Meshuggah Prog Metal?

If prog is music that has that something different distingushing itself from other types of music the I beleive that Meshuggah should be incuded in the prog metal section. Reasons why:
The time signatures used by Meshuggah are crazier than most giving Planet X a run for their money;
The chops are insane;
The guitar solos are also excellent played on custom 8 string guitars;
The drumming could be played without the rest of the music and would still blow ones mind.
I know that these guys may be heavier than what alot of proggers are used to but I reckon the heaviness of the music shouldn't put people off from the insane timeing and chops that are thrown at you while listening. And with albums like their latest Catch Thirtythree which has 13 tracks but only one song I class Meshuggah as Prog Metal.
I would like to know what you guys think both the for and against.

We've been over this.  I love Meshuggah, and they do have work that could qualify as prog metal, but I'm not totally convinced that they are a whole are a prog metal band.  Really brutal and complex thrash is probably more like it.  However, I do think that the prog-metallers on here who enjoy heavier stuff would love their recent EP titled "I".

Chooks wrote: If prog is music that has that something different distingushing itself from other types of music the I beleive that Meshuggah should be incuded in the prog metal section. Reasons why: The time signatures used by Meshuggah are crazier than most giving Planet X a run for their money; The chops are insane; The guitar solos are also excellent played on custom 8 string guitars; The drumming could be played without the rest of the music and would still blow ones mind.

These all seem to be reasons why Meshuggah are technical, not progressive.

Useful_Idiot wrote: We've been over this.  I love Meshuggah, and they do have work that could qualify as prog metal, but I'm not totally convinced that they are a whole are a prog metal band.  Really brutal and complex thrash is probably more like it.  However, I do think that the prog-metallers on here who enjoy heavier stuff would love their recent EP titled "I".

Their early stuff was more straight ahead metal with jazz complexities in regard to timing and riff arrangement but if bands like Anathema and Therion are classed as prog because of thier later stuff moving into prog then the same must be said for Meshuggah with their 'I' EP and the latest release 'Catch Thirtythree' which cross into prog territory. so i would agree with the brutal and complex thrash description for the early releases but reckon that the above mentioned later releases deserve having a place in prog.

They're more like Technical Death Metal then prog Metal, really.

Skooma wrote: They're more like Technical Death Metal then prog Metal, really.

They are NOT any kind of death metal, no doubt about this.
As stated, they started out as a straightvforward metal(thrash metal to be exact, I might add) with jazz complexities in regard to timing and riff arrangement. However, they progressed into a even more complex and "jazzy" style. They have IMHO without any doubt evolved into progressive metal, or extreme progressive metal you might say, since they are surely aggresive enough to be classified as a type of extreme metal.

Edited by TLZ*

Did someone say 23/16 time?  I think they are prog-metal.  Excellent group.

Interbeing wrote: as much as i love meshuggah (i own all their albums), but they hardly should be classified as prog metal. they are a technical thrash band, with tints of jazz.

So you have Catch 33, too?

As i have said earlier their later albums I and Catch 33 have are prog metal albums not only through their time signatures and technicality but through the way that they arrange their songs through the albums (although I is only one song). Catch 33 is pretty much one song split into 13 parts if all these factors don't put Meshuggah into prog metal then alot of bands on the archives who are included because of similar factors should be reconsidered (not saying i disagree with the bands that are on this page but whats good for one is good for another i reckon. I want to leave you guys question, is Catch 33 the heaviest concept album made to date?

TLZ* wrote: goose wrote: And the type of extreme metal (the guitars, anyway) is death metal, surely? It's certainly not black metal or grindcore! The vocals I've heard or sort of weird post thrashy stuff though. I may not be very up to date, though. The guitars are in no way death metal. It isn't the amount of distortion that defines death metal(even though it is an important ingridient) it is the melodies/riffs. And from what I've heard Meshuggah's riff are not death metal, thei're earliest riff are kinda thrash-like but their later stuff is something else, they're thrash based but have a very strong jazz/fusion influence. The bands that you could compare Meshuggah with are bands like Ephel Duath, Textures, Spiral Architect and other metalbands that are strongly infleunced by jazz/fusion and prog.

I've been listening to a lot of the older bands coming around where thrash was mutating into death - so at the minute thrash riffs with a lot of distortion sound like death metal