Meshuggah - Catch 33 is quite proggy

Got it,Love it.

Spanky wrote: It's a great album, but I still don't see how Meshuggah is prog at all.  Even after listening to 'I' it still escapes me how they could be labeled prog metal.

The awe inspiring complexity?  The rapid changes between probably the craziest time signatures ever used in metal?  The epic tracks with numerous different sections?  Just because they don't do a lot of soloing (although when they do, Fredrik Thordendal makes John Petrucci sound like Kurt Cobain) and don't use keyboards, doesn't mean they can't be prog.

I do think that Catch 33 is a progressive album, and I'd also say it's their best yet.  They've taken the slow but overwhelmingly complex approach from Nothing and combined it with the brutality and epic scale of I to create one of the best metal albums in recent memory.  The entire album is one song divided into 13 "parts", and has better flow than a lot of epic tracks I've heard.  The riffs they use keep getting stranger and more complicated, and the fact that they've lowered the tempo has gotten rid of the idea that they're just a "brutal thrash band".  This album should be in any metalhead's collection.

Useful_Idiot wrote: Spanky wrote: It's a great album, but I still don't see how Meshuggah is prog at all.  Even after listening to 'I' it still escapes me how they could be labeled prog metal. The awe inspiring complexity?  The rapid changes between probably the craziest time signatures ever used in metal?  The epic tracks with numerous different sections?  Just because they don't do a lot of soloing (although when they do, Fredrik Thordendal makes John Petrucci sound like Kurt Cobain) and don't use keyboards, doesn't mean they can't be prog. I do think that Catch 33 is a progressive album, and I'd also say it's their best yet.  They've taken the slow but overwhelmingly complex approach from Nothing and combined it with the brutality and epic scale of I to create one of the best metal albums in recent memory.  The entire album is one song divided into 13 "parts", and has better flow than a lot of epic tracks I've heard.  The riffs they use keep getting stranger and more complicated, and the fact that they've lowered the tempo has gotten rid of the idea that they're just a "brutal thrash band".  This album should be in any metalhead's collection.

I don't feel that complex time signatures and complex song structure always warrents a group to be considered a prog group.  Have they progressed in their song writing?  That is an unquestionable yes.  I never said anything about keyboard use or any certain instrument that must be used to have something considered prog though.  Whatever the case may be, I still don't feel that Meshuggah is a progressive group in their musical sound.  I only feel they are progressive in the way they have matured as a band from album to album.  And I do not believe that is the right type of progressing to label them as prog.  (I feel this way about several other bands on this site as well, I've just never really said anything).


Edited by Spanky

I don't see how Meshuggah aren't progressive.

It's not the complex time signatures because most of the time they play in 4/4, although from the little i've heard of Catch 33 i think they may be starting to experiment more with time signatures (they're crazy enough in 4/4 and now they want to use odd time signatures?! ), and the soloing... well i guess it's a bit different to have the Holdsworth influence in such a heavy band.

To me Meshuggah are prog because the music they make has pushed boundaries. They were the first band (to my knowledge) to create that kind of music. Isn't that what prog is all about? Pushing the envelope and creating something new? Bringing in new elements to a style of music? I think Meshuggah do this and do it well.

King of Loss wrote: They are so frigging boring, ughhhhhh boring, pretentious pile of junk! Jus' kiddin' because I do like them but they are not emotional enough for me. They make Symphony X sound like its emotionally and well written.... Catch 33 is just not good... Earlier releases are a lot better.

I think that the earlier releases are good Thrash albums, with a Math tendency. Nothing and Catch 33 are Progressive Metal albums. I know they can appear to be boring, but so is Delirium Cordia ...

HeirToRuin wrote: Meshuggah is progressive but not prog. There is no metal band that does what these guys do.  That's progressive.  That...and the band has slow evolution over the course of their releases.

Catch 33 is Progressive Metal, The other Meshuggah albums are "just" progressive. That's my opinion so far. I'd be interested in comments specifically on Catch 33 ... the other albums are Thrash, with "Nothing" already showing Prog Metal tendencies.