Dan Bradimore

For the Yiddish word Meshuga, see List of English words of Yiddish origin.

Meshuggah

Meshuggah is a Swedish five-piece experimental metal band formed in 1987. The band is comprised of founding members vocalist Jens Kidman and guitarist Fredrik Thordendal, drummer Tomas Haake (who joined in 1990), rhythm guitarist Mårten Hagström (who joined in 1994) and bassist Dick Lövgren (member since 2004).

Meshuggah first attracted international attention with the 1995 release Destroy Erase Improve for their fusion of death metal, thrash metal and progressive metal. On the album Chaosphere, released in 1998, the band used fast tempo death metal with Thordendal's typical free jazz-like solos. With their 2002 album Nothing, Meshuggah started to use eight-string guitars with two extra low strings and incorporate downtuned, slow, groovy riffs. In 2004 and 2005, Meshuggah experimented with one 21-minute song on the I EP and a "one song album" Catch Thirtythree separated into 13 sections. The latest album, obZen, was released in 2008.

They have become renowned for their complex, innovative and precise musicianship and songwriting, polyrhythmic song structures and technical prowess. Meshuggah have been 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. Since its formation, Meshuggah has released six studio albums, five EPs and eight music videos. Nothing and the following albums charted on the Billboard 200. ObZen reached No. 59 and sold 11,400 copies in the first week and 50,000 copies six months after its release. In 2006, the band was nominated for a Swedish Grammy Award. Meshuggah have performed in various international festivals, including Ozzfest and Download, and are on a world tour in 2008.

History

Formation and early years (1987–1989)

Frontman Jens Kidman in 2008 in Prague. He also formerly played the guitar before Mårten Hagström joined Meshuggah as rhythm guitarist.

Meshuggah has its roots in Umeå, a college town in northern Sweden with a population of 105,000, where the band Metallien formed in 1985 with frontman Roger Olofsson, guitarists Fredrik Thordendal and Peder Gustafsson, bassist Janne Wiklund and drummer Örjan Lundmar. After they recorded demos, Metallien disbanded and Thordendal continued the band under a different name with new members.

Meshuggah was originally formed in 1987, comprising vocalist Jens Kidman, guitarist Johan Sjögren, bassist Jörgen Lindmark and drummer Per Sjögren. The word "meshuggah" is Yiddish for "crazy". Meshuggah recorded several demos before Kidman left the band, prompting the group to disband. Kidman then formed a new band, Calipash, with guitarist Torbjörn Granström, bassist Peter Nordin and drummer Niclas Lundgren. Granström was replaced by guitarist Fredrik Thordendal. Kidman, who also played guitar, 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 (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. According to Kidman, Umeå has a healthy rock scene and many are likely to get involved in rock music "because there is not a lot to do". Mårten Hagström notes that many of the session musicians in Stockholm are from Umeå.

Nuclear Blast and Contradictions Collapse (1990–1994)

After replacing drummer Niclas Lundgren with Tomas Haake in 1990, Meshuggah signed a contract with German heavy metal record label Nuclear Blast and recorded their debut full-length album, Contradictions Collapse. The LP, originally entitled (All this because of) Greed, was released in 1991. The album had positive reviews, though it was not commercially successful. 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 and released the same year. A Japanese version was also released, including lyrics printed in Japanese. At this time, Thordendal, who worked as a carpenter, severed the tip of his left middle finger while working, and Haake injured his hand in a grinder accident. As a result, the band could not perform for several months. Thordendal's fingertip was later sewn back on and he made a full recovery. The Selfcaged EP was recorded in April and May 1994, but its release was delayed to later in 1995 because of the accidents.

Destroy Erase Improve (1995–1997)

Guitarists Mårten Hagström (right) and Fredrik Thordendal (left) performing in Prague, Czech Republic on June 25, 2008; supporting Meshuggah's latest release obZen. Both of them play bass guitar when recording in studio.

