Meshuggah - Legacy and Reception

Legacy and Reception

Meshuggah has become known for its innovative musical style that evolves between each release and pushes heavy metal into new territory, and for its technical prowess. Hagström comments: "We try never to repeat ourselves." Rockdetector stated about Destroy Erase Improve: "he band...stripped Metal down to the bare essentials before completely rebuilding it in a totally abstract form". Official Meshuggah biography criticizes Chaosphere with: "Some fans felt that Meshuggah had left their dynamic and progressive elements behind; while others thought they were only progressing naturally and focusing on their original sound" and Nothing with: "t displayed a very mature and convincing Meshuggah, now focusing on groove and sound...Meshuggah once again divided their fans into the 'ecstatic' and the 'slightly disappointed'". The polyrhythms can make the music sound cacophonous, like band members are playing different songs simultaneously. Listeners perceiving a polyrhythm often either extract a composite pattern that is fitted to a metric framework, or focus on one rhythmic stream while treating others as "noise".

Rolling Stone labeled Meshuggah as "one of the ten most important hard and heavy bands", and the Alternative Press named it the "most important band in metal." Meshuggah has been described as virtuoso or genius-bordering musicians, "recognized by mainstream music magazines, especially those dedicated to particular instruments". In 2007, Meshuggah earned an in-depth analysis by the academic journal Music Theory Spectrum. Meshuggah has found little mainstream success but is a significant act in extreme underground music and an influence for many modern metal bands. According to guardian.co.uk, Meshuggah coined the onomatopoeic term "djent", describing an "elastic, syncopated guitar riff", that later gave a name to the microgenre.