Meshuggah Metal Riff Lesson Part 4

[FISHFACEmatt]

OH. MY. FREAKY. BALLS. THAT. TONE.

[tasasaki]

How does Fredrik play that siren-like sound of FBM?

[qwertyuiopRANDOM]

@tasasaki It sounds like he's just playing two notes a semitone apart.

[tasasaki]

@qwertyuiopRANDOM

Thanx! E and F seem to be the notes.

[k5lta]

They finally have their own signature series, The Ibanez M8M.

[groathorror]

I just enjoy watching these 

[MercilessShred]

Saint Vitus t shirt. fucking legit.

[soldierofchumbo]

thumbs up for the Saint Vitus and Celtic Frost shirts!!

[Battlescar2]

they should really re-record theyre first albums, theyre tones were junk back then.

[LunarLionheart]

@Battlescar2 Couldnt agree more.

[PairInstabilityType]

3:14 the man speaks the truth :) write another solo album!!

[baconpoptarts]

For a couple of Sweeds is what I should have said. Thier hands are perfect as h3ll if you watch that.

[baconpoptarts]

Not a bad explanation for a sweed! Meshuggah is rad!

[paulthebassguy]

lol where are their viking horn hats and clubs?

[aaaaasssss22]

sol niger within is my life force

[AlexXxtestify]

ac/dc's mathematical as well

[4chansthebest]

how many strings are on that guitar

[ztende]

@4chansthebest it's a 8 stringed guitar ^^

[iShawn95]

Wanna know a fun fact? My algebra/geometry teacher always listens to Meshuggah... I make fun of him because he probably only listens to it cuz it's "math-metal". :p

[thundermorphine]

En, två, tre, fyr!

[CDP110]

Future Breed Machine FTW! 

[CyValkarion]

BULLSHIT! They compose with calculators.

[dopefiend138]

i would love to see these guys attempt a metallica song. kirk hammet seems to be in the same league as these guys

[BrutalG0re]

@dopefiend138 impossible. their style is completely different to kirk's, also it's not my intention to offend metallica but it'll be very dissapointing for many meshuggah fans including me to see them covering a song of a band like that, maybe will be better to see kirk trying to play a meshuggah song. dont you think?

[MrGavesit]

@dopefiend138 Errr, no not at all.

Kirk, while good, is incredibly sloppy. In a way it's what makes kirk who he is.

Meanwhile watch the video again at 1:19 Frederik and Marten are perfectly in sync and are as accurate (or probably more so) as most metronomes.

[mrbullseye]

@dopefiend138

I love how NOONE picked up on your sarcasm, and your post was practically dripping of it.

"In the same league as these guys" Hah =)

He doesn't even qualify to tune their guitars.. If he could.

[brbo101]

i'm pretty shure thordendal is on right side :)

[CORNP00]

0:12 squeeeeaakKK ??what was that xD

[MetalSword106]

@CORNP00 Pinch Armonic :)

[Slipknot93178]

1:20 looks cool as shit with their hand motion in sync.

[stbreal]

an 8 string iceman badass!!!!!!!

[Virus940]

I like how he rubs his beard at the end like a cynical mastermind.

[Bleed2510]

It's scary looking at their hand synchronization 1:21 onwards.

[bubblz1414]

thumbs up if you think the begining of this this song is YYZ on steriods.

[MyScaryScrotum]

I have that exact same Saint Vitus shirt. I Was Born Too Late!

[ShroomSamich]

obzen and alcohol = great groovy time

[Maxpound]

Their tone sounds like someone just got killed. I love it.

[NoaOno]

I'd like to hear them say which riff they personally think is hardest, or most complicated. I'd guess one of the riffs in Corridor of Chameleons or the opening I riff... But I'd REALLY like to hear them say it :) Could you fix that, Mr Azgoroth?? ;)

[Azgaroth666]

@NoaOno Nope=)

[NoaOno]

@Azgaroth666 Damn!

[Kinglevel]

@NoaOno Did you hear the song "i"? 

[NoaOno]

@Kinglevel ---"or the opening I riff..."---

[KreatorOfDeath1985]

@NoaOno

Azgaroth's hardest riff is the one in 4/4

DUH

[HaoleJames]

@NoaOno Marten and Tomaas said Bleed was the hardest to play

[sharpenedbullshit]

@NoaOno Tomas has actually said that the hardest song is Dancers to a discordant system, and he said thats the reason why they never play it live :)

[NoaOno]

@sharpenedbullshit ...but they managed to do it in the studio. Weak excuse, the fans deserve hearing it live.

