in these days they use their mechanical, complex jazzy guitar solos. Fredrik is one hell of a player.

You can really hear the bass on this album, MUCH more than on later works, and I am always a fan of that. Their bassist at the time was Peter Nordin and while he may not lay down anything mind blowing, there is some great bass work here and you can REALLY hear it.

Jens vocals on this album are actually the most tolerable of any Meshuggah work. He employs a harsh, yet non pitched scream. This is perfectly tolerable for ANY fan of metal and the vocals actually fit the music quite well, as opposed to later albums where his vocals seem to just pierce everything.

My favorite part of Meshuggah. The drumming. Tomas Haake is, in my opinion, the best drummer there is right now. We all know his insane poly rhythmic drumming with complex bass patterns and pin point accuracy, not to mention some great jazzy beats. While you do hear traces of that this album features more straight forward thrash drumming, which is still impressive nonetheless.

Paralyzing Ignorance. Begins with a slow melodic intro which quickly picks up intensity. Here is some great work of Haake's drumming. A simple, slow riff begins before we are thrown into a chaotic bass section. Then the thrash begins. The rest of the song is very thrashy and their is a sweet solo in there.

Erroneous Manipulation. A nice heavy intro! For a while the song continues slow and heavy with some nice thrash bursts. The middle section is great! With some complex soloing, and even a small melodic section. Some crazy bass as well!

Abnegating Cecity. A nice thrashy song, though not extremely fast, and with some interesting solos throughout.

Internal Evidence. A sweet bass intro quickly followed by some technical drumming. Gotta love a drummer that can work some technicality into thrash! In fact this song has some of the albums most technical drumming, and some of his jazz prowess as well. Overall this song is quite progressive.

Qualms of Reality. Another nice thrashy song.

We'll Never See the Day. A fairly slow beginning that moves into a faster Metallica-esque downpicking riff. In fact this song has a VERY strong Metallica sound. However, the solos the bizzare meshuggah solo's we all love, and their is some great drumming yet again.

Greed. The beginning almost has a hardcore feel to it with the drums. Also, another great place to hear some killer bass. The song then goes into a thrashy section with some off beat drumming! It sounds like the Haake we now know. The song is pretty quick, and has a nice progression throughout.

Choirs of Devastation. An instrumental song (well not quite), this one is fairly mellow, (compared to the rest). There is a beautiful minute long opening, when some heavy riffs and great drumming kicks in. After some spoken word a REALLY groovy riff comes followed by some blazing, yet wonderful solos. Great ending. This is my favorite song from the album! A real winner here.

Cadaverous Mastication. Not one of my favorites, a good song but nothing spectacular here. The weakest on the album. Not bad really, but not good.

Overall, a great album! Obviously the regular progger should stay away from this, or any meshuggah album. However, fans of prog-metal this is a good work! It is still very thrashy so it depends on how metal your taste is. For me, this album is a solid 4 but for this site I give it 3 stars.

Meshuggah - Contradictions Collapse

"Contradictions Collapse" is the debut studio album by technical thrash/extreme metal band Meshuggah. Meshuggah is probably best known for their odd time changes, skull-crushing riffs, meandering grooves, and aggressive vocals. However, that wouldn't really develop much until "Chaosphere". While much different from later releases, Meshuggah's debut still shows technical complexity and is an underrated album in Meshuggah's discography.

This album is much more thrash-based then later albums, which focus more on groove. This is what I'd call technical thrash somewhat in the vein of Metallica's "...And Justice for All" album with some groove here and there. You still have crushing riffing, but in a thrashing way. The opening song 'Paralyzing Ignorance' is one of my favorites, and is a great opener as it gives a good idea for the sound of the album. It's got some great riot chant vocals, fantastic riffs that I find it hard not to headbang to, pounding drums, and some nice basslines too. Speaking of bass, the bass is very audible in this album, just listen to the song 'Erronerous Manipulation' and you'll probably hear how strong the bass sound is. In the aforementioned song, it's not just the bass that's strong, there is some really catchy guitar. Most of the songs change up quite a bit, but it all sounds really natural. One minute you'll have a jazzy guitar solo, and then the next will be a slow passage or a crushing riff. 'Greed' is another favorite, starting up with a march-like beat. Of course, like most of the songs though it changes up soon enough with grooving riffs and noisy soloing. This is a little thing, but it has whispering of 'The cause of greed', similar to Metallica's 'Damage Inc.'. I don't know why, but I always love little things like that.

