Meshuggah
is a Swedish five-piece experimental metal band formed in 1987. Meshuggah's line-up has primarily consisted of founding members vocalist Jens Kidman and lead guitarist Fredrik Thordendal, drummer Tomas Haake, who joined in 1990, and rhythm guitarist Mårten Hagström, who joined in 1994. The band has gone through a number of bassists, but the position has been held by Dick Lövgren since 2004.
Meshuggah first attracted international attention with the 1995 release Destroy Erase Improve
for its fusion of fast-tempo death metal, thrash metal and progressive metal. Since its 2002 album Nothing
, Meshuggah has used eight-string guitars and downtuned, groovy riffs. Meshuggah has become known for complex, polyrhythmic song structures and precise musicianship. It was labeled as one of the ten most important hard and heavy bands by Rolling Stone
and as the most important band in metal by Alternative Press
. Meshuggah has found little mainstream success as of yet, but is a significant act in extreme underground music.
Nothing
and the albums that followed have all charted on the Billboard
200. In 2006 and 2009, the band was nominated for a Swedish Grammy Award. Meshuggah's most commercially successful album, 2008's obZen
, peaked at No. 59 and sold 11,400 copies in the first week and 50,000 copies six months after its release in the United States. Since its formation, Meshuggah has released six studio albums, five EPs and eight music videos. The band has performed in various international festivals, including Ozzfest and Download, and embarked on the obZen world tour in 2008.
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MESHUGGAH TICKETS
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History
Formation and Contradictions Collapse
(1987–1994)
In 1985, guitarist
Fredrik Thordendal formed a band in
Umeå,
[1] a college town in northern Sweden with a population of 105,000.
[2] The band, originally named Metallien, recorded a number of
demo tapes, after which it disbanded. Thordendal, however, continued playing under a different name with new band members.
Meshuggah was formed in 1987
by vocalist and guitarist
Jens Kidman,
and took the name Meshuggah from the
Yiddish word for "crazy".
[4] The band recorded several demos before Kidman left, which prompted the remaining members to disband. Kidman then formed a new band, Calipash, with guitarist Thordendal, bassist Peter Nordin and drummer Niclas Lundgren.
Kidman, who also played guitar,
[5] and Thordendal decided to restore the name Meshuggah for the new band.
In 1989, Meshuggah released the self-titled, three-song
EP Meshuggah
,
which is commonly known as
Psykisk Testbild
[6] [7] (a title that could be translated as "Psychological Test-Picture").
This 12" (30 cm) vinyl EP had only 1,000 copies released, sold by local record store Garageland.
The EP's back cover features the band members with cheese doodles on their faces.
After replacing drummer Niclas Lundgren with
Tomas Haake in 1990, Meshuggah signed a contract with German heavy metal
record label Nuclear Blast and recorded its debut full-length album,
Contradictions Collapse
.
[8] The LP, originally entitled
(All this because of) Greed
,
[9] was released in 1991.
The album received positive reviews, but was not a commercial success.
Soon after, Kidman decided to concentrate on vocals,
and rhythm guitarist
Mårten Hagström,
who had already played in a band with Haake when they were in the sixth grade, was recruited.
The new lineup recorded the EP
None
at Tonteknik Recordings in Umeå in 1994 for release later that year.
[10] [11] A Japanese version was also released, including lyrics printed in Japanese.
[12]
During this period, Thordendal, who was working as a carpenter, severed the tip of his left middle finger, while Haake injured his hand in a grinder accident.
As a result, the band was unable to perform for several months. Thordendal's fingertip was later reattached, and he went on to make a full recovery.
The
Selfcaged
EP was recorded in April and May 1994, but its release was delayed to later in 1995 due to the accidents.
Destroy Erase Improve
(1995–1997)
thumb with a custom built
Ibanez eight-string guitar in
Melbourne, 2008
In January 1995, Meshuggah undertook a short European tour organized by its record label Nuclear Blast. Afterwards, the band returned to the studio to record the album
Destroy Erase Improve
at Soundfront Studios in
Uppsala, with Daniel Bergstrand as a producer.
Shortly thereafter, the band went on a European tour supporting
Machine Head for two months.
During the tour, Nordin became ill and experienced difficulties with his inner ear balance. Due to the resulting chronic dizziness and vertigo, Nordin was forced to leave the tour and travel to Sweden. Machine Head's bassist
Adam Duce offered to cover his absence; however, Meshuggah decided to continue as a four-piece. Sometimes Thordendal played bass, while other times the band performed with two guitars. In this lineup, Hagström would use a
pitch shifter to play his guitar at an
octave lower than usual.
was released in July 1995, with positive response from critics for the "heady tempos and abstract approach".
Kidman described the album cover: "The title fits the pictures we cut out and stole from reference books in the library."
[14]
In mid-1995, Meshuggah had a short tour with Swedish band
Clawfinger in Scandinavia and Germany. Nordin had to leave the band because of his sickness and was replaced by bassist Gustaf Hielm during the tour.
In late 1995, Meshuggah went on a month-long tour with
Hypocrisy.
