I'm listening to chaosphere now, and i definitely like it more than catch 33. THe only time i even liked Catch 33 was when i was high, i just zoned out completely. But this is pretty cool to listen to thus far.
meshuggah.....
- Thread starter Zenabi87
- Start date
wankerness
Member
The thing with catch 33 is it takes the whole album to build. By the end it's a gigantic monolith of destruction or something, but I have a hard time making it through the first half some days. The first few tracks are all the same riff, there's this big boring vocoder break, etc. The last few tracks are just flat out awesome, though, and it does work quite well as a whole.
That was really my problem with it. The first part of the album, i felt like it was just the same thing over and over again. I'll listen to the later part at some point soon. THe band is definitely growing on me.
Manbient
Queer Old Man
it really helps if you're a fan of minimalism or ambient. Obviously it's not an ambient album, but the underlying concept is much the same. The last 5 years or so i've been all about dark ambient and the post-industrial scene, and it seems Meshuggah is using some of the methods common to those styles, but done in a metal context. So i was pretty much shitting myself with glee when Catch 33 came out. I can see the complaints about the first half or so of the album, but i really feel like the album would be worse off if they shortened that. There's a lot going on just behind those main riffs if you just listen, which is part of the beauty of using long, repetitive patterns. In meshuggah's case, it starts out so strongly in your face (how can you ignore churning awkward, loud distorted guitars?), but when you've become "sensitized" it's like you get this revelational moment and everything buried behind it comes out, and you wonder if it's been there all along.
wankerness
Member
tell us more about this 'doppler effect'
No seriously, what are you talking about? I'm honestly curious. Like, ambient sounds in the background? Or rhythmic changes? I'm pretty sure the first few tracks are just the same polymetric pattern repeated for like 6 minutes, but my memory might be off. I'll have to listen to this album again sometime.
Manbient
Queer Old Man
lol
I don't mean ambient sounds, i mean like the trem picked chromatic shifty thing that comes in once in a while and seems to be floating on somewhat independant of the time of the main riff. Maybe i'm retarded but i never noticed it the first time i heard it until they peel away the heavy rhythm at track 4. It's neat too because they aren't just static trem picked notes, but there's a varying sort of dynamic "pulse" to it. It messes with my head when i try to listen really closely to it. It's probably being overly analytical, but i enjoy it anyway.
I also think there's more to the repetitive beginning than just that. I can't explain it well, but i find when i get "used" to something from repeating so much, it makes the changes seem much more monumental. It's the kind of thing i try to play with when i do Passion Immortal mixes.
I don't mean ambient sounds, i mean like the trem picked chromatic shifty thing that comes in once in a while and seems to be floating on somewhat independant of the time of the main riff. Maybe i'm retarded but i never noticed it the first time i heard it until they peel away the heavy rhythm at track 4. It's neat too because they aren't just static trem picked notes, but there's a varying sort of dynamic "pulse" to it. It messes with my head when i try to listen really closely to it. It's probably being overly analytical, but i enjoy it anyway.
I also think there's more to the repetitive beginning than just that. I can't explain it well, but i find when i get "used" to something from repeating so much, it makes the changes seem much more monumental. It's the kind of thing i try to play with when i do Passion Immortal mixes.
Scourge of Malice
Member
Its not the same thing repeated over. They change little things every once in a while until it eventually becomes something else. I really like that.
Manbient
Queer Old Man
I definitely like Jens' voice pre-nothing more. I dunno, sounds angrier. haha. But that man must have a throat of steel... he's not just growling, he's really fucking screaming his face off.
Scourge of Malice
Member
Ermz
¯\(°_o)/¯
+1
I like his old vocal style more as well. Sounded more machine-like. Lately it's been a styling closer to most of the hardcore stuff where they just flat out scream.
PS. What I love about Catch 33 is that they finally settled for a decent snare sound. I hated that piss weak shit that was going on DEI and Chaosphere. It really undermined the power of the rest of the mix.
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