Meshuggah returned to the public in January 1995 for a short European tour organized by their record label Nuclear Blast. After the tour, 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 after, Meshuggah went on a European tour supporting the American band Machine Head for two months. During the tour, Nordin became ill and had problems with the balance nerve in his inner ear. He had to leave the tour and travel to Sweden due to chronic dizziness and vertigo. Machine Head's bassist Adam Duce offered to help out, but Meshuggah decided to play as a four-man band. Thordendal at times played the bass. Other times, the band performed with two guitars; Hagström played through a pitch shifter shifted one octave down. Destroy Erase Improve was released in July 1995, with positive response from critics for the "heady tempos and abstract approach". Later in 2006 Destroy Erase Improve became the 21st album in Decibel Magazine's "Hall of Fame" along with Slayer's Reign in Blood and Sepultura's Roots. Kidman described the cover: "The title fits the pictures we cut out and stole from reference books in the library." In mid-1995 Meshuggah had a short tour with a Swedish band Clawfinger in Scandinavia and Germany. Nordin had to leave the band because of his sickness and was replaced by bassist Gustaf Hielm beginning with the Hamburg show. In late 1995, Meshuggah also 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 their hometown Umeå. Swedish television recorded one show in February and broadcast one song the next week. In May, Meshuggah moved to Stockholm to be closer to their management and the record industry in general. A new 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". Thordendal's solo album Sol Niger Within was simultaneously released in the United States and Meshuggah started to plan their new 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. In Switzerland, Peter Stöckli started a fan club and released a 36-page booklet featuring photos and band information. However, the fan club was short lived, and soon collapsed due to financial problems. Meanwhile, Nuclear Blast re-released Contradictions Collapse with the addition of songs from the None EP. In May 1998, the title of the new 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 the early 1999, Meshuggah joined thrash metal pioneers Slayer on their US 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 their 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, Sweden, and at their home studio in Stockholm. The A last-minute decision to join 2002's Ozzfest tour forced the band to mix the album in two days and master it in one. Meshuggah immediately went on another US tour after finishing the recording.

The album Nothing was released in August 2002, sold 6,525 copies during its first week in the US and reached no. 165 on the Billboard Top 200. 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. At the end of 2002 the band went on another US tour with Tool, and a headlining tour of their own.

Catch Thirtythree and obZen (2003–present)

In 2003, Hagström said of the possible musical direction of the band's next album, "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."

Meshuggah live at Frozen Rock Open Air in 2007

In February 2004, Dick Lövgren officially joined the band. Meshuggah subsequently recorded and released the I EP, which contains a single 21-minute track, released on Fractured Transmitter Records. Catch Thirtythree, the only album on which programmed drums have been used, was released the following year in May 2005. Seven thousand copies of Catch Thirtythree were sold the first week and it debuted at number 170 on the Billboard Top 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. Catch Thirtythree earned the band a Swedish Grammy nomination. In December 2005, 10 years after inking their first deal with the publishing company Warner/Chappell Music Scandinavia, Meshuggah extended their cooperation with the company. In November 2005 Haake said in an interview that the band was not content with the productions of Chaosphere and Nothing, both of which suffered from lack of time because the band was on tour.

A remixed and remastered version of Nothing with re-recorded guitars was released in a custom-shaped slipcase featuring a 3-D 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". Haake told Revolver: "While we were doing it, we found new ways of playing guitar that give the music a really scary tone. That's going to make this record sound more brutal."

In the same year, Meshuggah returned to the studio to record their latest album, obZen, which was released in March 2008. The band spent almost a year on the album; their 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. ObZen reached number 59 on the Billboard Top 200 chart and sold 11,400 copies in the United States in its first week of release, and 50,000 copies after six months. With this album Meshuggah got more media attention and new fans. The release was followed by a world tour, which started in the US 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."

Musical style

Music genre and typical traits

Guitarist Fredrik Thordendal performing in 2008 in Prague with an eight-string guitar. A trademark of Thordendal is his free jazz-like soloing.

The level of experimentation, stylistic variations, and changes during Meshuggah's career has caused music journalists to categorize the band under several musical genres. Heavy metal subgenres such as avant-garde metal or experimental metal are umbrella terms that describe the whole career of the band in general. Extreme metal covers both thrash metal (or post-thrash metal) and death metal, which also form the sound of Meshuggah's music. The band is also often labelled as math metal (for using elements of math rock) and progressive metal. The music of the band has also been described as grindcore, a fusion of extreme metal and hardcore punk. Meshuggah also incorporate elements of experimental jazz. Rockdetector uses the term hi-tech metal. In its review of Nothing, Allmusic described Meshuggah as "masterminds of cosmic calculus metal—call it Einstein metal if you want".^[a] Meshuggah create a unique and recognizable sonic imprint and distinct style.

