I would say destroy erase imrove or chaosphere. Chaosphere was a absolute mind melting experience my first time through as I was almost completely new to the odd time signature feel. Chaosphere combines a subtle amount of weird feels, groove, and fucking chaos. This album was revolutionary for my music taste and journey. But DEI is just a classic you can’t miss
Drew I'm glad you pushed through the timing and tone that puts every one off meshuggah. Please give koloss the album a full listen and I think an extremely underrated song is "the hurt that finds you first"
Late comment from 2023 lol! But I got into Meshuggah again recently and they were just so ahead of their time with their sound. Catch33 Album is my favorite by far.
It’s insane that a song (on a 7 string originally no less) in 2002 had a string tuned to A0 (if even D1 wasn’t enough, tuning 2 and a half tones will do the trick). I know it’s meshuggah but I’m also surprised the string came out sounding as good as it does
I was 16 when I heard Meshuggah. I'm now 42. I have meet them.. Awesome, humble guys... Yeah we got wasted! Time now to listen the game chamger album - Chaosphere (Hear the original odd vocal) I love hearing reactions to Meshuggah... I will always feel the same way. WTF BOYS!
The best part of orange Nothing is the ghost notes on the snare. Blue nothing the guitars are fucking STOOPID NASTY THICCCC I prefer the third version...2018 vinyl re-issue. Combines best of orange and blue worlds Btw I see that such an upload exists on RUclips. Might be worth listening to that after you listen to blue.
@@blakeu8547 Exactly? I have no idea. I own the vinyl version and have listened to the RUclips version, and can say the RUclips version doesn't fully showcase the difference with the new mastering. The new remaster is based off orange Nothing. From my ears it sounds like the bass and background ambient guitars are brought more forward in the mix. This helps the guitars sound almost like the 8 strings in blue nothing. Jens' vocals are also more smoothed around the edges but he still sounds super raw and loud. Overall I would say it's a true orange remaster than a re-record like with blue
@@02SplinterCell02 I want this album so bad! I only got into vinyl near the end of 2020, and by the time I was trying to buy Meshuggah records, almost all of those remasters that came out a few years earlier were pretty much dried up. I was able to get my hands on Contradictions, None and I, as well as their new album, but I want every other album and they are nowhere to be found
@@junkyardwillie8320 Keep searching on discogs and other sites...they'll pop up eventually. I own quite a few vinyls from a bunch of bands and can honestly say the 2019 Nothing is the best-sounding, and it isn't even my top 3 favorite Meshuggah album
@@02SplinterCell02 if you can still find the Nothing vinyl remaster on RUclips, could you try linking it here? I looked around for it, couldn’t find it myself. There isn’t a Meshuggah album i don’t love, but my favorite era of theirs is from 95 to 02, so yeah, those three albums on vinyl are very high on my wish list
Doesn't matter what colour the album is, Rational Gaze is a fucking beast of a track, easily top 5 Meshuggah songs. A gigantic cherry on top of a beautifully unique album. obZen is definitely worth a full listen, but I think you've done all that. Chaosphere would be good in that case
So glad you enjoyed Spasm, one of my all-timers from them. Insane headbang potential, an amazing solo with a sick lead-up and those vocals vibe so hard. I do prefer that track in the blue version though, so i hope you check that out.
It's those 4 string basses in e standard lol crazy to think they said fuck it and just all play bass guitars on half the album bc they were having trouble with the 7 string guitars holding tune 😂. Then Fredrick re-recorded everything on 8 string guitars 😂 pure genius
Jesus Christ.. everytime I hear nebulous after hearing the rest of the album it just feels like a corrosive tsunami of burn. I can’t describe it any other way than that transition is just massive
Destroy Erase Improve has to be next. You know the title track already, but revisiting it now where you are better versed in the language of Meshuggah (lol what a sentence) will be interesting. The grooves on this album are also a bit easier to understand, but tricky nonetheless. Highlights (for me) are the title track, Soul Burn, Terminal Illusions and Sublevels. Terminal Illusions especially will melt your brain.
Apart from maybe Catch 33 I'd say Destroy Erase Improve is their most well put together album by far, every single track is an 11/10 when listened to in one go.
@@Astral0muffiN I have to disagree, I think Chaosphere is better than DEI; I feel like they had really found their sound once Chaosphere came out. It defined the rest of their career. And then Nothing solidified it
@@himbourbanist @Avery Mitchell Oh, I don't really think there are any better or worse in that sense. I just mean in terms of the structure of the album, not the sound or qualities of the music.
Dude since you did catch 33 Ive been waiting for another meshuggah album reaction! your reactions are hilarious!. I recommend Destroy erase improve for some FAT grooves and sick rhythms, its a whole ride. It always makes me bust some moves. side not: alex is spot on with the suggestions and summing up both versions of nothing, great source!
It's not that low on a 7 string tho. They only tune down a half step to A# standard tuning(A sharp/ B flat). On this album they used two different tunings F Standard on 7 string guitars and E Standard on 4 string bass guitars for the rythm guitars. Spasm is the only track in Standard 7 string tuning A# and a 5 string bass was used.
