How do you feel about Meshuggah?

[nizzon]

I like them.
The lastest album is incredibly good, groovy stuff, can listen to it straight through without problems. But sometimes its too much, depends on the mood, but its like that with all kinds of music anyway, more or less, but maybe more with math-metal.
Vocals fit perfectly.

I dont listen to the other albums nearly as much as obZen, that album is just superior imo.

 

[noctambulant]

well there are hundreds of bands copying their style and there's gotta be a reason why..

 

[myownsilence]

They've done wonders to plug the midi sampled drum market (EZDRUMMER)

 

[MiniMoose]

Feel free to mention some songs you feel are great by them. I've only tried a couple of songs..and it makes me go "meh". Especially groovy songs I would like to hear...cause groove is something almost nobody in the metal scene manage to keep alive for very long.

 

[The One You Hate]

Feel free to mention some songs you feel are great by them. I've only tried a couple of songs..and it makes me go "meh". Especially groovy songs I would like to hear...cause groove is something almost nobody in the metal scene manage to keep alive for very long.

Well...just to name some..personally I prefer Spasm, Straws Pulled At Random, Shed, Bleed... speaking in general, the best choice for me concerning albums is Catch 33 and ObZen...

 

[KittyKatatonia]

They're a great band but I have to be in the right mood to listen to them, which isn't very often. Most of their newer material is take-it-or-leave-it for me, but there's no denying that Destroy Erase Improve is by far their best work. Anybody who's only heard their newer stuff and has written them off should go back and listen to that one. The None EP is also pretty kick-ass too.

 

[MiniMoose]

Well...just to name some..personally I prefer Spasm, Straws Pulled At Random, Shed, Bleed... speaking in general, the best choice for me concerning albums is Catch 33 and ObZen...

Ok, I do understand why someone can like this. It's almost hypnotic to some extent if you just have it playing in the background. It has its funky moments...but well, it's just not something for me. They do have something unique about them...sure.

 

[wankerness]

I used to think they were terrible, they definitely take a lot of acclimation. I remember back in about 2000 when I was getting into "underground" metal and was downloading what everyone told me to (Opeth - Morningrise, Anathema - Judgement, Amorphis - Tuonela, etc) I saw a bunch of people going OH MAN MESHUGGAH IS SO PROG AND TECHNICAL, and I downloaded the song "Concatenation" and I was just like wtf. I didn't hear anything technical in it at all, it all was totally lost on me and I was like WOW THESE GUYS PLAY LIKE TWO NOTES AND SOUND TERRIBLE!

After I became more knowledgeable about music I could at least tell what they were doing and that it was insanely difficult. And then after another 4 or 5 listens of Chaosphere all of a sudden one day it clicked, and I loved it. I like all their CDs, though "Nothing" and "Catch 33" have a ton of clunkers on them. "I" is definitely their best song, and "Chaosphere" is my choice for best album. I can see why people hate them, but hey, I love it. And I absolutely hate straightforward death metal, hardcore, etc - just about any other music with repetitive screaming vocals.

 

[nizzon]

Feel free to mention some songs you feel are great by them. I've only tried a couple of songs..and it makes me go "meh". Especially groovy songs I would like to hear...cause groove is something almost nobody in the metal scene manage to keep alive for very long.

Combustion, amazing riffs.
obZen, some of the heaviest shit ive heard, the breakdown at 3:00 and forward is some groovy stuff.
Dancers To A Discordant System, really dynamic track.

All from obZen.

 

[Lateralus14]

Can't stand Meshuggah. Their vocalist is dreadful and annoying, and they're immensely overrated and easily one of the worst of the main tech bands. Demilich, Gorguts, Cynic, Atheist, or even Deathspell Omega's last full length blow their slightly rhythmically challenging 8th string chugging out of the water in terms of technical difficulty.

 

[wankerness]

Can't stand Meshuggah. Their vocalist is dreadful and annoying, and they're immensely overrated and easily one of the worst of the main tech bands. Demilich, Gorguts, Cynic, Atheist, or even Deathspell Omega's last full length blow their slightly rhythmically challenging 8th string chugging out of the water in terms of technical difficulty.

I agree Cynic is better, but the other guys? Blech. In terms of pure finger dexterity of course it's harder to play that stuff, in terms of actual execution I'd give the nod to Meshuggah. Good luck keeping that junk together live.

