[kwitel]

Catch 33 has been on my computer for years...
I think I had to build up to it-have been steadily listening to harder and more technical metal over the past year and this of course includes more of the death style vocals as well.
I finally decided to give it a REAL listen this weekend...OH MY-am I glad I did.
I feel like I have reached the promised land; precision-metal-heaven.

Are these actual humans playing this music?

"...The struggle to free myself of restraints, becomes my very shackles"

 

[titaniumx3]

Hmm, Catch 33 is my least favourite. It sounds a little dry and repetitive whenever I listen to it (maybe one of those albums that requires repeated listens).

Destroy Erase Improve is by far their better album, imho. Chaosphere and Nothing are pretty damn good too.

Quote:

Originally Posted by kwitel Are these actual humans playing this music?

I read somewhere that they used a drum machine on Catch 33 for certain tracks. Don't quote me on that though!

 

[DarkAngel]

Quote:

Originally Posted by titaniumx3 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Hmm, Catch 33 is my least favourite. It sounds a little dry and repetitive whenever I listen to it (maybe one of those albums that requires repeated listens). Destroy Erase Improve is by far their better album, imho. Chaosphere and Nothing are pretty damn good too.

I own none of thier Cds but from samples the best one seems to be DEI mentioned by Tx3 above, I almost bought that a couple times. Thier most popular CD "nothing" seems very repetitive and borderline nu-metal with chugging rythms.....I may feel differently if I heard entire CD, I think I did buy this CD long ago and sold it soon after.

There are so many nordic death metal and melodic death metal groups around since early 1990s hard to keep up with all of them

 

[kwitel]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DarkAngel /img/forum/go_quote.gif I own none of thier Cds but from samples the best one seems to be DEI mentioned by Tx3 above, I almost bought that a couple times. Thier most popular CD "nothing" seems very repetitive and borderline nu-metal with chugging rythms.....I may feel differently if I heard entire CD, I think I did buy this CD long ago and sold it soon after. There are so many nordic death metal and melodic death metal groups around since early 1990s hard to keep up with all of them

Nothing quite like Meshuggah though...
Their style reminds me of Richie Hawtin/Plastikman-minimal, repetetive yet brilliantly but simplisticly layered.
You really need to be patient with this stuff-I literally force fed it to myself. I just couldnt stand the fact that so many musicians around me whom I respect, felt so strongly about their music and I simply could not undertsand why.
Another band to add to my theory that music that is immediately accessible tends to get boring quickly, while music that is ultimately the most rewarding-initially requires the most time and patience to get into.

 

[w4ffl35]

I picked up Destroy Erase Improve and it didn't do anything for me. They sound like Static-X to me.

 

[asmox]

Quote:

Originally Posted by w4ffl35 /img/forum/go_quote.gif I picked up Destroy Erase Improve and it didn't do anything for me. They sound like Static-X to me.

Ouch.

 

[Jeff Guidry]

It can take awhile to absorb the Meshuggah sound, but once you get it, it sounds great. If you are a neophyte, I suggest downloading the song New Millenium Cyanide Christ from Chaosphere, which in my opinion is the crystallization of their early career sound, and the well-reviewed I E.P., which is an easier dose of their newer sound to take than the somewhat turgid Catch 33.

 

[w4ffl35]

Ok, I'll take your advice and check those things out.

 

[wisehybred]

Yea, Ive been listening to them for 10 years. Their is one song, cant remember the song, that is played in reverse. Pretty cool stuff. The First CD is awsome!!

 

[kwitel]

So ive got Catch Thirty Three-where do I go next?

 

[mrdeadfolx]

Quote:

Originally Posted by w4ffl35 /img/forum/go_quote.gif I picked up Destroy Erase Improve and it didn't do anything for me. They sound like Static-X to me.

You've gotta be kidding

 

[asmox]

Quote:

Originally Posted by kwitel /img/forum/go_quote.gif So ive got Catch Thirty Three-where do I go next?

