Topic: Meshuggah -- Re-Nothing? + Haake vids.

[Quemaqua]

So I got around to picking up the rerelease of Meshuggah's Nothing album, which Fredrick Thordendal remixed and recorded new guitars for, and I've been listening to it a bit tonight.  I really can't give it a full critique yet, but so far it seems like it has new strengths and new weaknesses.  There's definitely some stuff the original album does better, but there's also some cool sounds the new one manages to squeeze out that felt a bit lacking in the first.  Anyway, I'll give more on that tomorrow after I listen in at work for a while.

Just watched the video stuff, and it's kinda'... okay.  Not great, but there's some cool stuff on it.  There are official videos, such as Rational Gaze, Shed (from Catch 33), and the obligatory New Millennium Cyanide Christ, which are all right.  I really didn't like the Rational Gaze video at all, but there's an alternate version here which is actually pretty damned funny.  I want to say it's just NMCC rehash, but it isn't.  It's basically just Jens acting like a total idiot, playing all the instruments himself while wearing wigs, and generally going nuts.  It's pretty amusing if you like to watch Jens act like a goofball.  And the little home camera work done when he's singing is actually kind of neat.  And he licks his guitar, which is a little scary.  Anyway, the real gems from the video stuff are the live bits.  There's Straws Pulled at Random from Nothing, In Death is Death from Catch 33, and the obligatory Future Breed Machine.  Straws is cool, but hearing Death is just awesome.  I haven't yet heard them play anything from that album live, so I was super happy to see that piece of 33 included here.  And oddly enough, as much as I was expecting FBM to be just another rendition of FBM, I have to say it was pretty damned good.  I mean, it's still just another rendition of FBM, but I think it's the most punishing recording of it I've ever heard.  Not necessarily my favorite in all regards, but the rhythm section could destroy city blocks.  Pretty fucking awesome.  And let's face it, no matter how many times you hear FBM you always want to hear it just one more time.  It's also worth noting that they're playing this stuff at the Download Festival (UK) in 2005, so Dick Lövgren is part of the lineup and you can watch him go to town on bass with them.  I think he was a pretty cool addition, seems like he's working out well thus far.  Hope he stays.  I always hate it when bands switch lineups all the time, and the fact that Meshuggah's been pretty consistent member-wise has always been nice to me.

Anyway, so there you have it.  I'll give better impressions of the album tomorrow.  And yes, I'm aware that Pyro is the only person who is going to read this.

EDIT - Check out this video on YouTube, too.  It's Morgan Ågren (of Mats and Morgan if you follow Meshuggah around as obsessively as I do, the guy who co-created the Drumkit From Hell alongside Haake) and Thordendal going crazy together on some Sol Niger Within stuff.  Pretty fucking awesome, though the sound quality is bassed out.  Too bad.

EDIT x2 - And because Thomas Haake ate you for fucking breakfast -- Uno, dos.

And just because I'm on YouTube... Elastic live in Umea.  Damn I wish they'd tour here again.  Their sound post Catch 33 is just brutal on the old stuff.  And they're always so funny.  And here's Sane because it's the best song ever written.  Can't hear shit but the drums on this one, but... you get to listen to Haake, so you can't lose.  Here's another just because.

And to top it off, A cool video with Dillinger Escape Plan dude and Jens.  DEP freaks me out.  Their music sounds like total insanity, yet if you listen to it long enough (if you can take it) you'll realize just how technical and precise it actually is.  It's pretty amazing.  Anyway... this has nothing to do with anything.  I'm just sort of... wishing I was drunk.  But I'm not.  I need to go to bed.

[TheOtherBelmont]

Fucking cool man, I will have to check the album out.  Those videos of Haake on the drums were awesome.  Where did you buy the CD at?  I would like to buy it sometime so I can have all that extra video stuff.

[Quemaqua]

I just picked it up at Best Buy.  Last copy.  You probably wouldn't get that lucky, though.  Website says it isn't available for pickup at stores, so don't know why they had one.

Anyway, I listened to it some more today, and I don't know what to say.  It's still Nothing, it just sounds different.  Not really better, not really worse, but occasionally a little of both.  What it comes down to is you can hear some different elements to the songs, so it's the kind of thing that will let you get to know the song better, but you have to be a pretty fucking hardcore fan (like me) to actually care about getting into the bones of the songs.  So yeah, this is one for hardcore fans only I'd say, or anyone that doesn't have the first recording.  And even they should probably compare sound to see which they like better.  It's a bit hard for me to say given how familiar I am with the first recording, a bit hard to get used to changes.

And if you really like Thordendal's sound (as in the kind of stuff you hear him do other places, or on Sol Niger Within, whatever), then this is a bit more in that direction than the original, which is why it's both good and bad.  But people obsessed with his leanings might find this to be the favorable recording.

[PyroMenace]

Those vids were pretty sweet, especially the one with Thordendal and Morgan, I would love to get a hold of the Sol Niger Within but it looks to be rare and expensive. Then theres the Elastic vid, rock, I love that song.

As for Re-Nothing, from what you say, it sounds like what i thought it would be. Though I'll probably prefer the original stuff over this. I might get it but im too freaking poor to spend anything at the moment. And since you mentioned DEP, I still havent checked them out enough. I did a little a while back when I had access to their music at one point, and just thought it to be too freaking insane to really get into it since at that time I wasnt fully a Meshuggah nut like I am now. But its weird, I'll hear alot of people like them that I wouldnt even consider them to even listen to, like people who listen to basic metal and even heavy rock, and then they say they like DEP and I'm like "uh, I like more hardcore stuff than you do, and you like DEP?"

[Quemaqua]

Yeah, I don't understand what draws people to them.  I can appreciate some of what they do, and I find it really interesting, but I don't understand why half the people who claim to like them ever would.  It just makes no sense.  I'm forced to assume that they're poseurs and idiots just saying they like something because it happens to be "cool".  And why the fuck DEP ever managed to become "cool" I still don't know.  Still, they toned down a lot on Miss Machine from the stuff they did before.

[Quemaqua]

Here's another sweet Haake vid[/i].  I'm putting it here since I had a bunch of others in here too.