Hi man, I'm french, 46, and obviously a huge fan of Meshuggah, and this since The "None" EP, just before the legendary "Destroy, Erase, Improve" album. I've listened to the differents opinions you received about the two diffrent versions of the "Nothing" album. Let me tell you my opinion, the first one is the best. That said, they have always been pioneers : 8 strings gtrs, hardware amp simulation (line6 ), close collaboration with Toontrack (easy drummer & superior drummer, Drums virtual instrument) and steinberg (Cubase, Nuendo... the fathers of the computer musical sequencer), and I'm pretty sure I forget many tings... And because Everybody is programming today, they decided for the last album to return to the basics : real recording. PS : sorry for my bad english...
Love this album; was my introduction to Meshuggah and still my favorite album from them. Thank you for doing the original version. I don’t think the remaster is bad, but it loses an essence and atmosphere that this version captures. You should react to Gojira’s The Way of All Flesh next!
Oh my god.. dude when I saw this I literally had to immediately stop what I was doing and throw on head phones. Thank you So much for reacting to the album.. THE ENTIRE ALBUM!
I’ve been a fan of Meshuggah for about a year and a half now, and have completely obsessed over them this entire time, and learned to love them more and more; it’s really neat watching someone else kind of go through that process as well, especially this personally. Love your videos! Nothing is actually one of their albums that hasn’t really hit me yet as much as the others. I find it tough sometimes getting into the songs when the rhythms are so difficult to parse…. but once I do they absolutely wallop me. Anyways loved the video, hope to see more soon!
Mate... I'm not sure why almost no reactions look at early Meshuggah which I consider the most revolutionary and grooviest for their time... "DESTROY ERASE IMPROVE" or the "NONE" ep, or "CHAOSPHERE"
I had only heard popular tracks like Bleed and Demiurge and some bits here and there but the opening riff to Nebulous sent me on a Meshuggah frenzy when I first heard it a while back. Organic Shadows is a genuinely solid track too imo so do give that one another listen! Big fan of the full album format personally, really enjoyed your TesseracT album reactions as well and you're absolutely right about the music making more sense in context of an album especially with a rigorous band like Meshuggah. Chaosphere is Nothing's predecessor and is an absolute classic as well but The Violent Sleep of Reason would also be a good one to do before Immutable.
This is a fun way I like to compare orange and blue versions. Imagine two scenarios. In one, you’re being chased by a cheetah, and when it catches up to you it’s going to use those big, sharp and nasty teeth and claws to tear you apart. That’s the orange version. In the second scenario, you’re being chased by something else, an elephant for example, and when it catches up to you it’s going to use it’s tusks to bore you through, and it’s going to stomp you to death. That’s the blue version. The orange version has faster tempos at times, and the sound is a little bit less weighty compared to the blue version. However, the drums are so much better in my opinion in the orange version, not just the playing but the sound of them as well, especially that snare. The guitars sound nastier somehow, and the vocals are superior. In the re-recorded version, the 8 string guitars match the tone of the bass so well that you can’t really hear it there, overall gives more weight and meat to the sound, but in the original version it’s a bit easier to tell guitar and bass apart, and I love that. I’ve greatly prefer the orange version. There’s just something about it for me that the blue doesn’t have. I love the reaction. Feels like I’m sitting here showing the album off to a friend who can really get down with it
32:15 I absolutely love Jens voice in the 90s. Especially Chaosphere. he definitely changed it up on this album, but he was smart for doing so, because now he has a sound and technique he can hang on to and keep going with for years. It prevents Meshuggah from getting stuck in a position where they cant play as heavy as they used to because of a softer vocal style. They can stay full Meshuggah until the end at this point thanks to Jens and his style. Having said that....Chaosphere man. He destroys his voice on that album and it sounds so good. You gotta do it. Such an important and bold album for 1998. Chaosphere all the way into Catch 33 is just legendary and timeless and damn near perfect to me. Thanks for the awesome reactions man!
You are doing really well Drew... Closed Eye Visuals didn't throw you off at all but you are starting to appreciate all the detail in their music. Love the content.
Love your Meshuggah reactions! The perfect amount of time spent reflecting and listening and you can really tell you feel the groove with them. Btw, you should check out Vildhjarta another great pioneer of Sweden. Specifically their new album Masstaden Under Vatten is something else!
Yay! 🤙🏻 Such a great album. It holds a special place in my heart because I saw them live for the first time when they where on their Nothing tour, they opened up with Stengah and it blew the roof off! 🤘🏻🔥 I was lucky and managed to get my hands on their setlist after the show! What a day! 🙏🏻Best band ever.
The misheard lyric from this album that I always heard just on my own is in Stengah he says "You eat a nice Orange" at some point lol. I can't be bothered finding the timestamp haha
Closed eye visuals solo and the haunting piece that follows it is one of my favorite pieces of music ever.. That's art ❤️it transcends you to some different dimension
More Meshuggah? Let's go. You seem pretty comfortable with most of Mehsuggah now so you should definitely check out Vildhjarta - masstaden under vatten. This band blew me away the same way Meshuggah did when I first heard them. Their music is of course inspired by Meshuggah but instead of just low djent chugs they weave short melodic runs in between these chugs and it's super sick. While Meshuggah has more of a trance like mechanical feel, Vildhjarta sounds more organic and one of the band members describe their music as "elastic" which I honestly don't know what that means but it does describe it perfectly. And they also have many songs that go as low as Spasm as well.
My first Meshuggah album!! I heard closed eyes visuals on an Ozzfest Sampler years ago.. First time I got to see them live they opened up with Obsidian and then went into Demiurge which is the live music video..