Trademarks and characteristics that define Meshuggah's sound include complex metal with mathematical songwriting, odd riff cycles, neo-jazz chromatics, usage of polyrhythmic structure, rapid key and tempo changes, complex "rotating" time signatures and rhythmic syncopation.^[c] 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?"

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. Haake also uses dual 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."

A trademark of Thordendal is his free jazz-like soloing. He is also known for the usage of a "breath controller" device. Haake is known for his precise cross-rhythm drumming. The vocal style of Kidman varies between hardcore-style shouts and "robotic" death metal vocals. He also alters the pitch of his screams to match the instrumental part of the band.^[e]

Early work, Destroy Erase Improve and Chaosphere

Frontman Jens Kidman in 2007. His vocal style varies between hardcore-style shouts and "robotic" death metal vocals.

The early work of Meshuggah, influenced mainly by Metallica, is according to Allmusic "simpler and more straight-forward 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". The debut album has also been described as a relatively immature but original release. Double bass drums and "angular" riffing also defined the early work of Meshuggah.

With the groundbreaking Destroy Erase Improve, Meshuggah showed accurate fusion 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 staccato guitar riffs and insanely precise drumming—often with all three components acting in different time signatures". Thordendal adds the melodic element with his neo-jazz fusion-like lead guitar.

Haake's characterization of Destroy Erase Improve as being "beautiful and gay, while Chaosphere is not!" was the prevailing feeling. Chaosphere incorporates very fast tempo death metal. Allmusic also compares the genre with grindcore fathers Napalm Death. 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".

Nothing, I EP and Catch Thirtythree

On Nothing Meshuggah abandons the fast tempos of Chaosphere and concentrates on slow tempos, tuned down, drawn-out notes and deep grooves. 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-stringers instead. This technique, which involved keeping the instruments untuned during the sessions, created additional problems. 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. "It allowed us to go lower sonically and attain bass sounds on guitars", said Hagström about the guitars.

The I EP contains a single 21-minute epic song of complex arrangements and was a hint of the forthcoming album. Meshuggah again used eight-string guitars, and used programmed drums for the first time on 2005's Catch Thirtythree except for two songs from 2001's compilation Rare Trax. The album was self-produced by the band and was recorded at the studio that Meshuggah shares with Clawfinger. Hagström notes that "The eight-strings really have given us a whole new musical vocabulary to work with. Part of it is the restrictions they impose: you really can't play power chords with them; the sound just turns to mush. Instead, we concentrated on coming up with really unusual single-note parts, new tunings and chord voicings. We wanted to get as far away from any kind of conventions and traditions as we could on the album, so the guitars worked out beautifully."

Catch Thirtythree is one 47-minute song divided up into 13 sections. It is more mid-tempo guitar riff based, a more straightforward and rather more experimental full-length album than a proper full-length like Chaosphere or Nothing. Nick Terry of Decibel Magazine describes the album as a four-movement symphony. Some songs still use Meshuggah's "familiar template combining harsh vocals and nightmarish melodies over coarse, mechanically advancing, oddball tempos" but with the addition of "ambient sounds and quieter dynamics". "The first third of Catch Thirtythree centers around two simple riffs." In the song "In Death - Is Death" the band uses a combination of noise and silence, which is in contrast with the atypical melodies on "Dehumanization". On "Mind's Mirrors" Meshuggah even used electronics, programming and "robotic voices". "Shed" incorporates tribal percussion and whispered vocals.

obZen

Template:Sample box start variation 2 Template:Multi-listen start Template:Multi-listen item Template:Multi-listen end Template:Sample box end With 2008's obZen, Meshuggah abandons the experimentation of 2002's Nothing and 2005's Catch Thirty-Three and recalls the band's earlier catalog albums like Contradictions Collapse, Destroy Erase Improve and Chaosphere. Allmusic states that "power, compositional ethics, and musical acumen" are at the center of obZen. But Meshuggah still resumes musical or technical innovation. The album drops some of the mathematical quick changes of past releases and the melodic orchestration of Catch Thirty-Three and uses "angular" riffs, mid-tempo and usual 4/4 beat. The album is also considered to be an amalgamation of all their previous works. Meshuggah also decided to self-produce the album because they wanted to have more control over the entire process.