Unlike later albums, Jens Kidman's vocals actually kind of sound like a rawer and more aggressive James Hetfield, and that perfectly fits in with the sound of the album. Besides the similarities with "...And Justice for All", there are also parts that remind me of "Killing Technology" and "Dimension Hatross"-era Voivod. Kidman sometimes has a punk vocal delivery, and the beginning riffs of 'Abnegating Cecity' remind me of some of the guitar work on those albums. There are also some upbeat jump-y riffs and grooves throughout the album reminding me of Pantera, albeit with off-kilter drum rhythms. This is especially heard in the song 'Qualms of Reality' before it goes into a slower passage with nice acoustics.

Overall, this is one killer debut album. If you want some ass-kicking tech thrash, or if you couldn't get into later Meshuggah, then this is most certainly for you. I love most of Meshuggah's discography, but this definitely stands out in this consistently great band's output. There may be a bit too much going on for some, but I still highly recommend this album to any fans of tech thrash.

(Originally written for www.metalmusicarchives.com)

Thrash star, not so much for prog...: 7/10

Before I decided to review this, I opted on reading some already existing reviews to get some inspiration. With that in mind, Jjlehto's review translates perfectly what I see in this album, and I won't repeat what has already been pronounced. Instead, I'll recommend you to read his review and give my input on why CONTRADICTIONS COLLAPSE is a masterpiece, but not for progressive metal, as well on some details about the conceptuality.

Well, first things first: this isn't a Swedish band merely influenced by METALLICA's MASTER OF PUPPETS or ...AND JUSTICE FOR ALL, this is a blatant copy gone right. You can literally hear James Hetfield on the first track, Paralyzing Ignorance. But the difference is that where Lars suck as a drummer, Haake nails it.

As an authentic fan of thrash metal, I attest this groundbreaking this is for the genre. It was released in the same year thrash gained mainstream fame with METALLICA's BLACK ALBUM and MEGADETH's COUNTDOWN TO EXTINCTION, but at the same time, lost its beautiful characteristic that made it so great while underground: aggressivity and an anti-mainstream sentiment. And while the big guys of the genre, by the 90's, started to lack those characteristics, MESHUGGAH comes up and BAM! you get this crushing release. MESHUGGAH came with a very clear message: we are a true thrash band.

Now let's progress to talk about the musicianship. Boy, technicality is beyond absurd, and it sounds delightfully unique for the thrash ears. The way everything's so odd and even and changing and shifting and quick and slow and groovy and heavy and then the snares and beats get confusing... it's innovative in the thrash scene, to say the least. The talent of those guys, in special the drummer and the guitarist, is something to praise a LOT about.

Lastly, as I've made myself clear (more often than needed, I suppose), this is would be for ThrashArchives.org what Pawn Hearts is for ProgArchives. Creative, refreshing, highly-rated, heavily rated. But sadly we're not at ThrashArchives. And bearing in mind this is a PROGRESSIVE focused forum, we can't really attest much progressiveness here. It's more of a "thrash with some progressive elements" than "progressive with thrash core". You can't get a distinctively prog feeling here from aside the polyrhythms and changing time signatures and insane breakdowns. I think that the fairest rating for this would be something around "3.6/5". I... might even quote Jjlehto (he's kind of becoming my hero on this Meshuggah business): "Overall, a great album! Obviously the regular progger should stay away from this. [...] fans of prog-metal this is a good work! It is still very thrashy so it depends on how metal your taste is".

While many metal bands have spent a career recycling the riffs and musical styles of other artists, some who start out that way actually latch on to their own sound and take the world by storm with innovative and out of the box approaches. Metallica took the world by storm in the 80s as they unleashed a unique mix of thrash metal, classical harmonizing and extreme metal assault and while bands like Testament have been churning out one alternative Metallica album after another for decades, MESHUGGAH on the other hand who started out worshipping the altar of albums like "Master Of Puppets" and "..And Justice For All" moved on into more progressive pastures.