Welcome to my Junior year of high School back in '02 this album was on repeat all the time! Great reaction and great Idea for a video. Can't wait for more!
unrelated to meshuggah, but if you haven't done so i hope you do a reaction like this but with Periphery 1 and Periphery 2. love those guys so much, their albums are so much fun to go through and every couple of weeks i go down those badboys and just jam out, been a fan since they released their debut and you already know they slap too. the first 2 albums hit hella diff, they are so adventurous and badass, and its nice change from the pure demonic godly fuck-shit that meshuggah does
I’d say Koloss is their most underrated record and absolutely the catchiest along with ObZen, and also f*cking brutal even by their standards. Make sure you check that one out at some point even if in your own time bro!
Should check iut their 20 min improvised song " I ". Amazing rhtythms&timing and lyrics. Done in the rationale gaze/catch 33 era. They never play I live, cause as Tomas Haake has said "No one knows how I goes"
Thanks for this Drew! Been waiting for someone to react to "Closed Eye Visuals" for a long time, as I feel this is one of the BEST Meshuggah tracks in their entire catalogue. Top 5 for sure. I'm also glad you did the original master, because as thick as the guitars are in the remaster, the programmed drums don't hold a candle to the original drum tracks, especially the cymbals which just sound massive on the original. The original sounds great, unlike any other album in their discog. If they had done a legit remaster instead of programmed drums, I might take it seriously, but as it is, it's just a throwaway for me.
Here's my take on the "which album is better" to me. Just my personal opinion, but here it goes. Original: Drums are better but the guitar production/mix/clarity is worse. Re-recording: Drums are worse (because they're programmed) but the guitar production is better. I personally prefer the original because it's way more raw and there's WAY more nuance in the drums because they're recorded live by Haake but when I'm playing guitar along to the record, I do it to the re-recorded album because the guitars are produced, and sound, much better. They sound different because the original recording was on 7 strings down-tuned to F standard (the 8 string tuning Meshuggah uses) and the re-recorded record was done with proper 8 strings in F, but the re-recording has programmed drums, not real studio drums like the original recording of Nothing does. In truth, I think the perfect Nothing record would be a mix of both with the original recording's drum track and the re-recording's guitars, but overall, even as a guitarist myself, I prefer listening to the original version due to how raw it is (because they did it live in the studio and edited very little of it due to time constraints). That said, I understand that the re-recording is more in line with what the band truly really wanted it to sound like but weren't able to originally due to said constraints, and I appreciate that, given the re-recorded Nothing's mix is more consistent with the rest of the following albums. That said, I'm still always going to have a soft spot for the original recording and mix. Either way, they're both awesome in their own ways and it's great to see someone hear this record, in either form, for the first time, and really take it all in. Brings me back to my high school days hearing this record for the first time and being absolutely bamboozled hahaha
longtime meshuggah fan here - closed eye visuals remains one of the few times a band has put a jump scare in a song and it still gets you 20 years later
Fuck, you should react to full albums more often dude! I really enjoyed this. Btw i think it's time for you to listen to Vildhjarta! The best djent band ever alongside Meshuggah if you ask me, Dagger and/or Deceit would be perfect songs to start off
Love this reaction, too. :) I agree that Glints Collide isn't the strongest on the album, but this one, like others in their discography, is so full of bangers. Stengah, Straws Pulled at Random, and Nebulous are likely my 3 favourite songs, but really they are just a killer band. I hope you do Chaosphere and Destroy Erase Improve in time, because I'll definitely watch them.
If you think this album is ahead of it's time you should listen to Chaosphere on its entirety, seriously, no other album sounded like that back in 1998. Also it was the last album Jens recorded before changed his style into what we know today, it had a little bit more of his actual natural voice so you could hear some notes, I love both styles BTW.
tesseract and meshuggah!! both so similar and so different at the same time!! man i love djent so much!! so glad to watch and listent with you!! keep it up man!!
My first Meshuggah albim was their EP None.... I called it my "Pre-Game" album. I was national volleyball player and I blasted this album before every important game and I was just pumped and aggressive in a really good way.
I don’t know if anybody has told you already. But In Spasm, Deshumanization, Dancers to a discordant system, and many other songs. That voice is actually Tomas. Not Jens. 😉😉😉😉😉
Listen to the whole Chaosphere-Album, it tortures your mind with electric shocks until your brain melts out of your body like if a short circuit happens and you will burn down mentally. If you won't get a stroke by listening to it, you are a lucky guy.😵🧠⚡⚡⚡⚡⚡⚡⚡ It is the sound of the exquisite machinery of torture.😅 Well, if you survive the outro of the album at the end of "elastic".😋
Should do a reaction to some Mudvayne!! L.D. 50 full album or the death blooms video or any other song is fine, they have plenty of good ones off all they’re albums! If you haven’t already listened to them much I know you’ll “dig” it ha
Not to be that guy, but actuaaaally the blue remastered version was how this album was supposed to sound like, cause they recorded it with 8 string guitars, the yellow one is downtuned 7strings and sounds therefore more raw, I love both. Got 1 hour to go, stoked to see your reactions
I tend to gravitate towards the remastered as it sounds clearer, but as a drummer I absolutely love the drums on Orange, for example the china on perpetual black second at around 0:30 is NASTY
Straws has one of the most beautiful yet simplest solos fred has ever laid down...the way it flows...it feels like you're moving thru outer space...that segment of the song is a tearjerker..so much sorrow in it...
