Review by Shadowdoom9 (Andi) for Meshuggah - Nothing (2002)
This is it. This is definitely the album that has spawned one of the deepest, heaviest genres known to mankind...DJENT! Slower tempos and heavier groove than the band's previous thrash metal albums, with occasional jazz-infused moments, and more importantly, downtuned 7-string guitars (though 8-string guitars would not be used until the album's 2006 re-recording). Nothing is an album that really turned Meshuggah from NOTHING into SOMETHING!
Before I started listening to this band, I never realized how heavy, brutal, and overall good they are. This album, Nothing, will surely show you what I mean. Well the repetition is a little unnecessary, but the album is still cool nonetheless.
Jumping into the action straight away is the opening track "Stengah", a sick brutal song that can sting your eardrums harder and more pleasantly than a hundred wasps with the downtuned jarring staccato guitars locked in by the tight drums. Then the vocals come in a big round of hardcore shouting. That's rather excellent! "Rational Gaze" is another killer song with a paradoxical lyrical theme. "Perpetual Black Second" is just amazing and a potential staple to the band's live set, with some of the heaviest riffs any band could create, bringing the odd time signatures to a new peak for the band.
Rising from staccato power chords, a new uncommon style of riffing really reminisces many bass techniques, evident on "Closed Eyed Visuals". Same with "Glints Collide", with that type of riffing at its clearest, sounding almost as if the album was entirely recorded with bass guitars, while the guitars stay notable with its super heavy crushing tone. The solo really sounds alien-like, bringing a twisted form of jazz fusion. "Organic Shadows" is once again chaotic, but it doesn't have a lot of sense in instrumentation. As technical as the band usually gets, the habit of repeating chords at that point is...well, repetitive. The vocals are still fine there but sound a little constipated. The opening riff of "Straws Pulled at Random" is really thrashy hardcore-sounding similar to The Dillinger Escape Plan, and I love that!
Other than all the guitars and drums being re-recorded and the vocals being remastered in the 2006 version, the only other notable differences are the last 3 songs. For some reason, my copy of the original 2002 version did not have "Spasm". Either it was accidentally removed from my copy, or my copy came from the UK where they removed the song because of "spastic" or "spaz" being an offensive swear there. That's a shame because drummer Tomas Haake's clean robotic vocals in that song sound bizarre yet still cool, and now I'm wondering what the original song sounds like. Haake's robotic vocals return in a small narration in "Nebulous". The only big difference for this song in the 2006 version is, it's slightly slower. "Obsidian" has a cool clean opening, before crashing into a small simple riff repeated so many times. The 2006 version is twice as long as the original version, extending both the front and back. Instead of fading out at 4:20, it goes on until 8:35 and ends abruptly!! Ain't that repetition annoying?!
In conclusion, it's not easy comparing this album to later Meshuggah albums, nor would it be easy to listen to entirely with a couple songs being a little repetitive. But after a few listens, then you would know that the band discovered a new gem that is djent. Even when not needed, you should buy this album. This is the beginning of djent!
Favorites: Rational Gaze, Perpetual Black Second, Closed Eye Visuals