Review Summary: This is a true metal masterpiece that every metal fan should know of.
People who are deep into metal must have heard of
Meshuggah sometime in their life. The band that plays music just as crazy as their own band name (Meshuggah actually means ‘’crazy’’).
Meshuggah has been described as a technical post-thrash metal band but other people would say that they play extreme metal. I thought first that
Meshuggah was playing death metal but now I agree with the fact that they are technical thrash (in a futuristic spirit).
Meshuggah was formed in Umea, Sweden somewhere in 1987 and has come a long way on their metal journey, and I would say that they march alone in the direction that they are going. I have never encountered another band that sounds familiar to
Meshuggah, I have only encountered bands that has been influenced by
Meshuggah but I have never discovered a band that has sound like
Meshuggah’s sound. The type of music that
Meshuggah is able to perform is very heavy, technical, quite chaotic and complex, and their lyrics is based on futuristic stuff, world endings, apocalypse and chaos in different shapes. Unfortunately not everyone can enjoy
Meshuggah’s unique concoction of music, it has taken me several months of serious listening to get used to this band, suddenly everything took a turn for the good when I got this EP called
I.
I had never heard of
Meshuggah until my aunt suddenly started a family with one of the original band members. He said that he had helped to form a band called
Meshuggah (which was called Metallien when he was playing in the band). I said to myself if this is a dude that you could trust or not. Maybe he could be one of those dumb*** people who are doing drugs, beating and other criminal stuff. I got a few samples from one of
Meshuggah’s newest albums. It sounded very similar to death metal back then, but with time I got an album and I realized that this band was pretty darn cool and definitely unique, and later I thought that he was a cool guy.
Contradictions Collapse had a slight thrash touch to it and I liked it because of that, but I became later bored by their music until I got
I. A true metal master piece, an immense work of musical art if you ask me because
I is a
21 minute long song! Yes,
I is just one song, a very long one too, this might come a small chock to those who didn’t know that. But
I is not as bad as it sounds though, I’m will go ahead and try to describe the song in detail so I can give you some information of how this track might sound like.
The track called I
The track opens with a long intro made by rattling double bass kicking and fast staccato shredding, this section is 1:33 minutes long which can be a bit tedious. When the intro ends a short section of unleashed metal madness is released, that will say: manic fast guitar shredding alongside a sharp scream plus hyper speeded drumming. Now the song starts to take shape because now you will encounter some classic chugga riffing and a quite complex drum performance.
Jens Kidman sings for while and later a oriental flavoured guitar solo is played for a period of time. A new pattern has emerged and this time the riffing is somewhat more flowing and technical, a wailing guitar can be noticed behind the mighty wall of sound.
Jens kicks in for a moment with his vocals before the song takes on another approach, this time the riffs are extremely heavy and they still have a classic
Meshuggah sound. When the clock hits 5:40 the song reaches one of its climaxes, more incredible maniac riffing is played alongside a highly difficult drum pattern. A crazy, very crazy guitar solo follows this madness; I have never heard a solo like this before, incredible but very odd I must say, I can’t describe it in words. After a while the song structure seems to change a bit, especially the guitars because they are nothing else than fast simplistic shredding. After 7:40 minutes a slow and uncomplicated but almost stupid sounding ‘’solo’’ is ringing out into the void.
Heavy and intense staccato riffing explodes from the silence; this section has a catchy feel to it. Once again a background guitar is playing a tremolo flavoured half-solo alongside the sledge hammering rhythms.
Jens sings for a while and later the song reaches another climax in my opinion. This section is extremely heavy and incredibly forceful, it commands you to head bang in any possible form that exists in the art head banging. The section is also pretty reinforced by
Jens Kidman’s harsh vocals. Eventually a new pattern starts to take shape and more chugga-chugga riffs are played alongside an equally staccato sounding drum pattern. A new crazy sounding guitar solo rises, unfortunately this solo is a real turn off compared to the rest of the solos. Finally a new break from the chaos, and this time it creates a nice post-doom atmosphere, imagine a town smashed to ruins and you can see the destruction as the smoke gets clearer. A solo rings out and this time it has a strong similarity to
Pantera’s type of guitar sound, also this solo has a doom/apocalyptic sound. All the instruments kicks in while the solo is still in use. Nothing happens until the new riffs line starts to make more noise, this time the riffing sounds very odd but still a bit complex. For the last time a new riff pattern is performed, a heavy one, and together with the riffs and heavy drum beats a tremolo solo echoes in the background. Eventually the solo stops and the riff line starts to fade; only some high-frequent guitar tunes are left to end this metal madness.
The End
Yes, I’m guess I just as messed up in my head as you are but don’t worry, I will end this review soon. I will be honest with you, I enjoyed this single track more than the two albums I have from
Meshuggah. I get bored by the albums but every time I listen to
I I always feel satisfied.
I can be a bit tedious at times but once you get to your favourite part then you forget the bad stuff. There were lots of riffs here that I enjoyed but the thing I was amazed by was the complex drum sections, you have to hear it to believe it because I can’t explain how the drummer executes these patterns. The vocals didn’t impressed me much,
Jens Kidman has a really aggressive and harsh vocal style that reminds you of other metal singers. The bottom line is that I enjoyed it very much and I think this is the best way to go if you want to get into
Meshuggah’s music.
I has all the qualities and traits that this band can offer,
I really is the perfect
Meshuggah start. Other people within the extreme metal scene should have no major difficulties when it comes to enjoy
Meshuggah’s music, but remember, this band does not suit everybody. If you see this EP and you are interesting of how
Meshuggah sounds like then grab it. I hope that this review has been a good guidance and critics are welcome, thanks.
Positives
+ Superb sound quality
+ Every instrument stands out in this track
+ Even if it is 21 minutes long is doesn’t get repetitive
+ Extremely heavy
+ Complex, chaotic, technical and mechanical =
Meshuggah
+ This song is actually catchy at times
Negatives
- Some parts really turn you off
- If you have listen to
Meshuggah before and thought it sounded horrible, then this EP will be uninteresting to you.
This EP will be given a solid 4/5 because this is real true metal art work.