Spasm is a very unique song. It's actually Thomas, the drummer, on the vocals, and the guitars are tuned down as low as A#, the lowest tone that the bass usually is tuned to. They also only use that tone for every single riff on the song.
This album is so amazing. I can tell you right now, if you had done the test in the beginning with Stengah instead of Rational Gaze, you would have picked the Re-release. The 8 string album is so heavy, so perfect. The intro riff to Rational Gaze might sound better on 7 but then that verse is better on 8 string again.
Troy Wright (drummer for Plini/Intervals, does a ton of Meshuggah covers) prefers the original mastering! You can hear the ghosted snare and hihat chicks much clearer and the guitars while less perfectly intonated than the remaster sound chunkier and more dynamic.
I wouldn't sweat your headbang style too much man. Meshuggah is a band where you just kinda fall into a groove and 9 times out of 10 if you lock into your body's natural groove with the music as you're hearing it and remain consistent, the time signature will find its way back to you. Headbanging is not really a skill you develop, its how you personally experience the music. Anyone who flames you for being off time or whatever doesn't really get that it's how YOU are experiencing the songs. This is YOUR reaction channel. So just have fun with it man. I'm sure you saw at the concert everyone headbanging but no 2 people will be exactly on time but that isn't to say any one person is wrong. It's just a groove. We're all here to watch an Irish man get his ears melted off anyway so have fun mate.
1,000 Likes and we drop the next full Meshuggah Reaction before Immutable drops 🥵
I would say destroy erase imrove or chaosphere. Chaosphere was a absolute mind melting experience my first time through as I was almost completely new to the odd time signature feel. Chaosphere combines a subtle amount of weird feels, groove, and fucking chaos. This album was revolutionary for my music taste and journey. But DEI is just a classic you can’t miss
Drew I'm glad you pushed through the timing and tone that puts every one off meshuggah. Please give koloss the album a full listen and I think an extremely underrated song is "the hurt that finds you first"
9:31 - Stengah
15:56 - Rational Gaze
21:41 - Perpetual Black Second
26:20 - Closed Eye Visuals
38:48 - Glints Collide
43:43 - Organic Shadow
49:46 - Straws Pulled At Random
55:34 - Spasm
1:02:01 - Nebulous
1:08:38 - Obsidian
Could you put time stamps in his catch 33 video?
Thanks anyway.
Never heard Jens sound like that? That's because it's Tomas the drummer, he does the spoken word parts on 'Dancers to a Discordant System' as well!
Haake da best
what about Exquisite Machine Of Torture? the vocals sound very similar to Spasm, its also Tomas?
@@crisssidk I believe he does all the spoken word vocals, yes. He speaks the best English in the band, I'd be surprised if it was anybody else.
Ah, I was wondering why Jens’ voice sounded so different on the spoken word sections in Catch Thirty Three. Turns out it’s Tomas
Wow..very interesting
It's insane how many decades ahead of it's time the song spasms is:)
Late comment from 2023 lol! But I got into Meshuggah again recently and they were just so ahead of their time with their sound. Catch33 Album is my favorite by far.
It’s insane that a song (on a 7 string originally no less) in 2002 had a string tuned to A0 (if even D1 wasn’t enough, tuning 2 and a half tones will do the trick). I know it’s meshuggah but I’m also surprised the string came out sounding as good as it does
This whole album was ahead of its time
anyone who appreciates this style of music would like this song, there aint no going wrong with math and low tuning
I was 16 when I heard Meshuggah. I'm now 42.
I have meet them.. Awesome, humble guys... Yeah we got wasted!
Time now to listen the game chamger album - Chaosphere (Hear the original odd vocal)
I love hearing reactions to Meshuggah... I will always feel the same way. WTF BOYS!
his reaction on spasm is awesome. clearly hes just getting into meshuggah. Fucking adore this album
"Straws Pulled at Random" is legendary
this was my first Meshuggah album (the remastered); it got me hooked
this album is so hypnotic!!
the remastered one sucks.
Straws is such a unique gem in Meshuggah's catalogue
Dare I say the melody in the bridge and outro is incredible..
Mårten Hagström really awesome songwriter and guitarist😎
I love the outro so much
imo the second half of Straws is up with some of their best material ever.
It's the song that took me from thinking Meshuggah was cool to them being my favorite band
The best part of orange Nothing is the ghost notes on the snare. Blue nothing the guitars are fucking STOOPID NASTY THICCCC
I prefer the third version...2018 vinyl re-issue. Combines best of orange and blue worlds
Btw I see that such an upload exists on RUclips. Might be worth listening to that after you listen to blue.
Do you know exactly what they did on the 2018 vinyl reissue that's different from the other two versions of the album?
@@blakeu8547 Exactly? I have no idea. I own the vinyl version and have listened to the RUclips version, and can say the RUclips version doesn't fully showcase the difference with the new mastering.