The band was founded all the way back in 1987 by guitarist Frederik Thordendal and vocalist Jens Kidman and were no doubt influenced by the American thrash scene given its world dominating presence. The debut self-titled EP which is also known as "Psykisk Testbild" was the grand declaration that MESHUGGAH had the chops and stamina to be the best Metallica clone in the universe and pulled it off with ease yet it never occurred to the Thordendal and team to include even a lick of originality and despite its best efforts, the band just simply created an alternative universe release that seemed to have been slipped in between the "Masters Of Puppets" and "?And Justice For All" timeline.

Following the short little EP of three track by two years MESHUGGAH finally released their debut album CONTRADICTIONS COLLAPSE in 1991 and at long last started to show a little individuality as the band ratcheted a few significant steps up the creativity totem pole which would ultimately lead them to finding their niche as one of the world's leading progressive extreme metal band that hybridized death, thrash and progressive metal with healthy doses of jazz-fusion and the avant-garde but this debut album despite a major leap forward still suffers from many too close to the source moments as the band hadn't quite distanced themselves from the 80s American thrash scene. b The album also debuts Tomas Haake on drumming duties after the departure of Niclas Lundgren.

CONTRADICITONS COLLAPSE is quite unique in the MESHUGGAH canon as it bridges the gap between the Metallica clone origins and the extreme technical wizardry that would soon follow. This technical thrash metal workout begins to branch out from the world of Metallica and starts to employ not only the progressive metal angularity of future releases but also includes the percussive drum pattern influences of other genres such as hip hop and industrial dance. There is also a lot of alternative metal riffing and for the most part the drumming styles are less bombastic than on future albums. The album originally contained only eight tracks with the ninth "Cadaverous Mastication" taken from the debut EP and tacked on future releases.

Right from the start with the first surreal introductory guitar fueled cacophony of "Paralyzing Ignorance," it's clear that MESHUGGAH was moving into a stranger new arena of metal but the track reverts back to a standard thrash metal paradigm with choppy guitar riffage, blasting bass and drumming as well as a clearly James Hetfield style of vocal shouting. Despite the more loosely constructed tracks many of the heavy riffs are very similar to Metallica riffs such as "Battery" or "The Shortest Straw," however MESHUGGAH begins to surprise even at this early stage and meanders into more progressive arenas. Little tidbits such as the sitar on "We'll Never See The Day" show the band flirting with the bizarre but only for fleeting moments.

While the thrash riffing and vocals are highly derivative, it often sounds like MESHUGGAH is on the verge of breaking into their bizarre surreal metal style that characterizes albums such as "Chaosphere" but yet for the most part the band gets cold feet and never strays too far as if they were afraid that it would lead them into the world of uncommercial ventures. Ironic that when they finally let the freak flag fly is when they really captured the world's attention. I dunno. I want to like this one more but it basically falls into three categories: Sounds like really good Metallica. Sounds like stoned Metallica. Sounds like Metallica on a mix of mushrooms, peyote and LSD. In the end this isn't a bad album at all but the many riffs lifted and Hetfield vocals just rub me the wrong way and impede my enjoyment of the album as a whole.

The album was re-released with the following EP "None" and while CONTRADICTIONS COLLAPSE doesn't constitute a horrible album per se, it doesn't help that when played with the much more advanced "None" following, it only makes it more clear how immature this album is in comparison to the highly technical and innovative albums like "Chaosphere," "Nothing" and "Catch Thirtythree." For true fans, you will inevitably come to this debut eventually and it does offer some excellent tracks like the awesome "Choirs Of Destruction" that is the closest thing to their more modern style as it cranks out the unique chugging format after a downer acoustic guitar intro and a surreal vocal intro but even this one reverts back to the alt meets thrash that focuses on Metallica's dual classical guitar harmonizing melodies. Better things to come but a decent competent debut even if it's not outstanding.

Contradictions Collapse, the band's debut record, is an above average thrash metal record released in 1991, the same year Metallica released 'The Black' album and a bunch of then no-name bands from Seattle released theirs; the implication here being that in 1991, metal was undergoing a major face lift. For a metal band to survive in this 'alternative' universe, they would have to innovate. Sure, Meshuggah eventually got the message, just not in time for this record. Contradictions is a decent album, but overshadowed not only by its thrash and groove metal peers but by the innovations prevalent in Meshuggah's very own subsequent releases.