MESHUGGAH Drum Insanity

[cthulhu]

i wanted to post this in the heavy metal thread, i think there was one but i went pages and pages back and didn't find it.
I recently bought a Meshuggah live album mainly due to this song, featuring the most incrdible drumming i've heard so far.
Listen to this:
MESHUGGAH - Bleed

I almost get cramps im my legs when i listen to that constant double-bass he is playing and the rhythm of the whole band stays a mystery.

I also watched this learning video of a drummer explaining the technique.
Meshuggah - Bleed (Drum Cover & Lesson) by Troy Wright

Spock and i say: Fascinating!

[jc]

Hello Klaus,

that drumming is just mental. I myself am going through a metal discovery journey, and once you get beyond the wall of sound and the growling (a big hurdle for some), you can really begin to appreciate the complexity and multi layered aspects to it. The way the drums are so much more than keeping time, controlling the tension throughout the song, pushing it when needed, definitely a new way of looking (listening) at things for me

Cheers

jc

[cthulhu]

hey jc,

glad you like it and cool to hear that you are on a discovery. I liked the way you described it, and very well said "once you get beyond the wall of sound and the growling" and i think this song has the potential for the "i don't like it but it is just incredible whats going on underneath the growling"-effect;-)

I just have to put this one in here, comedian Bill Burr on Meshuggah:
Bill Burr on Meshuggah

[ldopas]

The track is pretty good and I agree the drumming is great. But I hate this type of metal, and I'm a longstanding metal fan, because of the godawful "singing". That guttural noise that passes in many metal bands as singing where the lyrics are barely audible and the sound coming out of their mouths sounds like retching. Pass that man a lozenge! 

[cthulhu]

You became a metal fan because of the singing?;-) that has to be more explained...
I kind of see these guttural noises as another distorted instrument. And as jc said: "once you get beyond the wall of sound and the growling" there is this "getting used to" - effect.
I remember Halloween, i immediately liked the music but these high pitched screams i found unbearable until i got used to it. I always was a fan of Mike Patton and his voice acrobatics and how he uses it as a sound-instrument.

But to come back to the drum aspect of this song, here is someome making fun of Lars Ulrich from Metallica, playing Bleed like Lars would:
BLEED but it's played like LARS ULRICH

And here the same guy playing Metallica Master of Puppets like the drummer from Meshuggah:
MASTER OF PUPPETS but it's played like TOMAS HAAKE

I don't really know why you would have to make fun of other musicians but he plays it quite well.

And here is Bleed played in 11 different styles. I have to say this youtube presentation is one of those which get on my nerves. Starts with an advertisement, the video is 5:31 long but after 2:50 the music is over and the guy starts to advertise his client and sponsor and talks about raising followers and all that BS and it is directly aimed at kids..the world is getting stupider..
But the drumming is good:
 
"Bleed" in 11 Drum Styles

[jc]

The track is pretty good and I agree the drumming is great. But I hate this type of metal, and I'm a longstanding metal fan, because of the godawful "singing". That guttural noise that passes in many metal bands as singing where the lyrics are barely audible and the sound coming out of their mouths sounds like retching. Pass that man a lozenge! 

For all you lozenge haters out there including ldopas, try this:-
https://youtu.be/lLwKCdxN9vk

Different drummer but equally as highly regarded, still shouty and maybe borderline growly, I would put this in the have your lozenges to hand just in case category. The drums really are front and centre, bringing the song up and down.

Let me know what you think.


Cheers

jc

[Master Ray]

I'll always admire a metal vocalist who can switch between 'clean' and 'dirty' vocals (ie, a proper soaring vocal and the gutteral sound that so many people dislike...)

Burton C Bell from the brilliant Fear Factory is a master of that sort of thing... and I've seen FF live quite a few times, so I can confirm that he can manage both styles of singing live...   

Here's Pisschrist, one of FF's finest tunes...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWSkQqvAAM4

[cthulhu]

@jc
a friend once told me praisingly about GOJIRA and yes, this one is a blast. i like it very much! have to check out more by them. (borderline growly, ha, ha..very good!)

here is one band, i would call them somehow more experimental and alternative, painly melancholic, if you can say that in that genre, but also growly as hell;-)
SUMAC - The Deal

@MR
to me the best "switching-performer" was and will be Dave Brockie, i was always fascinated how he could get from singing, to shouting, to those very deep growling noises but with such a force. and it was more like that the growling came after the singing, so he wasn't a growler with singing abilities but more the other way around.

[cthulhu]

Here is a reaction-commentary video of a jazz drummer listening to Clockworks by Meshuggah, which is kind of funny to see how he reacts to it and he has some good points to say about it. So it isn't a complete waste of time watching someone who watches something..;-)

Jazz drummer reacts: Meshuggah-Clockworks