Compilation By Jon Dolan, Dan Epstein, Reed Fischer, Richard Gehr, Brandon Geist, Kory Grow, Will Hermes, Ryan Reed, Jon Weiderhorn (rollingtone.com)
For close to a half century, prog has been the breeding ground for rock's most out-there, outsized and outlandish ideas: Thick-as-a-brick concept albums, an early embrace of synthesizers, overly complicated time signatures, Tolkienesque fantasies, travails from future days and scenes from a memory. In celebration of Rush's first Rolling Stone cover story, here's the best of the deliciously decadent genre that the punks failed to kill.
MESHUGGAH
''DESTROY ERASE IMPROVE''
JULY 25 1995
62:43
1 Future Breed Machine (Tomas Haake, Fredrik Thordendal) 05:46
2 Beneath (Tomas Haake, Fredrik Thordendal) 05:37
3 Soul Burn (Tomas Haake, Fredrik Thordendal) 05:17
4 Transfixion (Tomas Haake, Marten Hagström, Fredrik Thordendal) 03:33
5 Vanished (Tomas Haake, Fredrik Thordendal) 05:04
6 Acrid Placidity (Marten Hagstrom) 03:15
7 Inside What's Within Behind (Tomas Haake, Jens Kidman, Fredrik Thordendal) 04:32
8 Terminal Illusions (Jens Kidman, Fredrik Thordendal) 03:45
9 Suffer In Truth (Jens Kidman) 04:20
10 Sublevels (Tomas Haake, Fredrik Thordendal) 05:10
11 Humiliative 05:14
12 Ritual 06:12
13 Gods Of Rapture (Live) 04:52
Jens Kidman – lead vocals
Fredrik Thordendal – lead guitar, rhythm guitar, synthesizers
Mårten Hagström – rhythm guitar
Tomas Haake – drums, voices
Peter Nordin – bass
ABOUT THE ALBUM (WIKIPEDIA)
REVIEW/AMG
by John Serba
With Destroy Erase Improve, Meshuggah shattered any preconceived notions about what death, thrash, and prog metal could be with one astoundingly accurate, calculated blow. The Swedish outfit managed to surpass their startlingly original, if relatively immature debut, Contradictions Collapse, with a record so pure in concept and execution, it borders on genius. Lyrical themes visualize the integration of machines with organisms as humanity's next logical evolutionary step, while the music backing it up is mind-bogglingly technical, polyrhythmic math metal -- the work of highly skilled men with powerful instruments. While the idea looks unwieldy on paper, Meshuggah handles it with a balance of raw guts and sheer brainpower, 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. Guitarist Fredrik Thordendal adds an element of weirdness with Allan Holdsworth-style neo-jazz fusion leads that serve as melodic oases amidst the jackhammer rhythms. While such bold, challenging arrangements could result in a wank-fest or, even worse, a chaotic mess, Meshuggah carefully synchronizes their bludgeoning instrumentation, embracing minimalism without excess and playing to the power of the song so the listener isn't neck-deep in over-composed indulgences. As a result, "Future Breed Machine," "Suffer in Truth," and "Soul Burn" are mind-bogglingly profound, integrating body, mind, and soul into a violently precise attack, the point being that change can be extraordinarily difficult -- if not maddening -- but the results are transcendent. While industrial metallers Fear Factory have attempted to tackle similar themes, Meshuggah outclasses them on all fronts, proved by the stunning brilliance of Destroy Erase Improve. The album is a bona fide '90s classic, a record boasting ideas so well-balanced -- natural yet clinical, guttural yet intelligent, twisted yet concise -- it muscled simplistic subgenres out of the way and confidently pointed toward the future of metal.
BIOGRAPHY/AMG
Jason Ankeny
Offering a complex form of metal that combined the sweeping adventurism of math rock, the oddball tempos of experimental jazz, and the stunning brutality of thrash metal, Meshuggah raised the bar for metal bands everywhere upon their debut. The roots of Swedish metal band Meshuggah were planted in 1985; originally named Metallien, the founding lineup included frontman Roger Olofsson, guitarists Peder Gustafsson and Fredrik Thordendal, bassist Janne Wiklund, and drummer Örjan Lundmark. After a few demos made the rounds, Metallien broke up and Thordendal continued the band with a different lineup and a different name. The original lineup of Meshuggah also included vocalist Jens Kidman, guitarist Johan Sjögren, bassist Jörgen Lindmark, and drummer Per Sjögren. A handful of demos followed before Kidman left the group to form a new outfit, Calipash, with guitarist Torbjörn Granström, bassist Peter Nordin, and drummer Niclas Lundgren; the surviving members of Meshuggah soon disbanded, and when Granström left Calipash, Thordendal assumed guitar duties in the new band.
Kidman and Thordendal then agreed to reclaim the Meshuggah name, and in 1989, the band released a three-song mini-LP. After signing to Nuclear Blast (and swapping Lundgren for new drummer Tomas Haake), they issued the full-length Contradictions Collapse in 1991. Second guitarist Mårten Hagström was recruited for 1993's None EP, followed two years later by Selfcaged; in the interim, however, the group was forced to maintain a low profile -- first Thordendal severed a finger in a carpentry accident, then Haake injured his hand in a mysterious grinder mishap. Destroy Erase Improve appeared later in 1995, and won over critics with its heady tempos and abstract approach. In 1997, Meshuggah returned with The True Human Design EP; that same year, Thordendal's side project, Special Defects, released their LP Sol Niger Within. Meshuggah reunited for 1998's Chaosphere, a thunderous album that was unbearably dense in its songwriting and scope. Several successful tours followed, and their incredible abilities were starting to be recognized by mainstream music magazines, especially those dedicated to particular instruments.
