I love Metal, don't like Meshuggah

[KrogWaugh]

What gives? Why does everyone obsess over this band? Is their syncopation really that innovative? I have listened to about 5 of their songs over the last year (more than once most of them) and can't figure it out. I love bands like Periphery, Agalloch, Devin Townsend/SYL, BTBAM, all kinds of heavy shit. Why do you love Meshuggah? Horrible voices and bland musicianship and horrible sounding guitars imo.

 

[BIG ND SWEATY]

cause they're heavy as fuck and super fun to jam along with on guitar, i never understood why pantera has been regarded as one of the greatest metal bands ever but i assume people like them for the same reason i like meshuggah.

 

[tripguitar]

they've been around forever, like really forever. and they were innovators of odd time signatures, polyrythms, and extended range guitars in heavy metal music. they've influenced almost all of the "djent" bands around today, whether those bands know it or not!!

i personally have mixed feelings, i like about half the tracks i've heard... others are just so out there with the rhythm its hard to groove with the song.

they are heavy as hell, and bleed is pretty groovy. as is straws pulled at random. its an aquired taste i suppose.

 

[DLG]

 

[Vostre Roy]

Nobody said you had to love them. Same goes for [put the name of any band on earth]

/thread

Also:

 

[Rick]

I'm a metalhead and there are shittons of bands I can't get into.

 

[Stealthdjentstic]

You should check out all their albums, they are very different from each other.

Destroy Erase Improve and Chaosphere are fairly thrashy and Contradictions Collapse is pretty much a thrash album.

Nothing is the sound most people know meshuggah for. Catch 33 is a lot like Nothing but is one big track, same with "I".

Obzen is kind of a mix between chaosphere and nothing but more of a modern meshuggah sound.

The new album is just really repetitive. I like it but ive been listening to a lot of post rock, doom, etc... lately so I dont mind it, although I would have liked it to have more variation.

 

[goldsteinat0r]

As a Meshuggah fan myself, I personally love that they have stayed true to what makes them "Meshuggah"; innovative rhythms, innovative guitar/bass relationship, super interesting and just WELL DONE writing of the various parts for each instrument, while evolving in what seems like a totally natural way as a band. I mean it all fits together so well in almost every song, no matter which record you're talking about. They also embrace a certain vocal style (Or rather, jens does) which really only serves to make the music heavier. It seriously serves almost no other purpose. They also have successfully not given into trends and movements in the name of commercial success (even the ones they spawned, like "djent.").

And probably the biggest thing for me? The degree to which they push the envelope of human capabilities in music. I was kind of respectfully indifferent to Meshuggah for awhile until someone showed me "Bleed." That song blew my shit away. The sheer skill, focus, and endurance required of every instrumentalist in the band to properly execute that song on record and live (fuck me, they actually play it live) is just mind-boggling and it commands respect, if nothing else. It made me listen to them in a totally different way. I pictured being in the room when that song was being introduced to the band by whichever member composed it. However long they debated attempting it, in the end they just practiced their asses off until it was flawless. Thats the shit.

That leads to my next point: their level of technical capability is insane, but the majority of the time they are awesome at considering what is appropriate for the song, rather than just flopping their proverbial dicks on the table when they don't know what a section should sound like. I feel like this is sometimes lacking in modern heavy bands whose breakdowns often just sound like they're playing exercises.

One more thing: Every time I listen to a Meshuggah record I hear new shit or realize something new about a section/riff/song/record. Every single time. Even records I've owned for years.

 

[rythmic_pulses]

When I first heard them, their Mechanical sound was fucking new to my ears, I'd never heard anything like it and it was the most fun and innovation I'd ever heard in my life, thank you Future Breed Machine!!!!

Seriously though, if I hadn't have heard of them, I would never have picked up a 7 string guitar, two bands nearly made me pull the plug before, but Meshuggah were the final thing I needed to hear, I'd never heard a guitar sound so menacing and tight.

