CONTRADICTIONS COLLAPSE

And to think that we live in a world that cares about it's citizens ... If this was true, Contradictions Collapse wouldn't exist. It's outrageous to let such mind altering acoustic wreck add to the world's decrepitude. Such pollution should become illegal and Meshuggah should pay each and every person who might have been foolish enough to spend 50 minutes of their lives listening to the album. In fact, Contradictions Collapse is a bomb. Well, at least sounds like one.

My first encounter with the disc was actually pleasant probably due to the fact that I was playing Starcraft while listening to the album and because of the music's brotherhood with any war noise. After finishing the game I was so exited by the musical background that I had set that I even recommended it to a friend. And just an hour ago I decided to listen again to the record, this time paying attention.

The first thing that hit me was the horrible production: besides the fact that the producer simply didn't play any attention to the way the band was playing, the sound engineering is a total failure. Everything sounds so sharp that head aches are bound to hit your head and the chaos created adds the lack of clarity of any purpose of the music. As for the compositions, Paralyzing Ignorance impressed me with it's jazzy drums, but the good impression wasn't meant to last because the entire album is a failed attempt to emulate the music of Atheist and adding more brutality to it by attaching some hardcore elements. The musicians are pretty good and each one tries desperately to take the other's front forgetting that, as a group, all the pieces must fit in. Practically, the record is a competition featuring the band members, in which the most prominent wins. No wonder Contradictions Collapse sounds like it was recorded on a war filed. You might say it is complex and somehow progressive since there are only two tracks similar to the conventional thrash metal songs, those being We'll Never See the Day and, more or less, Greed, but, paralytically, these two are the only ones that sound good.

The most pathetic, uncool, atrocious, bad, nasty, and so on aspect of the album is the the vocalist's performance. The brutal screams can be reproduced by anyone, ANYONE, there's nothing special, nothing of a musician in them and the backing vocals are so annoying that it makes you curse the day you heard of Meshuggah.

Acoustic guitars appear hear and there, but it doesn't improve the sound, in fact their role is uncertain which gives me reasons to believe that the decision to play the acoustic guitar was taken because it was simply cool to do so. In stead of gaining diversity (and showing people what ingenious musicians they are), Meshuggah offered the album some nice kitsch moments and put them in a unpleasant position - counterexamples for how to use the acoustic guitar in thrash songs.

Furthermore, I am disappointed by the drums. Although the rhythm isn't as typical as you might expect, the drummer isn't inspired enough. The bass doesn't help, although it's dirty sound is wisely chosen but the way it is used doesn't do anything to break the monotony. If today had been 1993 in stead of 2008 I might have been impressed but Korn really made dirty bass sounds and effects, that are louder than the guitar's, too popular and, unfortunately for Meshuggah, I am a Korn fan.

Like all thrash metal bands, Meshuggah plays guitar solos. The problem is that their solos are just like everyone else's and don't even match the technique of the solos of guitarist like Hammet , Kisser or King. However, at least here Meshuggah do good.

Another no-to-be-so-proud-about-as-an-artist thing that bugs me is the contradiction between the titles, that gives the lyrics the appearance of philosophical texts, and the plainness of the text it's self. When you read Contradictions Collapse, while having in mind that Meshuggah is a progressive metal group and knowing that progressive rock usually promotes complex lyrics with philosophical themes, you might expect that Meshuggah's lyrics reflect an inner regression towards the relativity within post-modernism and that it features an utopia-view regarding the unification of senses. Surprisingly, when you read the text, you get something like :

What the fuck happens here.../ NOTHING/ Slovenry.../ DAMN SAVAGERY/ REACT/ We're slowly drowning in our own mistakes.../ DEEPER7 Drowning.../ BREATHING UNDERWATER-DEATH/ HELP.../ I wish I felt much better/ Feels like I'm dying inside/ By murdering this world/ we'll all commit...SUICIDE/

Obviously, nothing to do with the first impression. I believe the solution for such an album would have been inviting Fred Durst as guest appearance. Too bad Limp Bizkit debuted in 1996. Which is not to say that I have anything to do with Limp Bizkit, but I seem to enjoy tracks with Fred Durst as guest. Well, that's another story.

To conclude, don't buy this album, I haven't. 1.5 stars rating, that 0.5 being for the solos, the only good aspect of an almost total failure.

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