I and Nothing are closest from thematic and stylistic standpoints, respectively... so I'd go for one of those. Nothing is hated by many Meshuggah fans due to its pace and overly percussive nature, but I personally think it's one of their better releases. As for I, here's a review I wrote for it a while back -

Quote:

Originally Posted by asmox Quite a few bands lately have been of the mind that taking a single, meandering, horrendously long song and making an entire album out of it is a great and novel idea. Unfortunately, most of the time what you get is a crawling exercise in patience and a burning desire for the album in question to be re-arranged into a condensed, 5-minute endurable version of what you just had to sit through (read: Green Carnation). Sometimes, though, a group of guys get together who have so many ideas running through their heads that a single-song album becomes not only a great idea, but a vessel for ultimate expression. This is such an album. In its simplest form, I is a 21 minute summary of everything that Meshuggah has done prior. The high-speed staccato thrashing; the calculated rhythmic irregularities; the eerie stretches of ambience; the swirling, alien guitar leads; the atonal roaring and paradoxical, destructive lyricism - it's all here. However, it's all tied together by a menacing atmosphere of utter devastation that makes even the creeping onslaught of Nothing seem tame in comparison. Whether the unwavering and machine-like rolling tom patterns that constitute the hypnotizing introduction, the absolutely crushing breakdown of roaring guitars and time-shattering drums that occurs at around the 3:30 mark, Fredrik Thordendal's mechanical assault at 5:40 which consists of an incessant flurry of notes backed by an unadulterated display of inhuman endurance and accuracy from drummer Tomas Haake, the disturbing reverberations of oddly conflicting notes that mark the transition from the chaotic permutations that came before to the massive soundscapes that will follow, the heavy-as-hell riffing that comes in at the 10:30 mark which encompasses what's probably the only moment in this entire song that you'll be able to effectively headbang to without getting confused, the diabolical whispering of Jens Kidman at 12:00 and the hive-like guitar lead from Fredrik that soon follows, the slow pulsing of dark arpeggios that steadily builds into a Nothing-era displaced pattern of shifting drums and twisted guitars at 17:00, or the standard Meshuggah-esque rhythmic motif that slowly coalesces into a lengthy stretch of foreboding feedback that closes out the song - the only word to properly describe this is... monolithic. Without the respite of track breaks, this becomes an unstoppable machine bent on the complete annihilation of everything in its path. I is a tremendous achievement in Meshuggah's career and in the world of metal. While there are albums out there that are louder, heavier, and more extreme, none of them come close to exhibiting the cerebral and uncompromising nature of the music found here. The only album that does manage to sort of come close is Meshuggah's own follow-up, Catch Thirty-Three, but even that has more of a post-apocalyptic feel than the malevolent destruction found on I. Absolutely mammoth music.

Chaosphere and Destroy Erase Improve are in a somewhat different style, but still great. Everything prior is more or less straightforward thrash.

 

[SR-71Panorama]

I don't know if Id say Static X. I remember a bumper sticker of theirs that said KEEP DISCO EVIL. Umm....Meshuggah are alot of things, disco ain't one of 'em. To be fair, back in the day I gave Static X an exhaustive listen of about 2 or 3 entire songs

Not for me.

I echo the sentiment of gradual build up to their current stuff, however, for me, Destroy Erase Improve was love at first listen. I don't know why, but I guess it had a technical sound to it while being less repetitive and more immediate. That album gets my vote as THE meshuggah to own, and certainly the one to start out with.

 

[asmox]

Personally, I think that there are two schools of Meshuggah fans - the guys that like the technical thrash, speedy rhythmic permutations, and general showboating found on their first few albums; and the guys who like the more cerebral, crushing, minimalistic, austere, and entrancing rhythmic trickery found on their last few albums. The line being drawn between Chaosphere and Nothing.

Myself? I prefer their later output by a mile. They've evolved from the quintessential tech metal band to something far, far greater.

...and the comparison to Static-X? ROFL. How much crack did you smoke before making that statement?

 

[kwitel]

Quote:

Originally Posted by asmox /img/forum/go_quote.gif Personally, I think that there are two schools of Meshuggah fans - the guys that like the technical thrash, speedy rhythmic permutations, and general showboating found on their first few albums; and the guys who like the more cerebral, crushing, minimalistic, austere, and entrancing rhythmic trickery found on their last few albums. The line being drawn between Chaosphere and Nothing. Myself? I prefer their later output by a mile. They've evolved from the quintessential tech metal band to something far, far greater. ...and the comparison to Static-X? ROFL. How much crack did you smoke before making that statement?

Hey ASMOX-thats quite an impressive review located above-thanx for including in the thread-you should be writing for a magazine...
Anyways, there was an article written about a year, the specific magazine/web-site escapes me-where the guy talks about how he couldnt understand how people listened to meshuggah but eventually he fell in love with the complexity of their music himself-
Nothing too informative about the article, it was just really interesting to hear this older guy talk about how someone in the music industry convinced him to give them another try and now, the writer loves the band.
Any ideas as to what Im talking about?
I think it was an article online...