Meshuggah (named after the Yiddish word for "crazy") is a five-piece Scandinavian/tech metal band from Umeå, Sweden who use extended polyrhythmic passages, complex drum patterns, odd time signatures, smooth, melodic lead guitar solos, and harsh, atonal vocals.
Statistics
- Genre: scandinavian metal, tech metal, death metal, thrash metal
- Country: Sweden
- Status: Active
- Time: 1987-
Biography
Meshuggah formed in Umeå in 1987; two years later, the band released their first record, an EP entitled Psykisk Testbild (which can be roughly translated as "psychological test picture", perhaps in reference to a Rorschach Test image). This recording displayed a straightforward thrash metal-influenced sound along the lines of Metallica's concurrent releases. What made the band unique, however, were hints at the more complex music that the band would later develop into their signature sound. As the group grew older, they further refined the technicality of their musicianship and songwriting. They also began recording more and more extreme music, influenced by both death metal and thrash metal, yet not similar to or categorizable as either.
Among the band's most recognizable qualities are lead guitar player Fredrik Thordendal's smooth, clean solos, melodically simple and nearly atonal rhythm guitars, the constant use of unconventional time signatures, and long polyrhythmic passages. Guitarist Thordendal uses custom-made Nevborn eight-string guitars, originally tuned B, E, A, D, G, E, A, from low to high, which he then detunes another half-step to Bb, Eb, Ab, Db, Gb, Eb, Ab. The lower string added under the E string allows the same ultra-low, heavy riffs that a seven-string electric guitar can produce, and the high A string allows Thordendal to play his jazz-fusion inspired solos at higher pitch, so that they can be distinguished in the dense texture of sound that Haake's drums and Hagström's heavy riffs create.
Discography
Studio Releases
- Psykisk Testbild [EP] - (1989)
- Contradictions Collapse - (1991)
- None [EP] - (1994)
- Destroy Erase Improve - (1995)
- Chaosphere - (1998)
- Nothing - (2002)
- I [EP] - (2004)
Live And Other Releases
Band Members
Current Members
- Jens Kidman - Vocals - (1987-)
- Fredrik Thordendal - Guitar - (1987-)
- Mårten Hagström - Guitar - (1992-)
- Dick Lövgren - Bass - (2004-)
- Tomas Haake - Drums - (1990-)
Former Members
External Links
See Also
Meshuggah is also the name of the king golem in Terry Pratchett's Feet of Clay.