Once they left the touring circuit, Meshuggah were surprisingly quiet, cooking up new material for a few years while a rarities disc marked the time. But in the summer of 2002, they released Nothing, a masterpiece of atmosphere that added psychedelic touches to their ever-tightening sound. Unique in almost every way, the album didn't make much of a mainstream impact but had metal fans banging their heads to 7/4 tempos and esoteric lyrics. A good word from Ozzy Osbourne's son Jack scored them a spot on the annual Ozzfest tour, where they flourished on the second stage, often stealing the show with their original and savage math metal. After a brief break, Meshuggah released the I EP in 2004. Composed of a single epic track, the complex arrangements of I were just a hint of what was to follow. Their next album, Catch Thirty-Three, was released the following year and proved to be their most ambitious to date. A remastered re-release of Nothing with a bonus DVD arrived in 2006. The same year, Meshuggah returned to the studio to record the album that would become obZen, their sixth, which was released in March of 2008 in advance of a world tour that began in the United States with the band in the opening slot for Ministry's final jaunt before moving to Europe, Asia, and Australia as a headliner. Their seventh album, Koloss, followed in 2012.
WEBSITE
TO THE TOP
For close to a half century, prog has been the breeding ground for rock's most out-there, outsized and outlandish ideas: Thick-as-a-brick concept albums, an early embrace of synthesizers, overly complicated time signatures, Tolkienesque fantasies, travails from future days and scenes from a memory. In celebration of Rush's first Rolling Stone cover story, here's the best of the deliciously decadent genre that the punks failed to kill.
MESHUGGAH
''DESTROY ERASE IMPROVE''
JULY 25 1995
62:43
1 Future Breed Machine (Tomas Haake, Fredrik Thordendal) 05:46
2 Beneath (Tomas Haake, Fredrik Thordendal) 05:37
3 Soul Burn (Tomas Haake, Fredrik Thordendal) 05:17
4 Transfixion (Tomas Haake, Marten Hagström, Fredrik Thordendal) 03:33
5 Vanished (Tomas Haake, Fredrik Thordendal) 05:04
6 Acrid Placidity (Marten Hagstrom) 03:15
7 Inside What's Within Behind (Tomas Haake, Jens Kidman, Fredrik Thordendal) 04:32
8 Terminal Illusions (Jens Kidman, Fredrik Thordendal) 03:45
9 Suffer In Truth (Jens Kidman) 04:20
10 Sublevels (Tomas Haake, Fredrik Thordendal) 05:10
11 Humiliative 05:14
12 Ritual 06:12
13 Gods Of Rapture (Live) 04:52
Jens Kidman – lead vocals
Fredrik Thordendal – lead guitar, rhythm guitar, synthesizers
Mårten Hagström – rhythm guitar
Tomas Haake – drums, voices
Peter Nordin – bass
ABOUT THE ALBUM (WIKIPEDIA)
REVIEW/AMG
by John Serba
With Destroy Erase Improve, Meshuggah shattered any preconceived notions about what death, thrash, and prog metal could be with one astoundingly accurate, calculated blow. The Swedish outfit managed to surpass their startlingly original, if relatively immature debut, Contradictions Collapse, with a record so pure in concept and execution, it borders on genius. Lyrical themes visualize the integration of machines with organisms as humanity's next logical evolutionary step, while the music backing it up is mind-bogglingly technical, polyrhythmic math metal -- the work of highly skilled men with powerful instruments. While the idea looks unwieldy on paper, Meshuggah handles it with a balance of raw guts and sheer brainpower, 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. Guitarist Fredrik Thordendal adds an element of weirdness with Allan Holdsworth-style neo-jazz fusion leads that serve as melodic oases amidst the jackhammer rhythms. While such bold, challenging arrangements could result in a wank-fest or, even worse, a chaotic mess, Meshuggah carefully synchronizes their bludgeoning instrumentation, embracing minimalism without excess and playing to the power of the song so the listener isn't neck-deep in over-composed indulgences. As a result, "Future Breed Machine," "Suffer in Truth," and "Soul Burn" are mind-bogglingly profound, integrating body, mind, and soul into a violently precise attack, the point being that change can be extraordinarily difficult -- if not maddening -- but the results are transcendent. While industrial metallers Fear Factory have attempted to tackle similar themes, Meshuggah outclasses them on all fronts, proved by the stunning brilliance of Destroy Erase Improve. The album is a bona fide '90s classic, a record boasting ideas so well-balanced -- natural yet clinical, guttural yet intelligent, twisted yet concise -- it muscled simplistic subgenres out of the way and confidently pointed toward the future of metal.
BIOGRAPHY/AMG
Jason Ankeny
Offering a complex form of metal that combined the sweeping adventurism of math rock, the oddball tempos of experimental jazz, and the stunning brutality of thrash metal, Meshuggah raised the bar for metal bands everywhere upon their debut. The roots of Swedish metal band Meshuggah were planted in 1985; originally named Metallien, the founding lineup included frontman Roger Olofsson, guitarists Peder Gustafsson and Fredrik Thordendal, bassist Janne Wiklund, and drummer Örjan Lundmark. After a few demos made the rounds, Metallien broke up and Thordendal continued the band with a different lineup and a different name. The original lineup of Meshuggah also included vocalist Jens Kidman, guitarist Johan Sjögren, bassist Jörgen Lindmark, and drummer Per Sjögren. A handful of demos followed before Kidman left the group to form a new outfit, Calipash, with guitarist Torbjörn Granström, bassist Peter Nordin, and drummer Niclas Lundgren; the surviving members of Meshuggah soon disbanded, and when Granström left Calipash, Thordendal assumed guitar duties in the new band.
WEBSITE
TO THE TOP