With obZen, Haake returned to the drum kit and impressed music journalists with his extraordinary technical performance on the song "Bleed". In an interview for Gravemusic.com, Haake stated, "['Bleed'] was a big effort for me to learn, I had to find a totally new approach to playing the double bass drums to be able to do that stuff. I had never really done anything like that before like the fast bursts that go all the way through the song basically. So I actually spent as much time practicing that track alone as I did with all of the other tracks combined. It's kind of a big feat to change your approach like that and I'm glad we were able to nail it for the album. For a while though we didn't even know if it was going to make it to the album." Hagström also stated "obZen is one of the most highly technical offerings the band has ever put to tape". This statement is confirmed by Revolver magazine.

Influence and reception

Drummer Tomas Haake, one of the most technical heavy metal drummers, was named number one in the "Metal" category in Modern Drummer magazine's 2008 Readers' Poll. This photo was taken in Stockholm, Sweden on 20 May 2005.

Meshuggah has become renowned for its technical prowess and innovative style that evolves between each release and pushes heavy metal into new territory.^[b] Hagström also explains: "We try never to repeat ourselves." The music's complexity combined with aggression makes some critics call the music cacophonous; the polyrhythms can make the music sound like band members are playing different songs simultaneously.

Rockdetector stated about Destroy Erase Improve: "the band having stripped Metal down to the bare essentials before completely rebuilding it in a totally abstract form". Official Meshuggah biography criticizes Chaosphere with "Some fans felt that Meshuggah had left their dynamic and progressive elements behind; while others thought they were only progressing naturally and focusing on their original sound" and Nothing with: "it displayed a very mature and convincing Meshuggah, now focusing on groove and sound. (...) Meshuggah once again divided their fans into the "ecstatic" and the "slightly disappointed". Rolling Stone states that with this album the band "continues to innovate without stinting on the aggression".

Rolling Stone labeled the "Swedish sonic extremists" as "one of the ten most important hard and heavy bands", and the Alternative Press named it the "most important band in metal." Meshuggah have also been described as highly skilled, virtuoso or genius-bordering musicians with "incredible abilities recognized by mainstream music magazines, especially those dedicated to particular instruments".^[f] Haake is considered to be one of the most technically skilled drummers in today's heavy metal; Rolling Stone called him "a one-man percussion army".^[d] In 2007, Meshuggah earned an in-depth analysis by the academic journal Music Theory Spectrum. In spite of their critical acclaim, Meshuggah has found little mainstream success and is an underground band with a cult following.

Lyrics, songwriting and recording

The cover artwork of Catch Thirtythree, which was designed by Meshuggah drummer Tomas Haake, is "a visual compliment of sorts to the album title, i.e the paradoxes /negations /contradictions of life and death (as we see it in our finest moments of unrestrained metaphoric interpretation) that the lyrics deal with!".

In addition to playing drums, Haake also writes most of the band's lyrics. He explains, "I usually write lyrics in a once-a-year burst. After reading a few really cool books, seeing a couple good movies, I get hit with a wave of inspiration ... some kind of concept. Even though we don’t make concept albums, we like them to have strong conceptual underpinnings kind of lurking in the background, and it’s definitely a concept that gets me going. I don’t really write lyrics for finished tracks." Hagström explains: "Everybody in the band has a pretty good idea of what everybody else is doing conceptually, and nobody thinks exclusively in terms of a particular instrument. We have this symbiosis thing; we’re kind of a single-celled organism climbing up the evolutionary ladder. But Jens has the biggest challenge: taking Tomas’ lyrics and somehow making them his own." Except when Hagström needs a soloist, he and Thordendal rarely record together. Both play guitar and bass while composing (touring bassist Lövgren doesn’t record with the band). Haake says, "Sometimes I’ll sample guitar parts, cut them up, pitch-shift and tweak them until I’ve built the riffs I want, just for demoing purposes. But most of the time I’ll just present the drums, and explain my ideas for the rest of the song, sing some riffs."