The new remaster is based off orange Nothing. From my ears it sounds like the bass and background ambient guitars are brought more forward in the mix. This helps the guitars sound almost like the 8 strings in blue nothing. Jens' vocals are also more smoothed around the edges but he still sounds super raw and loud. Overall I would say it's a true orange remaster than a re-record like with blue
@@02SplinterCell02 I want this album so bad! I only got into vinyl near the end of 2020, and by the time I was trying to buy Meshuggah records, almost all of those remasters that came out a few years earlier were pretty much dried up. I was able to get my hands on Contradictions, None and I, as well as their new album, but I want every other album and they are nowhere to be found
@@junkyardwillie8320 Keep searching on discogs and other sites...they'll pop up eventually. I own quite a few vinyls from a bunch of bands and can honestly say the 2019 Nothing is the best-sounding, and it isn't even my top 3 favorite Meshuggah album
@@02SplinterCell02 if you can still find the Nothing vinyl remaster on RUclips, could you try linking it here? I looked around for it, couldn’t find it myself. There isn’t a Meshuggah album i don’t love, but my favorite era of theirs is from 95 to 02, so yeah, those three albums on vinyl are very high on my wish list
This album is a grower. When ur into it its one of their best.
Doesn't matter what colour the album is, Rational Gaze is a fucking beast of a track, easily top 5 Meshuggah songs. A gigantic cherry on top of a beautifully unique album.
obZen is definitely worth a full listen, but I think you've done all that. Chaosphere would be good in that case
Absolutely 🔥🔥🔥🔥
i can't wait to see him having to go throught Elastic, the full 15min xD
So glad you enjoyed Spasm, one of my all-timers from them. Insane headbang potential, an amazing solo with a sick lead-up and those vocals vibe so hard. I do prefer that track in the blue version though, so i hope you check that out.
Nothing is easily their best album. Such beautiful writing
Drew's reaction to Perpetual Black Second, I felt it. Monster of a song.
It's those 4 string basses in e standard lol crazy to think they said fuck it and just all play bass guitars on half the album bc they were having trouble with the 7 string guitars holding tune 😂. Then Fredrick re-recorded everything on 8 string guitars 😂 pure genius
Jesus Christ.. everytime I hear nebulous after hearing the rest of the album it just feels like a corrosive tsunami of burn. I can’t describe it any other way than that transition is just massive
Love that song.
They did more like Spasm in their album Chaosphere. Specifically in the song The Exquisite Machinery Of Torture.
Blue Spasm is going to shred Drew to a molecular level. Rumor is they tuned guitars in that song in blue version to drop-absolute zero
@@alexanderschildknecht2090 isn't pitch black just EMoT 2.0?
@@02SplinterCell02 Bb0 in fact (and an A0 in the last verse+outro)
Destroy Erase Improve has to be next. You know the title track already, but revisiting it now where you are better versed in the language of Meshuggah (lol what a sentence) will be interesting. The grooves on this album are also a bit easier to understand, but tricky nonetheless.
Highlights (for me) are the title track, Soul Burn, Terminal Illusions and Sublevels.
Terminal Illusions especially will melt your brain.
Yes it's their best album
Suffer In Truth, Future Breed Machine and Beneath are top 3 for me. The whole album is great!
Apart from maybe Catch 33 I'd say Destroy Erase Improve is their most well put together album by far, every single track is an 11/10 when listened to in one go.
@@Astral0muffiN I have to disagree, I think Chaosphere is better than DEI; I feel like they had really found their sound once Chaosphere came out. It defined the rest of their career. And then Nothing solidified it
@@himbourbanist @Avery Mitchell Oh, I don't really think there are any better or worse in that sense. I just mean in terms of the structure of the album, not the sound or qualities of the music.
Dude since you did catch 33 Ive been waiting for another meshuggah album reaction! your reactions are hilarious!. I recommend Destroy erase improve for some FAT grooves and sick rhythms, its a whole ride. It always makes me bust some moves.
side not: alex is spot on with the suggestions and summing up both versions of nothing, great source!
You have to do “None”, if you haven’t already! It was released in 1994. My favorite track is Ritual. I’m sure you’ll enjoy it!
Ritual hits so differently
Ritual proves that Jens can actually sing AND scream
@@officialrhythmicthoughts Ritual proves tht Jens can actually sing, AND scream, **AND WRITE SONGS*
Rational Gaze is Leonardo Dicaprio's favorite.
55:55 on "Spasm" the guitarists tune the lowest string to B, but the B of a 5 string bass guitar
Gah DAYUM
Nah, it's A# not B
@@nikosucksatskating Correct.
It's not that low on a 7 string tho. They only tune down a half step to A# standard tuning(A sharp/ B flat). On this album they used two different tunings F Standard on 7 string guitars and E Standard on 4 string bass guitars for the rythm guitars. Spasm is the only track in Standard 7 string tuning A# and a 5 string bass was used.
@@josephbrenner2278 its not half step down A# for spasm. its a full octave lower than normal drop A#
Hi man, I'm french, 46, and obviously a huge fan of Meshuggah, and this since The "None" EP, just before the legendary "Destroy, Erase, Improve" album. I've listened to the differents opinions you received about the two diffrent versions of the "Nothing" album. Let me tell you my opinion, the first one is the best. That said, they have always been pioneers : 8 strings gtrs, hardware amp simulation (line6 ), close collaboration with Toontrack (easy drummer & superior drummer, Drums virtual instrument) and steinberg (Cubase, Nuendo... the fathers of the computer musical sequencer), and I'm pretty sure I forget many tings... And because Everybody is programming today, they decided for the last album to return to the basics : real recording.
PS : sorry for my bad english...
Yeeeeeeeessssssss!!! You have to do Chaosphere!
