Nothing - Meshuggah (2002)

I’ve been aware of Meshuggah but I only really listened to their most recent album. I thought it was great, but then I read a couple different reviews that accused them of basically phoning it in. I got to wondering what they must have sounded like when they weren’t phoning it in, so I sought out this one. I don’t know about the phoning it in comments, cuz I still like Immutable a lot. But this record is a fantastic kick in the head.

The thing that amazed me as much as anything is the amount of detail that’s brought out with even a couple ticks of extra volume. I usually do my listen of the day before the rest of the fam gets up, and I had to run upstairs to make sure that i wasn’t rattling the bedrooms with this one. The intricate interplay between instruments, the driving not-quite-danceable-but-you-can’t-sit-still rhythms, the extra melodic material that you get from hearing the bass more clearly: this record was made to be played loudly.

Tracks I Liked

Rational Gaze - it kind of has the feel of Primus, if they made Primus into a big budget action movie.

Straws Pulled At Random - several tempo changes and off-kilter rhythm changes make this one very interesting.