Nothing (Meshuggah album)

Nothing
Studio album by Meshuggah
Released	August 6, 2002
Recorded	2002
Genre	Extreme metal, progressive metal, avant-garde metal
Length	53:10
Label	Nuclear Blast
Meshuggah chronology
Chaosphere (1998) Nothing (2002) I (2004)

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[1]
Allmusic	[2] (re-release)
Blabbermouth.net	[3]
Pitchfork Media	(8.1/10) [4]
Rolling Stone	[5]

Nothing is the fourth album by Swedish metal band Meshuggah, originally released in 2002. The album entered the Billboard 200 chart at number 165, slightly higher than the band's following effort, Catch Thirtythree.^[6]

A last-minute decision to join 2002's Ozzfest tour forced the band to mix the album in two days and to master it in one. It was re-mastered for a new re-release with re-recorded guitars in 2006.

Summary

The songs on this album consist of slower tempos and a heavy focus on groove instead of the thrash metal stylings of previous albums. This stylistic change led to mixed reviews from fans, though it received a warmer reception from mainstream critics than the band's previous efforts. Jazz fusion elements such as the interludes found in some songs on the band's Destroy Erase Improve album are still present in this release.

This is also the first album where guitarists Fredrik Thordendal and Mårten Hagström experiment with 8-string guitar tunings, though the album was recorded using detuned 7-string guitars, due to their custom Nevborn guitars not being ready.

The track "Rational Gaze" was promoted with three music videos; the first was a repetitive black-and-white sequence of pictures, and did not have much connection with the song structure; the second version, directed by Torbjörn Oyesvold, featured a blue-greenish environment with the band performing, heavy post-processed by blurry video filters; the third version, entitled "Mr. Kidman Delirium Version", was not an official video, but rather a handicam of Jens Kidman performing as his bandmates, with the help of different wigs.

Nothing has sold over 95,000 copies in the US.

Track listing

No.	Title	Lyrics	Music	Length
1.	"Stengah"	Haake	Hagström, Haake	5:38
2.	"Rational Gaze"	Haake	Thordendal	5:04
3.	"Perpetual Black Second"	Haake	Hagström	4:39
4.	"Closed Eye Visuals"	Haake	Thordendal	7:25
5.	"Glints Collide"	Haake	Thordendal, Haake	4:55
6.	"Organic Shadows"	Haake	Hagström, Haake	5:08
7.	"Straws Pulled at Random"	Haake	Hagström	5:10
8.	"Spasm"	Haake	Thordendal, Haake	4:14
9.	"Nebulous"	Hagström	Hagström	6:33
10.	"Obsidian"	(Instrumental)	Meshuggah	4:20

Nothing (2006 Re-release)
Studio album by Meshuggah
Released	October 31, 2006
Recorded	2006
Genre	Extreme metal, progressive metal, avant-garde metal
Length	58:36
Label	Nuclear Blast
Meshuggah chronology
Catch Thirtythree (2005) Nothing (Re-release) (2006) obZen (2008)

Re-release

A re-recorded and remastered version of the album was released on October 31, 2006. The new version features the rhythm guitar tracks re-recorded with new guitars and amplifiers. The guitar tracks on the original Nothing were recorded with detuned 7-string Ibanez guitars, as the Nevborn custom 8-string guitars they owned suffered from bad intonation and became detuned between each recording. When guitarists Hagström and Thordendal were sponsored by Ibanez with custom 8-string guitars, they were so pleased with the results that they decided to re-record their parts with the new instruments. The drums were also re-recorded by triggering the original drum hits using Drumkit from Hell Superior.^{[citation needed]} The vocals were not re-recorded, but were given extra dramatic effects.

Aside from the re-recorded guitars and triggered drum samples, there are only two songs significantly modified from their original version. The tempo of "Nebulous" has been lowered, and the length of "Obsidian" has nearly been doubled, the heavy riff beginning at 3:08 and changing tempo at around 5:30. Also the rest of the songs from the re-release seem to be minimally longer than the original release.

The re-release also includes a DVD of video clips and their Download Festival performance in 2005, as well as modified cover art.

Re-Release track listing

Studio album

No.	Title	Lyrics	Music	Length
1.	"Stengah"	Haake	Hagström, Haake	5:38
2.	"Rational Gaze"	Haake	Thordendal	5:26
3.	"Perpetual Black Second"	Haake	Hagström	4:39
4.	"Closed Eye Visuals"	Haake	Thordendal	7:25
5.	"Glints Collide"	Haake	Thordendal, Haake	4:56
6.	"Organic Shadows"	Haake	Hagström, Haake	5:20
7.	"Straws Pulled at Random"	Haake	Hagström	5:16
8.	"Spasm"	Haake	Thordendal, Haake	4:14
9.	"Nebulous"	Hagström	Hagström	7:06
10.	"Obsidian"	(Instrumental)	Meshuggah	8:33

DVD track listing

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Straws Pulled at Random" (Live at Download 2005)
2.	"In Death—Is Death" (Live at Download 2005)
3.	"Future Breed Machine" (Live at Download 2005)
4.	"Rational Gaze" (official music video)
5.	"Shed" (official music video)
6.	"New Millennium Cyanide Christ" (official music video)
7.	"Rational Gaze" (Mr. Kidman Delirium Version)

Personnel

Meshuggah

• Jens Kidman − vocals
• Fredrik Thordendal − lead guitar, bass; rhythm guitar on the 2006 re-release
• Mårten Hagström − rhythm guitar, bass
• Tomas Haake − drums, vocals on tracks 8 and 9, artwork^[7]

References

1. ^ http://www.allmusic.com/album/r598953
2. ^ http://www.allmusic.com/album/r858485
3. ^ http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/showreview.aspx?reviewID=89
4. ^ http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/record_review/19855/Meshuggah_Nothing
5. ^ http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/meshuggah/albums/album/172652/review/5945704/nothing
6. ^ http://www.billboard.com/search/?keyword=meshuggah#/artist/meshuggah/chart-history/142561
7. ^ Marten Hagstrom, rhythm guitarist of Meshuggah, claims in an interview that Tomas Haake (drummer of Meshuggah) designed, produced and mastered the artwork for the album Nothing. Marten claims so at approximately 3:18 in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxjq3nqoSWg&feature=channel_page