CONTRADICTIONS COLLAPSE

When we listen to Meshuggah today it is tough to imagine they began as thrash metal influenced by Metaallica. However, you can hear it on this album. Contradictions Collapse is deeply rooted in thrash metal. You can hear it in the drumming and especially in the guitar riffs. However, we do see hints of what was in store. For a thrashy album there are some serious signs of technicality, use of various time signatures, and bits of jazz fusion, (in the solos). This is not a prog-metal album, I would say it is technical metal but it is a great work regardless.

This album does have a different sound from their later works. The guitars are not as heavy sounding and instead of their soul crushing, staccato, riffs this albums uses tremolo picking thrash metal riffs. However, even back in these days they use their mechanical, complex jazzy guitar solos. Fredrik is one hell of a player.

You can really hear the bass on this album, MUCH more than on later works, and I am always a fan of that. Their bassist at the time was Peter Nordin and while he may not lay down anything mind blowing, there is some great bass work here and you can REALLY hear it.

Jens vocals on this album are actually the most tolerable of any Meshuggah work. He employs a harsh, yet non pitched scream. This is perfectly tolerable for ANY fan of metal and the vocals actually fit the music quite well, as opposed to later albums where his vocals seem to just pierce everything.

My favorite part of Meshuggah. The drumming. Tomas Haake is, in my opinion, the best drummer there is right now. We all know his insane poly rhythmic drumming with complex bass patterns and pin point accuracy, not to mention some great jazzy beats. While you do hear traces of that this album features more straight forward thrash drumming, which is still impressive nonetheless.

Paralyzing Ignorance. Begins with a slow melodic intro which quickly picks up intensity. Here is some great work of Haake's drumming. A simple, slow riff begins before we are thrown into a chaotic bass section. Then the thrash begins. The rest of the song is very thrashy and their is a sweet solo in there.

Erroneous Manipulation. A nice heavy intro! For a while the song continues slow and heavy with some nice thrash bursts. The middle section is great! With some complex soloing, and even a small melodic section. Some crazy bass as well!

Abnegating Cecity. A nice thrashy song, though not extremely fast, and with some interesting solos throughout.

Internal Evidence. A sweet bass intro quickly followed by some technical drumming. Gotta love a drummer that can work some technicality into thrash! In fact this song has some of the albums most technical drumming, and some of his jazz prowess as well. Overall this song is quite progressive.

Qualms of Reality. Another nice thrashy song.

We'll Never See the Day. A fairly slow beginning that moves into a faster Metallica-esque downpicking riff. In fact this song has a VERY strong Metallica sound. However, the solos the bizzare meshuggah solo's we all love, and their is some great drumming yet again.

Greed. The beginning almost has a hardcore feel to it with the drums. Also, another great place to hear some killer bass. The song then goes into a thrashy section with some off beat drumming! It sounds like the Haake we now know. The song is pretty quick, and has a nice progression throughout.

Choirs of Devastation. An instrumental song (well not quite), this one is fairly mellow, (compared to the rest). There is a beautiful minute long opening, when some heavy riffs and great drumming kicks in. After some spoken word a REALLY groovy riff comes followed by some blazing, yet wonderful solos. Great ending. This is my favorite song from the album! A real winner here.

Cadaverous Mastication. Not one of my favorites, a good song but nothing spectacular here. The weakest on the album. Not bad really, but not good.

Overall, a great album! Obviously the regular progger should stay away from this, or any meshuggah album. However, fans of prog-metal this is a good work! It is still very thrashy so it depends on how metal your taste is. For me, this album is a solid 4 but for this site I give it 3 stars.