Alright, here we go again with Meshuggah, and I know I know, Im absolutely bias as hell when it comes to Meshuggah, they’re my favorite band so just roll with it hehehe, anyway this EP “I” from 2004 is a strange beast indeed, kinda like a musical experiment that Meshuggah decided to throw at us. Its basically one 21 minute track that sounds like a scrapbook of everything they had done up to that point, you want the brash more simplistic stop/go sound, its there, you want melodic strange crescendos, yep thats here too, you want mind blowing blasting percussion to headbang to, theyve got you covered, and if you want those thick bass infested weird time signature hellscapes, oh yeah baby its all in there.
So we start off with this “Bleed” like drum sequence with weird time signatures that are almost out of sync but heavy as fuck, then the yelling kicks in and we go straight into that stop/go thing from Destroy Erase Improve era, heavy but somewhat simple, perfect for headbanging, then it transitions to a moody almost solo section, almost just a loop really, where we get this Nothing-era weird bassy breakdown with double bass and guitars going into this groove thats absolutely amazing. From there it goes into another straight guitar solo while the bass and drums keep blazing, its like a less technical “Bleed” all over again.
Eventually it calms down into this growling almost intermission with Kidman spewing over grumbling drums until it all explodes into, I dont know hahahah, like a solo guitar screeching over death metal double bass, kinda like Chaosphere era stuff, and that transitions to a heavier version with drums blazing and Kidman yelling his ass off again. It just loops back and this is so heavy and catchy, this section could be a track on Nothing, including that absolute stop to play tones hehehe, its so weird. Then it drops down into an insane double bass headbanger from hell, we are 9 minutes in and it feels like we’ve gone through 6 tracks already!
This headbanger is scary heavy and technical as hell, it just builds on that, and thats the point of “I”, building on top of itself, and when you start to get used to something they change it up, slow it up, speed it up, make it weird, make it simple, make it technical. This all evolves into a stop/go kinda doom track that quickly goes into a Nothing-style track, with heavy bass drums and Kidman whispering, onto a weird slow groove screeching guitar solo that goes into a moody interlude where Kidman jumps in while the bass and drums seem to go into an upscale, always climbing, its such a weird composition, the only thing I can say is that it works.
Finally it dies down with some heavy bass and then a guitar intro, crescendo into a monstrous bass driven classic Nothing track, you barely feel the drums with this enormous bass driving an incredible groove, its like black/doom metal with hyper groove and we ride that wave to the end, brilliant!
I know this review is a mess, but the song itself is somewhat of a mess to behold, and its a beautiful mess itself, like I said it feels like a scrapbook, but sometimes a scrapbook is a beautiful thing and this one track album is absolutely that. You will get a ride and you will have a kick out of it, if you are a Meshuggah fan its weirdly nostalgic, if you dont know them its an amazing way to get a feel for all their little nuances and amazing grooves, its not a classic but its a must listen for anyone and everyone!