Meshuggah

Swedish metal band formed in the late 80's. Meshuggah have refined their sound through the nineties, mixing in your face instrumentation and recording techniques (like Pantera or Fear Factory) with complex but repetitive polyrhythmics. On top of the machine-like and often static yet groovy foundation, one can hear the occasional ambient clean guitar texture or legato lead. The band has released 3 long play albums and few EP's.

Meshuggah also pioneered the use of the seven string guitar, recogninzing its potential for brutal and heavy riffs very early on.

Meshuggah is what my metalhead friend calls math metal - "They're cool, but sometimes they spend so much effort being precise and mathematical that they forget to rock." Meshuggah will not make you thrash around and head bang to the beat - at least, not at first. If you tried to do that, you'd probably fall over, disoriented. They have such complex rhythms, going in and out of sync, but always perfectly in time, that it can be hard to get your head around their nearly monotonal metal riffs. The funny thing about them is, it's all in 4/4, but it sounds like a much more complex time signature.

All that aside, if you really listen hard and appreciate complex rhythm, Meshuggah can be extremely satisfying (albeit, perhaps only in moderate doses).

Meshuggah trivia: They used to be named Metallien, but then changed their name Meshuggah, Yiddish for "crazy."