I

I was Meshuggah's second work with the low-tuned 8 string guitars, So you may have expected this to sound like the previous album, but that's so wrong. The song "I" is split up in 3 very diffrent parts, each one representing a part in the bands career.

The First part, 00:00 to 05:09 represents their early days 1991-1995. You can hear that by the amazing speed they play the music in. The first minute and a half is just noise in my ears, still a great start. It's almost scary to think that it's going to be even more complex and defenatly darker.

The Next part, 05:09 to 10:46 should probably represent the mid-era 1995-1998. That comes quite clear because of the insane guitar solos and variation. The thrash influences is still there, but you can smell the über-complexity that is next to come.

The last part 10:46-21:00 begins with a mega-heavy riff in 4/4 time. It breaks down to a dark, complex mess where the time signatures are nearly impossible to read. If not impossible. Another insane guitar solo follows, this time slower, to represent their slower 2002-2006 era. At about 14:45 there's a guitar break that sounds really dark and scary. It fits perfectly to the dark and deep lyrics, and not to forget the dark riffs. At 16:00 the rest of the band comes in, and soon we're on to some mind-blowing complex riffs that sounds so amazing that it's unable to describe. Fantastic music, defenatly not for anyone, thought.

To summary my review for "I", i wound say that it is THE place to start if you wanna get into this band. Becaucse it has the sound of 3 diffrent eras. I, myself prefer the last part, and i like the later albums better. Don't be fooled by the noisy intro, there are way better stuff here! 4.5/5 but it's NOT for regular prog-fans!