# Very well-written article about Meshuggah and time/rhythm in music



## Eptaceros (Aug 12, 2010)

Re-casting Metal: Rhythm and Meter in the Music of Meshuggah



inb4 "br0, meshuggah don't count out these redic time sigs beforehand"

yeah, but their naturally-written music just so happens to rape the concept of rhythm in time.



nevertheless, this article is beautiful. the really interesting parts are when they start breaking down cool rhythms in _I._


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## SerratedSkies (Aug 12, 2010)

Aside from the article being next to impossible to read (The texts fades in and out! Hurts my eyes!) I'd say it was pretty good. There were a lot of parts where the only thing going through my mind was "TLDR", as they over-explain a lot of shit, and they do forget to mention that Nothing was originally on a 7 string, as far as I remember. They could have simplified a lot by saying "Meshuggah's crazy! Here, look at this collection of meters! See! Crazy!"


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## NaYoN (Aug 12, 2010)

Nothing is 8 strings.

(that sounded nihilistic)


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## SerratedSkies (Aug 12, 2010)

NaYoN said:


> Nothing is 8 strings.
> 
> (that sounded nihilistic)


 
The Nothing reissue is 8 strings. Nothing is 7 strings. Disbelief? Let me wikipedia that for you!

On _Nothing_, Meshuggah abandons the fast tempos of _Chaosphere_ and concentrates on slow, tuned down tempos[31][60] and grooves.[21] The album was intended to be recorded using custom-made Nevborn eight-string guitars, but the prototypes were faulty so Thordendal and Hagström used detuned Ibanez seven-string guitars instead. This technique, which involved keeping the instruments untuned during the sessions, created additional problems.[61][62] When Ibanez provided Meshuggah with special eight-string guitars with two extra-low strings that worked properly after the initial release, the band re-recorded the guitar parts for _Nothing_ and re-released it in 2006.[7][61] Hagström notes that this allowed the band to go lower sonically and to attain bass sounds on guitars.


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## Gamba (Aug 12, 2010)

NaYoN said:


> Nothing is 8 strings.
> 
> (that sounded nihilistic)


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## josh pelican (Aug 12, 2010)

Eptaceros said:


> the really interesting parts are when they start breaking down cool rhythms in _I._









... and down there.



NaYoN said:


> Nothing is 8 strings.
> 
> (that sounded nihilistic)


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## Rev2010 (Aug 12, 2010)

Hmm, I for one could never get into Meshugga specifically because of their abundant use of odd timings. When listening to it I just feel like I'm trying to get past a stop light that keeps switching between red and green every 4 milliseconds. It's just too much for me to groove too and honestly it seems like they're intentionally doing it that way as often as they can. No offense at all to any fans of course! *More power* to those of you that like it!! I do like some odd timings here and there, but for like one part in a song to really mix shit up. I just can't get into it when a song is 95% in odd timings. Please don't kill me for being the odd man out. In all honesty I'm posting this more to see if I'm alone and completely nuts here lol.


Rev.


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## Richie666 (Aug 12, 2010)

Cool find. I've been waiting for someone to analyze Meshuggah's inner workings and articulate them so well. Shame i've become terribly rusty with my understanding of theory.


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## NaYoN (Aug 12, 2010)

SerratedSkies said:


> The Nothing reissue is 8 strings. Nothing is 7 strings. Disbelief? Let me wikipedia that for you!
> 
> On _Nothing_, Meshuggah abandons the fast tempos of _Chaosphere_ and concentrates on slow, tuned down tempos[31][60] and grooves.[21] The album was intended to be recorded using custom-made Nevborn eight-string guitars, but the prototypes were faulty so Thordendal and Hagström used detuned Ibanez seven-string guitars instead. This technique, which involved keeping the instruments untuned during the sessions, created additional problems.[61][62] When Ibanez provided Meshuggah with special eight-string guitars with two extra-low strings that worked properly after the initial release, the band re-recorded the guitar parts for _Nothing_ and re-released it in 2006.[7][61] Hagström notes that this allowed the band to go lower sonically and to attain bass sounds on guitars.




I believe you man, I have the re-release though, that's probably why I thought so.


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## ShadyDavey (Aug 12, 2010)

It's a repost, but it's also a quality article that stands being re-posted I feel


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## Kr1zalid (Aug 13, 2010)

Rhythms are to be made complicated for a good piece of music... Anyway, analysing these kind of time sign/rhythm can be very interesting for future song writing  (But that doesn't mean you can use the same rhythmic pattern in Meshuggah's song and put it into your song!!)

Good sharing Eptaceros!


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## B36arin (Aug 13, 2010)

Rev2010 said:


> Hmm, I for one could never get into Meshugga specifically because of their abundant use of odd timings. When listening to it I just feel like I'm trying to get past a stop light that keeps switching between red and green every 4 milliseconds. It's just too much for me to groove too and honestly it seems like they're intentionally doing it that way as often as they can. No offense at all to any fans of course! *More power* to those of you that like it!! I do like some odd timings here and there, but for like one part in a song to really mix shit up. I just can't get into it when a song is 95% in odd timings. Please don't kill me for being the odd man out. In all honesty I'm posting this more to see if I'm alone and completely nuts here lol.
> 
> 
> Rev.



I can understand your point, but at the same time I disagree. Almost everything that Meshuggah has done since DEI is basically very flexible 4/4. There's always a 4/4 beat through the songs, which makes everything seem very natural, at least to me, when you get to know the songs properly. I had this same discussion with my drummer a few weeks ago. Meshuggah is actually deceptively simple. I agree with you that bands that use too many strange meters can be annoying to listen to, but I personally don't feel that Meshuggah fall within that category. It all sounds like 4/4 to me


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## NaYoN (Aug 13, 2010)

To be honest, the reason that I don't like Meshuggah is not their rhythmic insanity but their complete lack of melody. To me they just sound like grinding to my ears. I appreciate what they do, though.


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## Eptaceros (Aug 13, 2010)

NaYoN said:


> To be honest, the reason that I don't like Meshuggah is not their rhythmic insanity but their complete lack of melody. To me they just sound like grinding to my ears. I appreciate what they do, though.



That's kind of the point lol. Every instrument, including the vocals, are meant to serve as another rhythmic component to a larger mindfuck of layered groovage.

As to the whole "Meshuggah plays in too many odd time signatures" argument: if you actually read through at least the first 5 pages of the article you'd see how Meshuggah superimpose a constant 4/4 beat over rhythms that are technically in other meters. I feel like that's the main aspect about Meshuggah that goes over people's heads. It's hard at first to truly see/hear simultaneous layers as one.


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