 

[wankerness]

What gives? Why does everyone obsess over this band? Is their syncopation really that innovative? I have listened to about 5 of their songs over the last year (more than once most of them) and can't figure it out. I love bands like Periphery, Agalloch, Devin Townsend/SYL, BTBAM, all kinds of heavy shit. Why do you love Meshuggah? Horrible voices and bland musicianship and horrible sounding guitars imo.

What's the point of this post? You don't seem to really want answers to any of those questions, you're mainly just saying THIS BAND SUCKS. Seems like you could have trolled the Meshuggah topic instead?

 

[Abaddon9112]

I've always been a fan of brutal death metal, and for me, Meshuggah's style is a lot more brutal and aesthetically effective in a metal context than Periphery or any other such band. I don't like melodic metal at all, and I love anything that's atonal and discordant, because this gives the music raw and hateful power. Melodic metal always just sounded girly and commercial to me. Periphery's melodic parts in particular remind me a lot of generic metalcore and screamo, which I'm not a fan of in the least.

I think a lot of Meshuggah listeners are probably more oriented around rhythm than melody. Comes with the territory. I'm sure there are bands that use more complex polyrhythms and time signatures, but Meshuggah know how to orient them into a steady, fundamental groove that you can't help but headbang and mosh to. They also might not seem all that unique in a metal scene that is currently over-saturated with "djent" and polyrhythmic groove, but when these guys started, literally nobody sounded like them. I started listening to them in 2007 when the djent scene was still basically an internet phenomenon and they completely changed my perspective on what heavy metal can be. And they'd already been doing their thing for about 15 years.

Every band you mentioned in the OP is indebted to Meshuggah in some way.

 

[Experimorph]

i never understood why pantera has been regarded as one of the greatest metal bands ever but i assume people like them for the same reason i like meshuggah.

Ditto.

I just love the ruthless and hopeless atmosphere of Meshuggah's music. Plus, Bleed is like a shot of adrenaline straight to the heart.

 

[protest]

I really respect Meshuggah a lot, but I find them a little boring after a while. A lot of their songs can kind of blend together, but if you throw them in a mix cd/playlist their songs always stand out.

I find that even on their albums that aren't just a single song, it still pretty much sounds like one long song. Don't get me wrong, it still sounds awesome, but I think the lack of diversity doesn't really hold my attention for too long.

I also prefer the Destroy Erase Improve, and Chaosphere sound to their newer sound.

 

[Leuchty]

Simply put...

Tones and rhythms.

 

[Scar Symmetry]

What gives? Why does everyone obsess over this band? Is their syncopation really that innovative? I have listened to about 5 of their songs over the last year (more than once most of them) and can't figure it out. I love bands like Periphery, Agalloch, Devin Townsend/SYL, BTBAM, all kinds of heavy shit. Why do you love Meshuggah? Horrible voices and bland musicianship and horrible sounding guitars imo.

Let me start by saying that I agree with you on the last sentence.

Let me then pose that although they may be lazy songwriters (and as someone that loves Meshuggah as much as I do, I give myself a free pass to criticise then), it is inescapable that they are brilliant.

All of the bands that you listed are influenced by them. Yes, all of them! They may be a one trick pony but they changed metal as we know it and for that they should be placed on the highest of thrones.

 

[Blake1970]

What is there not to love about this band?

 

[mr_rainmaker]

IBTL

 

[-42-]

Everyone seems obsessed with them because you're on SSO.

 

[Dickicker]

myea, I don't care for them either. Vocalist stays in the same range most of the time and that bothers me. That is just my OPINION( put that in there before some one trys to bash me and call me names because I don't like meshuggah lol). Plus, I don't really care for 8's that much. I'm still trying to learn to play six. But that's the good thing about music, there is more out there. Move on to the next band....

 

[Dickicker]

Everyone seems obsessed with them because you're on SSO.

I was wondering how to put that in there. lol