Love this album; was my introduction to Meshuggah and still my favorite album from them. Thank you for doing the original version. I don’t think the remaster is bad, but it loses an essence and atmosphere that this version captures. You should react to Gojira’s The Way of All Flesh next!
Oh my god.. dude when I saw this I literally had to immediately stop what I was doing and throw on head phones. Thank you So much for reacting to the album.. THE ENTIRE ALBUM!
I’ve been a fan of Meshuggah for about a year and a half now, and have completely obsessed over them this entire time, and learned to love them more and more; it’s really neat watching someone else kind of go through that process as well, especially this personally. Love your videos!
Nothing is actually one of their albums that hasn’t really hit me yet as much as the others. I find it tough sometimes getting into the songs when the rhythms are so difficult to parse…. but once I do they absolutely wallop me.
Anyways loved the video, hope to see more soon!
Mate... I'm not sure why almost no reactions look at early Meshuggah which I consider the most revolutionary and grooviest for their time... "DESTROY ERASE IMPROVE" or the "NONE" ep, or "CHAOSPHERE"
Destroy erase improve is almost 30 years old as of now, crazy to think since it still holds really good by today's standards
None and Destroy Erase Improve are my favorite albums
Chaosphere is still a masterpiece even to this day
closed eye visuals and spasm are among their masterpieces
Yes that solo is so good
Perpetual black second and rational gaze too. Nonstop grooves
Closed eye visuals solo has so much emotion in it!!!
I had only heard popular tracks like Bleed and Demiurge and some bits here and there but the opening riff to Nebulous sent me on a Meshuggah frenzy when I first heard it a while back. Organic Shadows is a genuinely solid track too imo so do give that one another listen! Big fan of the full album format personally, really enjoyed your TesseracT album reactions as well and you're absolutely right about the music making more sense in context of an album especially with a rigorous band like Meshuggah. Chaosphere is Nothing's predecessor and is an absolute classic as well but The Violent Sleep of Reason would also be a good one to do before Immutable.
Violent Sleep >
Btw, I do like the long form videos, glad you're doing them
This is a fun way I like to compare orange and blue versions. Imagine two scenarios. In one, you’re being chased by a cheetah, and when it catches up to you it’s going to use those big, sharp and nasty teeth and claws to tear you apart. That’s the orange version. In the second scenario, you’re being chased by something else, an elephant for example, and when it catches up to you it’s going to use it’s tusks to bore you through, and it’s going to stomp you to death. That’s the blue version. The orange version has faster tempos at times, and the sound is a little bit less weighty compared to the blue version. However, the drums are so much better in my opinion in the orange version, not just the playing but the sound of them as well, especially that snare. The guitars sound nastier somehow, and the vocals are superior. In the re-recorded version, the 8 string guitars match the tone of the bass so well that you can’t really hear it there, overall gives more weight and meat to the sound, but in the original version it’s a bit easier to tell guitar and bass apart, and I love that. I’ve greatly prefer the orange version. There’s just something about it for me that the blue doesn’t have. I love the reaction. Feels like I’m sitting here showing the album off to a friend who can really get down with it
I love these full album reviews you do, it was just such a pleasure to listen through this album again with you
32:15
I absolutely love Jens voice in the 90s. Especially Chaosphere. he definitely changed it up on this album, but he was smart for doing so, because now he has a sound and technique he can hang on to and keep going with for years. It prevents Meshuggah from getting stuck in a position where they cant play as heavy as they used to because of a softer vocal style. They can stay full Meshuggah until the end at this point thanks to Jens and his style.
Having said that....Chaosphere man. He destroys his voice on that album and it sounds so good. You gotta do it. Such an important and bold album for 1998. Chaosphere all the way into Catch 33 is just legendary and timeless and damn near perfect to me.
Thanks for the awesome reactions man!
You are doing really well Drew... Closed Eye Visuals didn't throw you off at all but you are starting to appreciate all the detail in their music. Love the content.
I hope you'll listen to Chaosphere all the way through, it's easily their most brutal album
I'd never seen the "I like juice" thing, baha!
Love your Meshuggah reactions! The perfect amount of time spent reflecting and listening and you can really tell you feel the groove with them. Btw, you should check out Vildhjarta another great pioneer of Sweden. Specifically their new album Masstaden Under Vatten is something else!
Yay! 🤙🏻 Such a great album. It holds a special place in my heart because I saw them live for the first time when they where on their Nothing tour, they opened up with Stengah and it blew the roof off! 🤘🏻🔥 I was lucky and managed to get my hands on their setlist after the show! What a day! 🙏🏻Best band ever.
Guitars on Spasm were tuned down to a Low-low A#, basically an octave and a half step lower than the lowest note on a 7string.
Great reaction vid, man! :) Glints Collide is my absolute fave off of that record. Such a mindtwister!
The misheard lyric from this album that I always heard just on my own is in Stengah he says "You eat a nice Orange" at some point lol. I can't be bothered finding the timestamp haha
Closed eye visuals solo and the haunting piece that follows it is one of my favorite pieces of music ever.. That's art ❤️it transcends you to some different dimension
More Meshuggah? Let's go. You seem pretty comfortable with most of Mehsuggah now so you should definitely check out Vildhjarta - masstaden under vatten. This band blew me away the same way Meshuggah did when I first heard them. Their music is of course inspired by Meshuggah but instead of just low djent chugs they weave short melodic runs in between these chugs and it's super sick. While Meshuggah has more of a trance like mechanical feel, Vildhjarta sounds more organic and one of the band members describe their music as "elastic" which I honestly don't know what that means but it does describe it perfectly. And they also have many songs that go as low as Spasm as well.
