Meshuggah

This article is about the band Meshuggah. For the Terry Pratchett's Discworld character see Feet of Clay.

Meshuggah, whose name is taken from the Hebrew and Yiddish word for "crazy," is a five-piece Scandinavian metal/tech metal band from Umeå, Sweden who use extended polymetric passages, complex drum patterns, odd time signatures, angular, dissonant guitar riffs, and harsh, non-pitched vocals.

Meshuggah was formed in Umeå in 1987; two years later, the band released their first record, an EP entitled Psykisk Testbild (which can be roughly translated as "psychological test picture", perhaps in reference to a Rorschach Test image). This recording displayed a straightforward thrash metal-influenced sound along the lines of Metallica's concurrent releases. What made the band unique, however, were hints at the more complex music that the band would later develop into their signature sound. As the group grew older, they further refined the technicality of their musicianship and songwriting. They also began recording more and more extreme music, influenced by both death metal and thrash metal, yet not similar to or categorizable as either.

While the band's music is extremely intense and aggressive, the members often demonstrate a strong sense of humour: their video for "New Millennium Cyanide Christ" consisted of the five band members sitting inside their tour bus headbanging and air guitaring to the song; promotional photos of the band often include silly grimacing.

In late 2005, Meshuggah were nominated for a Swedish Grammy for the album Catch Thirty-Three.

Among the band's most recognizable qualities are lead guitar player Fredrik Thordendal's smooth, clean, Allan Holdsworth-esque type solos, the churning, dissonant rhythm guitars and the polymetric drum beats. In a typical Meshuggah song, drummer Tomas Haake plays two separate rhythms: a standard 4/4 beat with his hands, and a completely different metrical subdivision with his feet. The guitars mostly follow the bass drum work, creating an awkwardly pulsating rhythmic pattern to work as the basis of the song.

To take an example, the main riff of the song "New Millennium Cyanide Christ" from their 1998 album Chaosphere follows the aforementioned blueprint. Haake beats a rather slow 4/4 rhythm with his hands, while the bass drums and guitars play a repetitive 23/16 rhythm pattern on top of it. As the subdivided pattern is repeated, the pattern's accents shift to different beats on each repetition. After repeating the 23/16 pattern five times, a shorter 13/16 pattern is played once. These patterns sum up to 128 16th notes, which equals exactly 8 measures in 4/4 meter.

While obviously not abandoning live drums, a unique decision was made to use programmed drum patterns using the "Drumkit From Hell" sample library on the latest album Catch Thirty-Three to provide not just a more precise and mechanized drumscape, but also made drum beat creativity a more collaborative effort amongst all of the band members. It cemented the album as one of the band's most complex works to date.

On their latest records, guitarists Thordendal and Hagström use custom-made Nevborn eight-string guitars (and later Ibanez eight-strings). These guitars add two low strings to allow the crushing, heavy riffs to be played in the lowest register possible.

• Matti Väänänen - vocals (1987—)
• Fredrik Thordendal - guitar (1987—)
• Mårten Hagström - guitar (1992—)
• Heikki Tiilikainen – bass (2004—)
• Kari Rantanen - drums (1990—)

• Marcus Bigren - guitar (1990)
• Gustaf Hielm - bass (1998–2004)
• Peter Nordin - bass (1987–1995)
• Niklas Lundgren - drums (1987–1990)

Drummer Tomas Haake says that there are plans for a new album and DVD in 2006/2007.[1]

• Psykisk Testbild (EP, 1989)
• Contradictions Collapse (1991)
• None (EP, 1994)
• Selfcaged (USA version) (1995)
• Selfcaged (1995)
• Destroy Erase Improve (1995)
• Chaosphere (1998)
• Nothing (2002)
• I (EP, 2004)
• Catch Thirty-Three (2005)

• Selfcaged (Demo, 1995) - USA and European versions
• The True Human Design (Compilation, 1997)
• Contradictions Collapse & None (Compilation, 1998)
• Rare Trax (Compilation, 2001)

• A music video exists for the song "New Millenium Cyanide Christ" that features Jens Kidman using a pen as a fake microphone. The entire video takes place on the Meshuggah tour bus. It showcases rampant headbanging, air drumming, and Fredrik Thordendal's impressive air guitar skills. The video can be found on the Rare Trax CD.

• Official website
• meshuggarchive.tk - Comprehensive link archive for all things Meshuggah
• Espen's Meshuggah Thesis - An essay discussing the various elements of the music of Meshuggah
• Meshuggah Official forum
• Meshuggah discography at MusicBrainz
• Meshuggah at Encyclopaedia Metallum
• New Millenium Cyanide Christ video at Google Video