Meshuggah's songs often have esoteric and conceptual lyrics, which deal with themes such as existentialism. Allmusic describes the lyrical focus of Destroy Erase Improve as "the integration of machines with organisms as humanity's next logical evolutionary step". PopMatters' review of Nothing singles out the lyrics from "Rational Gaze" for praise: "Our light-induced image of truth—filtered blank of its substance / As our eyes won’t adhere to intuitive lines / Everything examined. Separated, one thing at a time / The harder we stare the more complete the disintegration." Haake explains that the cover, title and lyrics of Catch Thirtythree deal with "the paradoxes /negations /contradictions of life and death (as we see it in our finest moments of unrestrained metaphoric interpretation)".

The main theme of obZen is "human evil", according to Haake. "The title is a play on the words "obscene" and "Zen"; in addition, "ob" means "anti" in Latin. Therefore, the title suggests that the human species has found harmony and balance in warfare and bloodshed. Revolver magazine finds the lyrics of the title track from obZen representative of the entire album: "Salvation found in vomit and blood/Where depravation, lies, corruption/War and pain is god." However, Haake claims, "We don't dwell on hate and bad feelings as people. But with these songs, I think we really wanted to paint a picture lyrically that might be seen as a cautionary tale. We're going, ‘Heads up. Here's what some of the parts of being human are about, and this is what we can be at our worst.’ So it’s more about being aware of negative feelings than actually living them all the time."

Members

Current members

• Jens Kidman – lead vocals (1987–present), rhythm guitar (1987–1991)
• Fredrik Thordendal – lead and rhythm guitar, studio bass guitar, backing vocals, "breath controller" device (1987–present)
• Mårten Hagström – rhythm guitar, studio bass guitar, backing vocals (1994–present)
• Tomas Haake – drums, spoken word (1990–present)
• Dick Lövgren – live bass guitar (2004–present)

Former members

• Johan Sjögren – guitar (1987)
• Jörgen Lindmark – bass (1987)
• Per Sjögren – drums (1987)
• Torbjörn Granström – guitar (1987)
• Niklas Lundgren – drums (1987–1990)
• Peter Nordin – bass guitar (1987–1995)
• Gustaf Hielm – bass guitar (1995–2001)

Discography

Main article: Meshuggah discography

Albums

• 1991: Contradictions Collapse
• 1995: Destroy Erase Improve
• 1998: Chaosphere
• 2002: Nothing
• 2005: Catch Thirtythree
• 2008: obZen

EPs

• 1989: Meshuggah a.k.a. Psykisk Testbild
• 1994: None
• 1995: Selfcaged
• 1997: The True Human Design
• 2004: I

Compilations

• 2001: Rare Trax

Footnotes

a. ^{^} The level of experimentation, stylistic variations, and progress during Meshuggah's career has caused music journalists to categorize the band under several musical genres. Heavy metal subgenres such as avant-garde metal or experimental metal are umbrella terms that describe the whole career of the band. Extreme metal covers both thrash metal (or post-thrash metal) and death metal, which also form the sound of Meshuggah's music. The band is also often labelled as math metal (for using elements of math rock) and progressive metal. The music of the band has also been described as grindcore, a fusion of extreme metal and hardcore punk. Meshuggah also incorporate elements of experimental jazz. Rockdetector uses even the term hi-tech metal. In its review of Nothing, Allmusic described Meshuggah as "masterminds of cosmic calculus metal—call it Einstein metal if you want".

b. ^{^} Meshuggah has become renowned for its technical prowess and innovative style that evolves between each release and pushes heavy metal into new territory.

c. ^{^} Trademarks and characteristics that define Meshuggah's sound include complex metal with mathematical songwriting, odd riff cycles, neo-jazz chromatics, usage of polyrhythmic structure, rapid key and tempo changes complex "rotating" time signatures and rhythmic syncopation.

d. ^{^} He is considered to be one of the most technically skilled drummers in today's heavy metal; Rolling Stone called him "a one-man percussion army".

e. ^{^} A trademark of Thordendal is his free jazz-like soloing. He is also known for the usage of a "breath controller" device. The vocal style of Jens Kidman varies between hardcore-style shouts and "robotic" death metal vocals. Kidman also alters the pitch of his screams to match the instrumental part of the band.

f. ^{^} Meshuggah have also been described as highly skilled, virtuoso or genius-bordering musicians with "incredible abilities recognized by mainstream music magazines, especially those dedicated to particular instruments".

External links

• Meshuggah's official website
• Meshuggah at MySpace
• Meshuggah at Allmusic
• Meshuggah discography at MusicBrainz