[sharpenedbullshit]

@NoaOno Its actually the song I would most like them to play live :) But, ya know, I'm not gonna argue with Tomas Haake, if he says thats why they dont play it live, that has got to be the reason :D

[divinegrinder]

@NoaOno Why do we deserve hearing it live? Meshuggah has put out enough music that they will never play a disappointing show. That album was an experiment. Sure they care about what their fans think to a certain extent but like most great bands that write music for themselves first. "I" is what it is and if you know anything about playing this type of music live you know that playing that front to back with consistent intensity would be damn near impossible.

[NoaOno]

@divinegrinder Deserve is not the right word. It would be natural if they played it, as it is very popular.

And regarding I... I look at it as an experiment. The randomness doesn't make it any heavier.

[imrhyswatson]

@sharpenedbullshit he actually says that that song is hard because of the vocals because he does vocals on the recording. at least i'm pretty sure thats it

[imrhyswatson]

@NoaOno they say they cant play the i stuff because the drummer improvised with the grooves that they had and they just recorded over the top, so none of them know how to play it. i assume that would probably make it the hardest

[holygroove2]

@imrhyswatson - Haake says "no one knows how I goes"... I take that to mean that the stuff on "I" doesn't really repeat like most of the other music from 2002 on. This music is complicated, but the cycles and stuff that they use actually make it doable, and I am amazed that they do it live. "I" would have been done already if it were designed like most of their other stuff.

[TheRealOzzy]

@dzfasd lol did you even watch the video dude

[TheRealOzzy]

haha how i love this, his explanation is perfect

[rbass311]

@YTBlankFace they rock....but not because they aren't american. what an ignorant comment. Most women from other countries would fuck an american in an instant. Remember that when I meet you and your old lady ha ha

[rbass311]

@rbass311 It's okay don't take what I said personally I was just thinking of something shitty to say lol

Thank you for the apology ppl like you are few and far between. I'm sorry too.

[slipknot4life86]

how are they getting that future breed machine sound?.. are they using some effect? or just a method of playing?

[rbass311]

@slipknot4life86 It's called Djent and it's all in the attack. They don't use any effects other than talkbox

[slipknot4life86]

@rbass311 oh thanks man.. uve just opened up a whole new world.. any other bands that use this djent?

[rbass311]

@slipknot4life86 hell yes. PERIPHERY is a BADASS new band that has the same guitar tone but a style all their own IMO. They're considered very DJENTY. I think right now these two bands are the best examples right now, but A life once lost tries to somewhat do it, and etc... there's alot of them but Periphery i highly recommend. My friend Misha's band :)

[slipknot4life86]

@rbass311 lol.. will check it out for sure...

[pepekong]

This is the first time I ever hear Fredrik saying anything.

[94dhk]

its like listening to sex, god i wish i could just for ONE song play with them..they need a new bass player anyway hehe

[rbass311]

@94dhk no they don't.

[94dhk]

@rbass311 calm the hell down, it was a joke

[LorgarForneus]

I love the riffs these guys write! Also, tuning-wise, I think it depends on whether these are their guitars for live or not. The guitars the use on stage, they have the 8th string as low F, but the other 7 strings are tuned straight A instead of A# for some reason :S Noticed it on a tuning chart for the guitar tech, on the special feature of the Alive DVD.

[WinglessRaven]

I loved this series of videos. First time seeing it and being a semi Meshuggah fan. I almost feel as if their technical guitar playing goes to waste as Marten said in the 2nd part I believe. lol. I knew Meshuggah was bad ass, but they explained a lot of things I didn't know aswell. Great videos though. Thanks for posting!

[WATCHSONICS]

Highly generous individuals, incredible riffs

[iznobob]

hembränt?

[pr0llyn0t]

I like how he says their music comes out 'natural' for them.

[wownov83]

Fredrik = Genius

[TheFearAsylum]

@wownov83 this.

[KevenFlood]

Thanks for posting.

[deargod5r6]

DRI -Acid Rain was first)

It is not the same but it could possibly influnce Illwill and Meshuggah

[SiriusAl]

'one two tree three' xD

[IRONmanJAM]

fredrik sounds like skwisgar from metalocylypse

[Atern0x]

@IRONmanJAM

The character of Skwisgaar is actually based on Fredrik^^

He's not the only one... The singer is based on Corpsegrinder from Cannibal Corpse, the drummer is based on Devin Townsend, and so on.

[xxZeus305]

how lucky are we to have these guys exist with us!

[cisco9x]

Thordendal is the God, Thor re-incarnated

[SixxHundredSixtySixx]

ett, två, tre, fyr, its fun that they take the time and speak some swedish :)

[sillystuff333]

wow for how thick those string are he can hit them AMAZINGLY FAST

[RICKYFALL]

Where's the humbucker of Fredrik's guitar?

[MattHood]

@RICKYFALL he only has a bridge pickup

[glassmoon0fo]

Thriller + Buttrape = .....Michael, is tthat you?

[theSyringe]

CATCH33 + ACID = ALL IS CONTRADICTION

[eMbAh]

Best of Britney and diet coke, my life is complete!

