Artist: Meshuggah
Label: Nuclear Blast Records
Release Date: 5/31/05
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Title: Catch Thirty Three Artist: Meshuggah Label: Nuclear Blast Records Release Date: 5/31/05 |
Judgment Committee Reviews | Rating |
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Abyss's Review:
Meshuggah's last album, Nothing, really disappointed me and left a really bad taste in my mouth. That album was so bad that when I heard I'd be reviewing the band's new album, I got immediately depressed. You see, Meshuggah, a band which I used to think had so much to offer, has become almost unlistenable to me. And this new album is just as bad as I had feared.
"One word review: Tedious." Catch 33 is the very definition of tedium. For the most part it is one long song, but it's broken up into different parts. In this way it can be compared to ambitious albums like Light Of Day, Day Of Darkness by Green Carnation, My Arms, Your Hearse by Opeth, and Crimson I & II by Edge of Sanity. But unlike those albums that utilized draping tapestries of thick, complex sound, Meshuggah go a simple route that would put the average person to sleep if it wasn't so atypically paced.
Yes, Meshuggah continue to play with time signatures, but that has gotten really old. Each 'track' of this song sounds similar to every other track, and the riffs themselves are unremarkable. The guitar sounds themselves are monotonous, forsaking any change in mood or texture, and in fact are more uniform than the snores they invariably produce. This would be annoying on an EP, but it is torture on a full-length album.
The only thing this album really has going for it is an impressive rhythm section. The drumming in particular is pretty fucking cool, and the only reason this is getting the paltry skull it has. If you liked their last album, you will probably disagree with this entire review, but I don't care. Right now I'm just glad that this review is over, and with it, my own personal hell. One word review: Tedious.
Death's Review:
I'm not quite sure just what it is about modern day Meshuggah that makes me so enjoy the droning and repetitive bludgeoning. Sure, there's the odd time signatures (and the domineering drumming that goes with them) whose complexity sometimes requires a certain level of repetition. But there is something about the incessant pummeling that first leaves me puzzled, then leaves me intrigued, and finally leaves me with a big-ass grin plastered across my face every time. It is like a whole new kind of heaviness and a whole new level of mechanical brutality. Sure, the whole thing is programmed on Pro-Tools, and it sounds it, but I'm sure this stuff can and will be played live with equal effectiveness. The total and utter lack of any melody is certainly off-putting for some, but to me, it is just the beauty of Meshuggah, a band that sounds totally different from anybody else. It makes the sparse variation (e.g., the spoken part that sounds like the narration from Disneyland's Electrical Parade) all the more intriguing (and makes it all the more impressive to see the album crack the Billboard Top 200 album chart).
"There is something about the incessant pummeling that first leaves me puzzled, then leaves me intrigued, and finally leaves me with a big-ass grin plastered across my face every time." That said, the amount you can listen to this album without going insane is limited. There is a certain "thing" going on with Meshuggah and that "thing" is best served in relatively discrete doses - in short, Meshuggah's noncommercial abrasiveness is both the band's greatest strength and also its greatest weakness. That's the catch 22 of Catch Thirty Three. Still, I think this is about as catchy as this misanthropic kind of music can be, and expect to return to it with above-average frequency throughout the summer of 2005.
Hel's Review:
Well, you have to give Meshuggah credit - we only had to wait three years for a new full length this time, instead of the four it took them from Chaosphere and Nothing - certainly a positive trend. 2004's I pretty much passed me by, though I have heard it a couple of times. For those who may have missed it, I was an EP consisting of one twenty-one minute song. In some ways, Catch 33 is an extension of this notion, though they have delineated the sections into separate tracks.It troubles me that every time I have listened to Catch Thirty Three I have had the same experience. The album begins, and the first song is very much what you would expect from Meshuggah. The next thing I know, some time has passed, and I look to see how long this song is – and it turns out I’m on track 3. Or 4. Or...well, you get the picture. Later in the album there are a few songs that deviate from this course.
"A three-plus, if you will." "Mind's Mirrors" is a song I definitely could have lived without - it begins with a computerized/synthesized voice delivering some nonsensical spiel, then continues into string-plucking "atmospheric" territory for the remainder of the track. Yawn. You can definitely skip that one. "In Death - Is Death" again wanders off into "atmospheric" territory, though it is measurably less annoying (no voice) and one can argue that it is an important contrast to the preceding track, "In Death - Is Life," if you wish to support the artsy fartsy side of the coin.
The majority of the songs do follow the standard Meshuggah map, and I have to admit I enjoyed them, even though it is irritating that they run together so thoroughly. “The Paradoxical Spiral” is perhaps the one track on the album that truly stands out, and even it has the formulaic flaw of the repetitive chord going on for measures too long.
In retrospect, I sincerely believe I was far too kind in scoring Nothing. That album was a complete disappointment, so much so that my heart sinks just a little when I think about it. No way I should have given it a three. This, on the hand, really is a solid three. A very good three. A three-plus, if you will. The parts I like about it, I really like. The parts I don’t, well, you get the point. If you’re still inclined to give Meshuggah a shot and take the album for what it is, you will probably enjoy it.
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