 

[hexwind]

I listened to them this summer for the first time, the first album sounds like Metallica's and justice for all imo.. it's good to listen to them every now and then, but it's not "an everyday band", i believe it's better live than to sit down and listen to it lol
And yes, i can't tell the difference between the songs lol

 

[LostinReverie]

Sounds like someone beating up a kitchen, only with the same pots and pans time after time >_>

 

[Lateralus14]

I agree Cynic is better, but the other guys? Blech. In terms of pure finger dexterity of course it's harder to play that stuff, in terms of actual execution I'd give the nod to Meshuggah. Good luck keeping that junk together live.

Well you did just say you hate pure death metal anyway so...I hope but doubt there's no bias coming through here. I acknowledge Meshuggah's rhythms are indeed challenging but have you really listened intently for the same rhythmic technicality in albums like Obscura and Fas - Ite, Maledicti, In Ignem Aeturnum? Demilich and Atheist may be bad examples but those two albums from Gorguts and DsO are incredibly technical with rhythms, and then more so because they involve more left hand work than Meshuggah too. So that's the technicality issue for you, then we have the issue where Meshuggah has evolved less than those bands, using the same trick over and over and over, and the issue where Meshuggah's vocals are annoying as fuck.

 

[moouers]

I find them to be a bit annoying, actually. And their drums just sound...weird - like coffee cans half filled with gelatinous goo. Maybe I haven't heard the right songs or...?

 

[noctambulant]

everyone is just like jumping in to conclusions just by listening to a one band's song.....how'd you feel if someone would judge katatonia based on just one song? let's say for instance "we must bury you" which imo is their shittiest song to date. in conclusion,you'd have to listen to a band's whole material before you can offer a solid opinion otherwise your opinion will fail

 

[LostinReverie]

everyone is just like jumping in to conclusions just by listening to a one band's song.....how'd you feel if someone would judge katatonia based on just one song? let's say for instance "we must bury you" which imo is their shittiest song to date. in conclusion,you'd have to listen to a band's whole material before you can offer a solid opinion otherwise your opinion will fail

Well considering almost every song of Meshuggahs' sounds the same, I'd say that at LEAST this case, listening to one song is a fair judgment

 

[Rowena]

Sounds like someone beating up a kitchen, only with the same pots and pans time after time >_>

One of my favourite pastimes. That might explain why I like them.

 

[Brave.Archangel]

Under that disguise of "Math" metal it's just wimpy melodic death. Over-hyped garbage imo. Sweden has way more bands to make them not matter anyways.

Meshuggah and melodic death have pretty much nothing in common whatsoever.

 

[wankerness]

Well you did just say you hate pure death metal anyway so...I hope but doubt there's no bias coming through here. I acknowledge Meshuggah's rhythms are indeed challenging but have you really listened intently for the same rhythmic technicality in albums like Obscura and Fas - Ite, Maledicti, In Ignem Aeturnum? Demilich and Atheist may be bad examples but those two albums from Gorguts and DsO are incredibly technical with rhythms, and then more so because they involve more left hand work than Meshuggah too. So that's the technicality issue for you, then we have the issue where Meshuggah has evolved less than those bands, using the same trick over and over and over, and the issue where Meshuggah's vocals are annoying as fuck.

Nah, I actually like Gorguts, Obscura and From Wisdom to Hate are great albums. Necrophagist and their ilk I'm also very familiar with, but really am not a big fan of. They have rhythmic complexity but it's not on the level of Meshuggah, Meshuggah's rhythmic junk in some songs is REALLY messed up and I'd call "polymeter" as opposed to the usual tech metal patterns that are much more easily described either as "heavily syncopated" or just "full of totally chaotic time changes ala old dillinger escape plan." Like, Necrophagist for example has weird time signatures all over the place and it's much more technical from the left hand perspective, but the total lack of a "groove" or overlying meter in most cases makes it easier to play in some ways. You just need to memorize the notes and you pretty much have the rhythm, since it's generally a constant stream of sixteenths anyway. The drummer tends to just kind of beat things along with the guitar, it sounds a lot less tightly wound and also boggles the mind a lot less. Seems like he's pretty much just listening to the guitar riffs and playing along, as opposed to Meshuggah, where it sounds like they wrote out the polyrhythms beforehand and then just lock down the instruments with the bass drum part.

This is just my opinion, of course. I have an easier time playing junk like Cynic and Gorguts from a rhythmic perspective than Meshuggah, that's for darn sure. This is a totally different genre I'm going to use for an example, but the intro to Pain of Salvation's "Idioglossia" is a perfect example of the kind of difference I'm talking about - you can just memorize how the song sounds and learn all the notes and you automatically have the rhythm. The time signatures are more complex than many Meshuggah songs, but there's no difficulty in learning the time changes, you just learn the notes and the rhythm happens incidentally since it's just a big noodley stream.

Wow this is hard to describe.