[actofinsanityjoe]

i love the noise Fredrik makes at around 1:17

[McDrummerSLR]

@actofinsanityjoe: so marten is the guy doing all the talking?

[guitarristaheavy616]

@actofinsanityjoe he's not fredrik

its marten

Marten's on the left, Fredrik's on the right

[actofinsanityjoe]

@guitaristheavy616

I know fulwell who the members of meshuggah are, you do not need to inform me of this.

Listen carefully to the noise that Fredrik makes at around the 1:17 mark, i found it quite funny

[13guitard00d]

Fredrik's noise is very funny indeed,but I think that Marten's counting of beat in Swedish and then starting to play that riff is funny,brutal and epic at the same time :).

[burningvenom]

"uuhuuhhhh" He truly is a master mind at speech and at guitar.

[defbizkit]

Around The Fur and a bottle of whiskey..... life is bodacious

[immortalx50]

Sol Niger Within and schizophrenia...life is eerie!

[MrDrMegna]

@immortalx50 you just described last night for me

[BertFlamingo]

@immortalx50 Catch 33 and nothing.. life is good

[iLoveOlivaMunn]

catch 33 and weed..life is good.

[godsizedhole]

Chaosphere and acid...life is better.

[iLoveOlivaMunn]

..acid and lateralus..life is complete..

[godsizedhole]

AEnima and DMT...life is futile...

[chhppx]

@godsizedhole i know bro

they came to my city and i saw the entire set high on mary jane

best trip ever

[GoatMaster66]

@godsizedhole when i was tripping every day i would only have Catch 33 playing in my car, really helped me understand the album as a whole, lyrically and musically, at least i THINK i understand it lyrically

[godsizedhole]

@GoatMaster66 Yeah it's about the stock market being controlled by the phases of the moon, and the ghost of Bob Barker, even though he's not dead.

[MrDrMegna]

@godsizedhole you have no life, by the way you're waisting good music when you do that

[godsizedhole]

@MrDrMegna You poor thing. BTW it's wasting. And no, you are wasting it when you listen sober.

[MrDrMegna]

@godsizedhole seriously? grow the fuck up man

[godsizedhole]

@MrDrMegna Time to evolve man.

[MrDrMegna]

@godsizedhole smartass

[godsizedhole]

@MrDrMegna Thanks, that's sweet.

[metalhavens]

what is genius about meshuggah is that the rythms actually make your body hallucinate. I went completely sober to a show in sf and my mind was seriously in another place. what is also cool is that there is melody even though on the surface the music is without melody completely. I love this band.

[dimebag5462]

What guitar is that !!?? does that thing have 8 strings or what i never seen one like it ? I mean Ive seen a 12 string acoustic but this has my head spinning

[brunthroath6912]

The F sharp string is actually a small Bass string LOL

[imbanezwtf]

F# is two half-tones above the bass' low E

[brunthroath6912]

Dude they even said it themselves... I don't get it what r u saying...

[TheHorrorInside]

yeah, but they tune their guitars a half step down

[AdeBfmv]

They dont actually use standard though. They use F, A#, D#, G#, C#, F#, A#, D#.

[immolationmetraton]

It's a 9string Ibanez custom made

[alexv24]

These guys use custom Ibanez guitars

[RadamentsLair]

Love finally hearing what he said about it not being all about mathematics. Once you get comfortable with it and listen, it really does make sense. Like he said it's "like going down another road that's open to you".. most just don't go down that road because it's difficult (at first) to comprehend and dissect.

[BertilUlfsson]

i donno. meshuggah is always been easy for me to listen to. it kinda flows naturally. especially haakes drumming.

[RonnieIsGrumpy]

This is very true, listen to this man.

By the way, I love how synched their left hands are from 1:18 to 1:37, looks like they're reloading shitloads of shotgun rounds! :D

[mathprodigy]

yep but once you do it's more rewarding than anything you've ever heard.

Meshuggah makes even more sense and sounds even greater when you're high. try listening to the entirety of Catch 33 after smoking marijuana. unless you've already done it, you've never heard anything like this. especially songs like In Death is Life and Shed, you hear things like you've never heard them before. oh God Meshuggah is amazing

[heavybarz]

i love M, but i heard them after drinking, and i got scared shitless, but after weed i agree, it makes mad sense....

[mathprodigy]

one time i listened to catch 33 high and i was laying in bed getting really tired, and i got to the end of Sum to the soft part i got so scared i had to go turn it off lol i'm telling you music sounds so different when you're high, but when it's meshuggah, i mean wow, the power, the intensity, it can almost be too much, but in a good way, kind of like a godly orgasm

[ThyArtIsMetal]

i listened to destroy erase improve while pretty high, really intense lol

[throatguitar]

1:21 .... my eyes bled :D ....love it!