This video is practically a concert if every viewer headbanged in sync and watched all the way through. (Thousands)
When is Sol Niger Within video dropping?
My first Meshuggah album!! I heard closed eyes visuals on an Ozzfest Sampler years ago..
First time I got to see them live they opened up with Obsidian and then went into Demiurge which is the live music video..
Drew, thanks for this. Made my day 💯🤘🔥
YEEESSSS WE NEED MORE OF THESE
I always get scared by the closed eye visuals break too lmao - STOP TURNING IT DOWN AND TALKING DUDE that end breakdown is nuts
Welcome to my Junior year of high School back in '02 this album was on repeat all the time! Great reaction and great Idea for a video. Can't wait for more!
Props for going with the original mix, one of their absolute best albums
unrelated to meshuggah, but if you haven't done so i hope you do a reaction like this but with Periphery 1 and Periphery 2. love those guys so much, their albums are so much fun to go through and every couple of weeks i go down those badboys and just jam out, been a fan since they released their debut and you already know they slap too. the first 2 albums hit hella diff, they are so adventurous and badass, and its nice change from the pure demonic godly fuck-shit that meshuggah does
I’d say Koloss is their most underrated record and absolutely the catchiest along with ObZen, and also f*cking brutal even by their standards. Make sure you check that one out at some point even if in your own time bro!
Love all your reactions - only Channel where I can identify 100% with when it comes to the Genres and Bands ❤️❤️ keep on bro
Next album Violent sleep of Reason
F#cking brutal
Should check iut their 20 min improvised song " I ". Amazing rhtythms&timing and lyrics. Done in the rationale gaze/catch 33 era. They never play I live, cause as Tomas Haake has said "No one knows how I goes"
He already did I
"I" is their best work in my opinion...
Thanks for this Drew! Been waiting for someone to react to "Closed Eye Visuals" for a long time, as I feel this is one of the BEST Meshuggah tracks in their entire catalogue. Top 5 for sure. I'm also glad you did the original master, because as thick as the guitars are in the remaster, the programmed drums don't hold a candle to the original drum tracks, especially the cymbals which just sound massive on the original. The original sounds great, unlike any other album in their discog. If they had done a legit remaster instead of programmed drums, I might take it seriously, but as it is, it's just a throwaway for me.
In “Glints Collide” when Yen actually says Glints Collide in the lyrics its so heavy, the other instruments cut out for it and it’s completely amazing
sooo sick!! That is what a nebulous sounds like
If you're still seeing Meshuggah live then you have to hear one of their nastiest tracks: I Am Colossus 🤘
They tuned to E for Spasm, their usual tuning is down a half step on an 8 string, that's why that song sounds so ridiculous.
because it is lmao
Here's my take on the "which album is better" to me. Just my personal opinion, but here it goes.
Original: Drums are better but the guitar production/mix/clarity is worse.
Re-recording: Drums are worse (because they're programmed) but the guitar production is better.
I personally prefer the original because it's way more raw and there's WAY more nuance in the drums because they're recorded live by Haake but when I'm playing guitar along to the record, I do it to the re-recorded album because the guitars are produced, and sound, much better. They sound different because the original recording was on 7 strings down-tuned to F standard (the 8 string tuning Meshuggah uses) and the re-recorded record was done with proper 8 strings in F, but the re-recording has programmed drums, not real studio drums like the original recording of Nothing does.
In truth, I think the perfect Nothing record would be a mix of both with the original recording's drum track and the re-recording's guitars, but overall, even as a guitarist myself, I prefer listening to the original version due to how raw it is (because they did it live in the studio and edited very little of it due to time constraints). That said, I understand that the re-recording is more in line with what the band truly really wanted it to sound like but weren't able to originally due to said constraints, and I appreciate that, given the re-recorded Nothing's mix is more consistent with the rest of the following albums. That said, I'm still always going to have a soft spot for the original recording and mix.
Either way, they're both awesome in their own ways and it's great to see someone hear this record, in either form, for the first time, and really take it all in. Brings me back to my high school days hearing this record for the first time and being absolutely bamboozled hahaha
longtime meshuggah fan here - closed eye visuals remains one of the few times a band has put a jump scare in a song and it still gets you 20 years later
Closed Eye Visuals is a definite banger. Prob my fav Meshuggah album, IDK they're all so good.
Fuck, you should react to full albums more often dude! I really enjoyed this.
Btw i think it's time for you to listen to Vildhjarta! The best djent band ever alongside Meshuggah if you ask me, Dagger and/or Deceit would be perfect songs to start off
Love this reaction, too. :) I agree that Glints Collide isn't the strongest on the album, but this one, like others in their discography, is so full of bangers. Stengah, Straws Pulled at Random, and Nebulous are likely my 3 favourite songs, but really they are just a killer band.
I hope you do Chaosphere and Destroy Erase Improve in time, because I'll definitely watch them.
Glints Collide is one of my favourites, the drums patterns are so wild and the bridge/solo is fucking insane.
MESHUGGAH - SOUL BURN
Love jamming with you, Drew!
Spasm is in drop A# or standard a#, i'm not sure, 8 strings. It's their lowest tuned song, as far as I know.
