Nothing (album)

Infobox Album |
Name = Nothing
Type = Studio album
Artist = Meshuggah


Released = August 6, 2002
Recorded = 2002
Genre = Extreme metal, progressive metal, avant-garde metal
Length = 53:09
58:33 (re-release)
Label = Nuclear Blast
Producer =
Reviews = * Allmusic rating|4.5|5 [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:oqx7gjur36in link]
* Pitchfork Media 81% [http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/record_review/19855/Meshuggah_Nothing link]
* Rolling Stone rating|3|5 [http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/meshuggah/albums/album/172652/review/5945704/nothing link]
Last album = "Chaosphere"
(1998)
This album = "Nothing"
(2002)
Next album = "I"
(2004)
Misc = Extra album cover 2
Upper caption = Alternate cover
Type = Studio album
Lower caption = Re-release (2006)

"Nothing" is the fourth album by Swedish metal band Meshuggah, originally released in 2002.

A last-minute decision to join 2002's Ozzfest tour forced the band to mix the album in two days and 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 has led to mixed reviews from fans, though it has received a warmer reception from mainstream critics than the band's previous efforts have. 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 at the time of recording, due to their custom Nevborn guitars not yet being ready.

The track "Rational Gaze" was promoted with three music videos; the first one was a repetitive black-and-white sequence of pictures, and didn't 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", wasn't entirely an official video, rather a handicam home video of Jens Kidman performing a song in the character of his bandmates, with the help of a bunch of wigs.

"Nothing" has sold over 80,000 copies in the US.

Track listing

# "Stengah" – 5:38
# "Rational Gaze" – 5:04
# "Perpetual Black Second" – 4:39
# "Closed Eye Visuals" – 7:26
# "Glints Collide" – 4:56
# "Organic Shadows" – 5:08
# "Straws Pulled at Random" – 5:10
# "Spasm" – 4:15
# "Nebulous" – 6:33
# "Obsidian" – 4:20

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 redone by triggering the original drum hits using Drumkit from Hell Superior.Fact|date=April 2007 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. 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.

Track listing

# "Stengah" − 5:38
# "Rational Gaze" − 5:26
# "Perpetual Black Second" − 4:39
# "Closed Eye Visuals" − 7:25
# "Glints Collide" − 4:56
# "Organic Shadows" − 5:20
# "Straws Pulled at Random" − 5:16
# "Spasm" − 4:14
# "Nebulous" − 7:06
# "Obsidian" − 8:33

DVD track listing

# "Straws Pulled at Random" – Live at Download 05
# "In Death—Is Death" – Live at Download 05
# "Future Breed Machine" – Live at Download 05
# "Rational Gaze" – Official video
# "Shed" – Official video
# "New Millennium Cyanide Christ" – Official video
# "Rational Gaze" – Mr. Kidman Delirium Version

Personnel

* Jens Kidman − vocals
* Fredrik Thordendal − Lead Guitar & Bass Guitar (Rhythm, Lead and Bass Guitar on the 2006 re-release)
* Mårten Hagström − Rhythm guitar
* Tomas Haake − drums, spoken word on tracks; 4 and 8