During 1996 and 1997, Thordendal worked on his solo album
Sol Niger Within
, which was released in March 1997 in Scandinavia and in April in Japan. He also hosted
Mats/Morgan Band's debut. In 1997, Meshuggah recorded an unreleased demo, toured occasionally, and played a few concerts in its hometown. In May, Meshuggah moved to Stockholm to be closer to its management and the record industry in general.
The EP
The True Human Design
was recorded and released in late 1997. It contained one new song entitled "Sane", and one live and two alternate versions of ''Destroy Erase Improve
s opening track "Future Breed Machine".
Sol Niger Within'' was simultaneously released in the United States, and Meshuggah started to plan its next album at the end of the year.
Chaosphere
and Nothing
(1998–2002)
Hielm officially joined the band in January 1998 after more than two years as a session member. Nuclear Blast re-released
Contradictions Collapse
with the addition of songs from the
None
EP. In May 1998, the title of the next album,
Chaosphere
, was reported and recording began. Immediately after recording the album, Meshuggah went on a short US tour, and the album was released later in November 1998. Shortly after the release, Meshuggah toured Scandinavia with
Entombed.
In early 1999, Meshuggah joined
Slayer on its U.S. tour.
After the new album and the live performances, Meshuggah was beginning to be recognized by mainstream music, guitar, drum and metal magazines.
In mid-1999, Meshuggah performed in several Swedish concerts. The band started to write some new material but reported in mid-2000 that "songwriting isn't that dramatic, but we're getting there slowly".
While fans were waiting for the next album, a collection of demos (from the
Psykisk Testbild
EP), remixes and unreleased songs from the
Chaosphere
sessions were released as the
Rare Trax
album.
Hielm left the band in July 2001 for unclear reasons.
Meshuggah joined
Tool on a lengthy tour, playing for more than 100,000 people total.
In March 2002, Meshuggah recorded three-track demos with programmed drums in its home studio, which were based on Haake's sample
Drumkit from Hell
. The upcoming album was recorded in five to six weeks in May
and was produced by the band at Dug-Out Studios in Uppsala and at its home studio in Stockholm.
[19] The last-minute decision to join 2002's
Ozzfest tour forced the band to mix the album in two days and master it in one.
[20] Meshuggah immediately went on another US tour after finishing the recording.
The album
Nothing
was released in August 2002,
[21] selling 6,525 copies during its first week in the US and reaching No. 165 on the
Billboard
200.
With this album, Meshuggah became the first band in the history of Nuclear Blast Records to crack the
Billboard
200 and also became the first band signed to Nuclear Blast to be reviewed in
Rolling Stone
magazine.
[23] Meshuggah's previous two releases, 1998's
Chaosphere
and 1995's
Destroy Erase Improve
, have sold 38,773 and 30,712 copies to that date, respectively.
The CD booklet of
Nothing
has no liner notes, lyrics, or credits, only a hint of one word:
ingenting
, which is Swedish for
nothing
. All of this information is available on the CD-ROM.
[24] [25] At the end of 2002, the band went on another US tour with Tool
and a headlining tour of its own.
[27]
Catch Thirtythree
and obZen
(2003–present)
In 2003, Hagström hinted at the direction of the band's next album by saying, "There's only one thing I really feel that is important. We've never measured our success in terms of sales, because we're quite an extreme band. It's more that people understand where we're coming from. I get more out of a fan coming up and saying that we've totally changed their way of looking on metal music, than having like 200 kids buy it. I mean, it would be nice for the money, but that's not why we're in it. So what I'd like to see is that we keep progressing. Keeping the core of what Meshuggah has always been, but exploring the bar, so to speak.
Destroy Erase Improve
was like exploring the dynamics of the band,
Chaosphere
was exploring the aggressiveness, the all-out side, and
Nothing
is more of a sinister, dark, pretty slow album, actually. So honestly, now I don't know where we're going. It might be a mix of all of them."
[28]
In February 2004, bassist
Dick Lövgren joined Meshuggah.
The band then recorded and released the
I
EP, which contains a single, 21-minute track, released on
Fractured Transmitter Records.
[30] Meshuggah spent about six months in total on recording the EP.
, the only album on which
programmed drums have been used, was released the following year in May 2005.
[31] Seven thousand copies of
Catch Thirtythree
were sold the first week, and it debuted at No. 170 on the
Billboard
200 chart in June 2005.
The video for the track "Shed" was released in June, and the previous album
Nothing
sold approximately 80,000 copies in the United States to that date, according to
Nielsen SoundScan.
[32] Catch Thirtythree
earned the band a
Swedish Grammy nomination.
In December 2005, 10 years after inking its first record deal with the publishing company
Warner/Chappell Music Scandinavia, Meshuggah extended its cooperation with the company.
[33] In November 2005, Haake said in an interview that the band was not content with the productions of
Chaosphere
and
Nothing
, because, being on tour, they had little time to devote to them.
