MESHUGGAH — Contradictions Collapse (review)

MESHUGGAH — Contradictions Collapse album cover

Album · 1991 · Technical Thrash Metal

4/5 · 2015-10-25
Unitron

Meshuggah - Contradictions Collapse

"Contradictions Collapse" is the debut studio album by technical thrash/extreme metal band Meshuggah. Meshuggah is probably best known for their odd time changes, skull-crushing riffs, meandering grooves, and aggressive vocals. However, that wouldn't really develop much until "Chaosphere". While much different from later releases, Meshuggah's debut still shows technical complexity and is an underrated album in Meshuggah's discography.

This album is much more thrash-based then later albums, which focus more on groove. This is what I'd call technical thrash somewhat in the vein of Metallica's "...And Justice for All" album with some groove here and there. You still have crushing riffing, but in a thrashing way. The opening song 'Paralyzing Ignorance' is one of my favorites, and is a great opener as it gives a good idea for the sound of the album. It's got some great riot chant vocals, fantastic riffs that I find it hard not to headbang to, pounding drums, and some nice basslines too. Speaking of bass, the bass is very audible in this album, just listen to the song 'Erronerous Manipulation' and you'll probably hear how strong the bass sound is. In the aforementioned song, it's not just the bass that's strong, there is some really catchy guitar. Most of the songs change up quite a bit, but it all sounds really natural. One minute you'll have a jazzy guitar solo, and then the next will be a slow passage or a crushing riff but it all flows pretty well. 'Greed' is another favorite, starting up with a march-like beat. Of course, like most of the songs though it changes up soon enough with grooving riffs and noisy soloing. This is a little thing, but it has whispering of 'The cause of greed', similar to Metallica's 'Damage Inc.'. I don't know why, but I always love little things like that.

Unlike later albums, Jens Kidman's vocals actually kind of sound like a rawer and more aggressive James Hetfield, and that perfectly fits in with the sound of the album. Besides the similarities with "...And Justice for All", there are also parts that remind me of "Killing Technology" and "Dimension Hatross"-era Voivod. Kidman sometimes has a punk vocal delivery, and the beginning riffs of 'Abnegating Cecity' remind me of some of the guitar work on those albums. There are also some upbeat jump-y riffs and grooves throughout the album reminding me of Pantera, albeit with off-kilter drum rhythms. This is especially heard in the song 'Qualms of Reality' before it goes into a slower passage with nice acoustics.

Overall, this is one killer debut album. If you want some ass-kicking tech thrash, or if you couldn't get into later Meshuggah, then this is most certainly for you. I love most of Meshuggah's discography, but this is definitely stands out from the rest of this consistently great band's output. There may be a bit too much going on for some, but I still highly recommend this to any fans of tech thrash. Hope you found this review helpful.

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more than 2 years ago
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Unitron wrote:

more than 2 years ago

Thanks, 'Destroy Erase Improve' is one of my favorites as well.

Necrotica wrote:

more than 2 years ago

Nice review. I definitely prefer Meshuggah's older work like this and Destroy Erase Improve, when they didn't sound 100% robotic yet (in my opinion of course). DEI is still one of my all-time favorite metal albums :]

UMUR wrote:

more than 2 years ago

Yeah to my ears the hypnotic groove of later releases isn´t present here. At least not in the same doses, and that´s one of my favorite features of Meshuggah´s music.

Unitron wrote:

more than 2 years ago

I can understand that, and I do prefer later Meshuggah as well. Something I've noticed is that the technical stuff is much more audible on this album then later ones, I simply just get lost in the groove on albums like 'Nothing'.

UMUR wrote:

more than 2 years ago

I recognise the crazy level of technical playing and complex song structures as something pretty interesting, but I never really enjoyed the music itself on this album. I much prefer later Meshuggah releases.