If you think this album is ahead of it's time you should listen to Chaosphere on its entirety, seriously, no other album sounded like that back in 1998. Also it was the last album Jens recorded before changed his style into what we know today, it had a little bit more of his actual natural voice so you could hear some notes, I love both styles BTW.
The next LOGICAL reaction would be their last album violent sleep of reason. Btw did the last single fuse grow on you ?
Not yet man! But I honestly haven’t listened to it much
tesseract and meshuggah!! both so similar and so different at the same time!! man i love djent so much!! so glad to watch and listent with you!! keep it up man!!
React to Sol Niger Within. Fantastic album by Meshuggah's guitarist.
The technique you were talking about in the guitars at 30 min mark is called pinch harmonics and they are indeed nasty.
Have you heard TesseracT's new songs? I've been listening to them on repeat this past week.
My first Meshuggah albim was their EP None.... I called it my "Pre-Game" album. I was national volleyball player and I blasted this album before every important game and I was just pumped and aggressive in a really good way.
I don’t know if anybody has told you already. But In Spasm, Deshumanization, Dancers to a discordant system, and many other songs. That voice is actually Tomas. Not Jens. 😉😉😉😉😉
yeah sex is nice but have you ever heard Tomas Haake smash a China cymbal on each beat of the bar?
1:13:00 I heard somewhere that there is or used to be a compilation of the footage of nuclear bombs detonating with this song played over it.
Oh man, Perpetual Black Second, that tapping part, both guitars get me there. That tap with the menacing bendy riff behind it. GYAT
Listen to the whole Chaosphere-Album, it tortures your mind with electric shocks until your brain melts out of your body like if a short circuit happens and you will burn down mentally. If you won't get a stroke by listening to it, you are a lucky guy.😵🧠⚡⚡⚡⚡⚡⚡⚡
It is the sound of the exquisite machinery of torture.😅
Well, if you survive the outro of the album at the end of "elastic".😋
Corridor Of Chameleons breakdown FTW!
"this is already my favorite sound" cheers :D
Bending minds like they're bending snares...
'Catch Thritythree' next, please.
I'm hyped for a 'Nothing' listen, though
Check his channel, already did it 🤘
Already did it man!
funny thing on the intro of stengah in the original the riff is on the right but on the re-release it's on the left
Such an awesome album! And the highlight for me is Stengah - such a banger! Once you get it, it is the grooviest shit played on drums ...
Same here, and it's extremely fun to play on guitar too.
Destroy erase improve is their best. I can still listen to that entire album front to back without skipping
Should do a reaction to some Mudvayne!! L.D. 50 full album or the death blooms video or any other song is fine, they have plenty of good ones off all they’re albums! If you haven’t already listened to them much I know you’ll “dig” it ha
Not to be that guy, but actuaaaally the blue remastered version was how this album was supposed to sound like, cause they recorded it with 8 string guitars, the yellow one is downtuned 7strings and sounds therefore more raw, I love both. Got 1 hour to go, stoked to see your reactions
Sadly the blue version has programmed drums and a lot more fx on Jen's voice
@@deathonion404 Yeah exactly, kind of an oxymoron that the supposed "intended" version has programmed drums
Orange to me is much better. I listen to blue on occasion for a change.
I tend to gravitate towards the remastered as it sounds clearer, but as a drummer I absolutely love the drums on Orange, for example the china on perpetual black second at around 0:30 is NASTY
If you like Spasm you should definitely like Pitch Black, it's a B side but it's really cool.
I agree 100% with Alex. I prefer the old mix. After watching the comparison here, it is more clear to me why.
Where Elon at
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Straws has one of the most beautiful yet simplest solos fred has ever laid down...the way it flows...it feels like you're moving thru outer space...that segment of the song is a tearjerker..so much sorrow in it...
Ireland 🇮🇪 respect brother keep good work lad!!!!!!💪💪🏆
Spasm is a very unique song. It's actually Thomas, the drummer, on the vocals, and the guitars are tuned down as low as A#, the lowest tone that the bass usually is tuned to. They also only use that tone for every single riff on the song.
This album is so amazing. I can tell you right now, if you had done the test in the beginning with Stengah instead of Rational Gaze, you would have picked the Re-release. The 8 string album is so heavy, so perfect. The intro riff to Rational Gaze might sound better on 7 but then that verse is better on 8 string again.
woah I haven't heard the non remastered version in a while
Troy Wright (drummer for Plini/Intervals, does a ton of Meshuggah covers) prefers the original mastering! You can hear the ghosted snare and hihat chicks much clearer and the guitars while less perfectly intonated than the remaster sound chunkier and more dynamic.
im not very well today.. but watching u doing full reaction to this album make me cry..
I wouldn't sweat your headbang style too much man. Meshuggah is a band where you just kinda fall into a groove and 9 times out of 10 if you lock into your body's natural groove with the music as you're hearing it and remain consistent, the time signature will find its way back to you. Headbanging is not really a skill you develop, its how you personally experience the music. Anyone who flames you for being off time or whatever doesn't really get that it's how YOU are experiencing the songs. This is YOUR reaction channel. So just have fun with it man. I'm sure you saw at the concert everyone headbanging but no 2 people will be exactly on time but that isn't to say any one person is wrong. It's just a groove. We're all here to watch an Irish man get his ears melted off anyway so have fun mate.