[34] [35]
A remixed and remastered version of
Nothing
with rerecorded guitars was released in a custom-shaped slipcase featuring a three-dimensional hologram card on October 31, 2006, via Nuclear Blast Records. The release also includes a bonus DVD featuring the band's appearance at the Download 2005 festival and the official music videos of "Rational Gaze", "Shed" and "New Millennium Cyanide Christ".
[36]
That year, Meshuggah returned to the studio to record
obZen
, which was released in March 2008.
The band spent almost a year on the album, its longest recording session yet. A significant portion of the year was spent learning to perform the songs they wrote; the recording itself took six months.
reached No. 59 on the
Billboard
200 chart, selling 11,400 U.S. copies in its first week of release and 50,000 copies after six months.
[37] [38] With
obZen
, Meshuggah received more media attention and attracted new fans.
The release was followed by
a world tour, which started in the U.S. and proceeded to Europe, Asia and Australia.
In May 2008, Meshuggah published a music video for the song "Bleed", which was produced by Ian McFarland and was written, directed and edited by Mike Pecci and Ian McFarland. Killswitch Productions said: "It's extremely cool to work with a band who is willing to allow the music and imagery to speak for itself and who does not insist on themselves being the prominent focus of the video."
[40] [41] In January 2009, the album was nominated for
Swedish Grammy Award [42] In February 2009, Haake said in an interview that a concert DVD will be released probably in late spring or early fall of 2009 and a new album possibly in 2010.
[43] In April, Meshuggah was forced to cancel its Scandinavian shows in early 2009, due to Haake's
herniated disc in his lower back, which was causing problems for him when playing.
[44] Haake later underwent a surgery and recovered for European summer festivals.
[45]
Musical style
Music genre and typical traits
right performing in 2008 in
Prague
When describing Meshuggah's experimentation, stylistic variation and changes during its career, journalists have categorized its sound within several musical subgenres.
Heavy metal subgenres
avant-garde metal or
experimental metal are umbrella terms that enable description of the career of the band in general.
[a Extreme metal crosses both
thrash metal (or
post-thrash metal) and
death metal (or
technical death metal), which are at root of the sound of Meshuggah's music.
[b The band is often labelled as math metal (for using elements of
math rock) and
progressive metal.
[c The music of the band has also been described as
grindcore, a fusion of extreme metal and
hardcore punk.
[d Meshuggah also incorporates elements of
experimental jazz.
uses the term hi-tech metal to describe their style.
In its review of
Nothing
,
Allmusic describes Meshuggah as "masterminds of cosmic calculus metal—call it Einstein metal if you want".
Meshuggah creates a recognizable sonic imprint
[46] and distinct style.
[47]
Trademarks and characteristics that define Meshuggah's sound and complex
songwriting include
polyrhythmic structure, odd
riff cycles, complex "rotating"
time signatures, rhythmic
syncopation, rapid
key and
tempo changes and neo-
jazz chromatics.
[e Hagström notes that "it doesn’t really matter if something is hard to play or not. The thing is, what does it do to your mind when you listen to it? Where does it take you?"
A trademark of Thordendal is
free jazz-like soloing and lead guitar. He is also known for the usage of a "breath controller" device. Haake is known for his precise
cross-rhythm drumming with "jazzlike cadence".
[f The vocal style of Jens Kidman varies between
hardcore-style shouts
and "robotic" death metal vocals.
In a typical polyrhythm by Meshuggah, the guitars might play in odd meters such as 5/16 or 17/16, while drums play in normal 4/4.
An example of Haake's dual rhythms is a 4/4 and 23/16 rhythm. He keeps the
hi-hat and
ride cymbal in simple 4/4 time but uses the
snare and
double bass drums for 23/16 rhythm.
On "Rational Gaze" (from
Nothing
), Haake plays simple 4/4 time, hitting the snare on each third beat, for 16 bars. At the same time, the guitars and bass are playing the same quarter notes, albeit in a different time signature, and eventually both sides meet up again at the 64th beat.
Hagström notes about the polyrhythms, "We’ve never really been into the odd time signatures we get accused of using. Everything we do is based around a 4/4 core. It’s just that we arrange parts differently around that center to make it seem like something else is going on."
Early work, Destroy Erase Improve
and Chaosphere
below =
Problems listening to this file? See media help.
, is "simpler and more straightforward than their more recent material, but some of their more progressive elements are present in the form of time-changes and polyrhythmics, and Fredrik Thordendal's lead playing stands out".
According to Allmusic, the debut album is a relatively immature, but original, release.
and "angular" riffing also defined the early work of Meshuggah.
of death metal, thrash metal, progressive metal and technical polyrhythmic math metal.
Allmusic describes the style as "weaving hardcore-style shouts amongst deceptively (and deviously) simple
guitar riffs and insanely precise drumming—often with all three components acting in different time signatures".
" device most famously on the opening track "Future Breed Machine".
still tempo changing death metal. Allmusic compares the genre also with
.
Rockdetector states: "Whilst fans reveled in the maze like meanderings, critics struggled to dissect and analyze, hailing Haake’s unconventional use of dual 4/4 and 23/16 rhythm, Kidman’s mechanical staccato bark and Thordendal’s liberal usage of avant-garde Jazz".