[ButcheredChildren]

i hate how they hold thier picks lol it annoys me

[MrBarneyBadman]

everyone has their own way of doing anything

[kaisersteack]

message à krokoll: c'est ça qui est bon !!! ;)

[Guitarguy234]

Woohoo Meshuggah rocks! Thank you for this interview! They are a total inspiration for me. I am a big fan of polyrhythms and these guys do it well. They're so metal!

[krokoll]

j'adore !! une 8 cordes pour jouer avec 1 doigts sur 2 cordes :p

[lemonjuix]

oh that whole section from 2:16 to the end is already posted in another video all by itself...cuz it's pretty important

[ATtTheGates]

Are these lessons available on a DVD?

Not necessarily for the sake of a lesson but just to watch and appreciate the Jam.

[TheAdamGore]

he fucking lost me at 2:16

[hypoclit]

I am really fairly new to metal. i've been playing drums for a few years and i respect all forms of music. Meshuggah are amazing and what they do can really be over my head but then sometimes the groove really hits me harder than any music i've ever felt

[Azgaroth666]

I totally agree with you, dear Sir!

[TheSpuditron]

You know sometimes when you buy a new cd, it sometimes takes you a while for the songs to grow on you (it hapens to me anyway.. :P).

It didn't happen with Meshuggah. I loved them straight away.

Dancers To A Dischordant System.

THE. BEST. SONG. EVER.

[lemonjuix]

Spuditron, I totally feel you on that. I bought obzen a year ago and it wasn't my favorite cd then, but NOW it never leaves my cd player (except for when Nothing or Catch 33 goes in)

[underscoreisnotvalid]

hey i agree, i wasnt really a fan of obzen at first, i bought that a year ago or so but now its really growing on me

[AdamDallas]

Strange, I loved ObZen as soon as i heard it, when i bought catch 33 though i wasn't that fussed, it was my first meshuggah album though, probably not a good starter. I love it now though

[AdamDallas]

Oh man totally, when it goes from that horrible dry atonal riff, silence... then BOOM! Full scale audio assault on your ear drums!

[Nihility000]

Welcome aboard!

[MrYungsan]

@hypoclit i agree with your opinion of meshuggah but really "Meshuggah are amazing"? it only one band. learn some damn grammar

[44eelz]

i thought that when i first heard them, i thought there were some kind of weird geometrical formulas to their rhythm

[EUSL84]

These guys are a real genius, you may think it's easy to sound heavy with that equipment but the tempos? You know you have to have a very good rhythm to create those tempos even if you are a great musician or do you believe you're a great musician...

[Ohgottis]

I agree

[Nash9875]

dat's bcoz ur not into meshuggah!!

[Azgaroth666]

Please, stop that "riffs are lame and boring", dear Sir. Why should I every time appeal to your tolerance and respect to band's fans? Again I repeat, everyone has it's own tastes - let's respect them by not saying "band X is totally lame, while my favorite band Y is awesome!". Thank you very much for your understanding in future!

[EUSL84]

Obviously you haven't heard any records from them metal wannabe.

[metalherbert]

you sir are a nob.

[kilyatwice]

How'd they EVER find floating bridges for their 8 strings??

[patrickwilliamson29]

theyre custom made by some dude in sweden i believe

[jmaguerra]

Those are "just" custom shop Ibanez guitars.

[LateralisArt]

yeah everyone knows how easy those are to get :P

jk

[jmaguerra]

Well, they ARE easy to get. If you have a nice bank account =P

[jmaguerra]

Those are fixed, not floating. They use locking bridges to improve tuning stability, considering the low tunings they use.

[blickblocks]

It's pretty cool that they give these lessons to us!

[mistamontiel]

2:03 that lil solo from Fredrik is hilarious LMFAO

[Evjazzman]

haha doesen't seem like it when you comment every clip

[analduct]

i feel a need to spread the word, i like their guitar tone tho. quite heavy.

[BrickSalad]

I think that in all 4 clips, I only heard them mention one time signature, and that was 4/4. I love how they just show you how to play the riffs, and don't even mention polyrhythms and crap. It just goes to show that they feel it more then they count it, which is something lots of "mathcore" bands simply don't get. I also love how they compare themselves to AC/DC. Lol, maybe a bit of a stretch :)

[slashrules88]

what a great band

[iamqqqqqqq]

I came across a copy of Chaosphere one day while out wandering around town, and decided to try this "Meshuggah" band I had never picked up before.

It was incredible, my mind was opened, and I became the unhuman elastic myself, a little bit!

---

I love how Marten explains the Meshuggah way, in a manner that isn't "look how complex this is, 600/12^4", which seems to be how many Youtube people approach it.

This music isn't a contest of difficulty, it's just creating very cool entertainment.

[reezlaw]

Dude, Hagstrom's on the left, and Thordendal on the right :)