NOTHING

The addition of 8-string guitars ( Well actually detuned 7-string guitars because their custom build 8-string guitars couldn´t stay in tune and they had to return them to the builder to get them modified) and a generally much slower pace, than was the case on the predecessor, gives Nothing one of the most crushingly heavy sounds ever created on a metal album. The trademark impossible to play rythm patterns and heavy chugging riffs are still intact on Nothing and so are Jens Kidman´s caustic aggressive vocals, Tomas Haake´s incredible drumming and Fredrik Thordendal´s Holdsworthian jazz influenced guitar soloing. It´s definitely the guitar sound and the slower pace that sets Nothing apart from earlier releases. The hypnotic groove from Chaosphere is even more effectful in the slow to mid-paced tracks on Nothing. Some people seem to find Meshuggah´s music cold and calculated but I think there´s a groove that most people don´t notice on initial listen. I´m probably a bit slow but it took me a couple of years too before I learned to fully appreciate Meshuggah´s quite inaccessible music.

The 10 songs on the album are of high quality. The opening song Stengah sets the standard from the start but other songs on the album such as Rational Gaze and Closed Eye Visuals are also killer tracks.

Because of time pressure, as Meshuggah was announced in the last minute to join the 2002 Ozzfest tour, Nothing had to be mixed in just two days and mastered in one. I´ve always enjoyed the crushingly heavy and unique sound but some people seem to find the sound cold. An aquired taste for sure. Meshuggah opted to re-release a re- mastered version of Nothing in 2006. The 2006 version also features re-recorded guitars and bass and includes some triggered drum samples.

Nothing is pure and simple a masterpiece in my book. A unique technical/ progressive extreme metal album. It´s challenging, it´s aggressive, it´s played with virtuosic skill and it´s got a hypnotic groove that´s irresistable. Nothing is one of my favorite albums and of course it deserves a 5 star rating.

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