I heart evil
Just got my hands on a whack of Meshuggah. For those of you who don't know who that is, they are a heavy metal band that were playing shit that people still are trying to decipher and imitate. They were doing this in 1995. "Turned the metal world on its head" is the phrase one may come across when reading reviews about them. "Polyrhythmic" is another.
They play in two or more time signatures at once. The drummer is kind enough to provide a nice, straight, 4/4 beat for you on the cymbal or hi-hat. Unfortunately, only his right hand is keeping 4/4 time. The rest of him, along with the rest of the band, is playing some riff in 7/8, then throws in a bar of 13 every now again just so that the listener remains lost.
All this highly technical playing has one very straightforward effect: it is scary. The composition relies on creating ominous-sounding tones -- as metal will often do -- but with a totally disjointed frame to the song. The total impact is of something alien. I have rarely listened to metal that made me afraid before, but these crazy Swedes have done it. A lot of metal is calculated to make the listener feel nervous and on edge, but the sheer fact that you can predict the cadence of the song gives it familiarity. These guys figured out the formula: don't give the listener anything to hold onto. Chaos is the scariest thing you can present a human with.
So I've been enjoying being subtly frightened the last several days.
They play in two or more time signatures at once. The drummer is kind enough to provide a nice, straight, 4/4 beat for you on the cymbal or hi-hat. Unfortunately, only his right hand is keeping 4/4 time. The rest of him, along with the rest of the band, is playing some riff in 7/8, then throws in a bar of 13 every now again just so that the listener remains lost.
All this highly technical playing has one very straightforward effect: it is scary. The composition relies on creating ominous-sounding tones -- as metal will often do -- but with a totally disjointed frame to the song. The total impact is of something alien. I have rarely listened to metal that made me afraid before, but these crazy Swedes have done it. A lot of metal is calculated to make the listener feel nervous and on edge, but the sheer fact that you can predict the cadence of the song gives it familiarity. These guys figured out the formula: don't give the listener anything to hold onto. Chaos is the scariest thing you can present a human with.
So I've been enjoying being subtly frightened the last several days.