Btw, to the dude who said he tunes E flat, show me some please :lol:
Some what? Hendrix, SRV, Testament, Slayer, all play Eb.
And yes, Opeth are superb, listen to Damnation, Deliverance, Watershed and Blackwater Park, my fave albums by them. Agree in that its very hard to find similar music, they're pretty unique, saw them last thursday. Truly awesome band.
And MDV, Behold the Arctopus are absolutely superb. Saw them on Saturday, and I swear to god, I've never seen such good playing live, absolutely tight, didn't miss a single note, and the music was awesome, not just cr@p technical stuff imo, very solid, syncopated, jazzy, funky, unique, I mean, no idea how it would be on CD, but easily one of the best live bands I've EVER seen.
Steven Wilson is pretty cool, his production work is great, and porcupine tree are another very cool band.
And tbh, I wouldn't say Meshuggah was THE cleverest metal, their earlier stuff is very close (DEI era), but I think there's more to bands like SiKth and DEP, simply because of their compositions etc being a little more diverse, that's not to say that Meshuggah aren't one of my fave bands EVER, and I think the "Disciples come join with me" bit in New Millenium Cyanide Christ is the greatest moment in any single piece of metal EVER.
I dunno. Sikth and dillinger are considerably less planned. Pin told me (after I asked him how he comes up with his odd, complex riffing - whether its planned or vibe/textural) that its "Just playing and going "Ok, what the hell just happened there?"", then they force-fit drums later. I cant see dillinger being much different - sure its complicated, but its also rather arbitrary.
You take something like new millenium cyanide christ on the other hand, since you bring it up - the main riff is 5 bars of 23/16 then 1 bar of 13/16 on the guitars and the kick, while Harke is playing a slow 4/4 with his hands. 23 and 13 arent divisible by 4 (or anything else for that matter) so the snare and cymbals fall on different beats of the kick and guitars with each repetition and it sounds random, BUT (23 x 5)+13 = 128 16ths, which is 4/4, so the whole section is in fact one 4/4 passage. This is very, very clever planning, and their music is laced with it. Totally intentional, extremely clever, not in the least arbitrary. It may sound as random as anything else on superficial inspection, but it really isnt, and differs from most of your random time change bands in that very complex sections become much simpler over a longer timescale, or when taken as a whole, rather than one pattern at a time. Much, much harder and much, much cleverer than the likes of dillinger.
Funny you say that, cos I read an interview with Thordendal where he claimed everything he wrote was in 4/4 with just odd syncopation and then everything was somewhat force fitted around it, I mean, SiKths is just as intentional, they try something out, regardless of time signature, if they like it, they keep it, if they don't, they get rid of it. Then you'll allways force fit drums, unless the drummer's writing the riffs, which could well be possible in any of the above bands!
I just think that SiKth/Dillinger have more to them with all their proggy interludes and clean bits etc, more compositionally diverse, whereas Meshuggah is a constant onslaught - a magical, and brilliant onslaught, but one none the less.
