Meshuggah Metal Riff Lesson Part 1 

" I just improvise til it sounds cool. " Best creative advice ever. Seriously.

Fredrik is so djent, even his voice is noise gated.

"Line 6, the tube." "I just improvise until it sounds cool, on the album. Live, I just improvise." -Fredrik, speaking his wisdom

Marten and Fredrik = The Penn & Teller of metal.

"This is the E string, but I use it as a crash".

i love how fredrick doesn't really talk, yet he is the master mind behind meshuggah

Probably the only video we can hear fredrik speaking english

This video is literally gold. Can’t believe this was uploaded 11 years ago. Time flies!

"There's nothing intricate about it as far as the bars and like the time signature goes (4/4) - it's the polyrhythmic stuff, how it moves...and how it doesn't always come to the same place every time it moves over." The genius of this approach is that they're dividing their notes which in sum total are multiples of 4/4 into odd-groups that phase in and out of the underlying 4/4 pulse. Polymeter is actually the precise term theory wise since their notes spill over the bars and don't align on the 1 for multiple measures whereas polyrhythms tend to resolve within the bars. Only Dick in the band is theory trained however so using the terms interchangeably really isn't a big deal since they're quite similar concepts and something they don't really calculate (they do however analyse it on the computer when it comes to arranging everything). Tomas prefers to call it odd-note groupings or odd-time cycles, however he's always listening to the 4/4 beneath and not so much the syncopating notes cycling around it. I love how humble they are because while yeah the math is fairly straightforward, writing it all creatively, making it musical and executing it tightly are very difficult, and much harder than just chop and changing odd time-sigs here and there like other progressive bands. Heck even Tool started incorporating Meshuggah's polymetric approach in some of their more recent songs.

2:32 best solo every written!!!

8:30 Fredrik is NOT human!

When Fredrik said "This is actually a bass string", I just gained 10 kilos of heavyness

2:20 very important words about how they get their sound

7:16 DAYUM

Probably already mentioned but "guitarists Fredrik Thordendal and Marten Hagstrom (above left and right, respectively)"... but Fredrik is on the rigth in the video...

been listening to their new ablum lately it is unbelievable how they create those sound using guitar and drums

70 gauge 8th string tuned down half a step. So essentially Meshuggah has 3 bass players

In my my stupid ass opinion, Meshuggah always entertains me. Even if there was no real "lesson" here it's cool to hear about different aspects of their music etc.

Great stuff. I met Marten but I'm pissed that I lost my Obzen tour shirt because I had to go to hospital after an injury and it was cut off.

1:31 Marten realizing Fredrik just talked

this is actually a bass string

Yeah, Meshuggah's sound is like distorted bass guitar, which is badass.

I learned so many great riffs from watching this video.

two of the most beautiful 8 strings i've ever seen!! D:

Next, Meshuggah will play concert on city street...with guitars from telephone poles and cables, not strings

man i love that guitar tone!!!

"I just improvise 'til it sounds cool, on the albums. And live, I just improvise." Lmao. I fucking love Meshuggah.

where is the "dat 240p" comment?

Fredrik has a Iceman 8 string..damn thats beastly!!

To all musicians, fans of Meshuggah I just want to tell that they have said times and times that they do not think their music in terms of time signatures and polyrhythms ... They have just been practicing a personnal, challenging music taste for more than 20 years starting at, say, a medium level, and this is what we get today. It's a will to surprise and not be too predictable among other things. A strong identity that evolved over 20 years.

frederik is a Wizard, he even talks like a wizard. "Seventy"

major props on the celtic frost hoodie!!

love this guys !! ;)

Meshuggah and Ministry Tour? Must've been incredible!!

I saw them four days ago, Damn, shit was awesome, such a bass rumble with every single instrument

My thought exactly!

i have been a drummer for 25ish years, i have picked up bass and guitar a few times over the years and never cared to really stick with it to any major degree... but if my guitar/bass sounded anything like theirs, i would sit there all day dorking around with it.

That was a great line: "I just improvise it until it sounds cool on the albums. And live I just improvise." :D

the grandpas geetars

Gods.

That's what's really cool

I think Meshuggah is one of the most quality death-trash metal bands on this plant since their first album.

i'm glad to know they sufffered the same suffering i do while learning bleed

@SnoodNoodler True .... they are very much a band that has polyrythmic beats to the extreme ..... Being a drummer, I am inspired and blown away by Thomas Haake.

@Marshallfan567 the thing is, since they use a 30 inch scale, it stretches the strings a lot more than a regular 25.5 or 27.5 scale length, so it probably feels a lot tighter than you think

Frederiks guitar looks like the United States

Dear God, that tone. That. Tone.

This is old...Saw them this year and Fredrik was playing through a Digitech RP1000...Sounded soooo sic...

This is actually a bass string. yeah it is... I love these guys

loving marten's celtic frost longsleeve

*F (super damn low)* *A# (low)* *D# (low)* *G#* *C#* *F#* *A#* *D# (high)*

I would take life for those guitars.

Fredrik really needs to hop his D onto a new Special defects album.

Nice.

All Art All Pop !!!!

I love Meshuggah. Pure fucking geniuses who have created their own sound and their own style that no one should EVER try to duplicate. Meshuggah is meshuggah is what it is and it's forever what it is.

8:34 That chuckle.

you are damn right!!

"Poor bastard...." "He likes it"

At 4:00 - THAT is the sound I was trying to find out about. He says it's not really chugging... I thought that was some kind of chord, but it's more of a sound. It really comes out in Electric Red, Lethargica, and a few other tunes on Obzen. It rules! I actually want speakers that make that low rumble jump out.

They use Veta IIs, which are modelling amps. So they can basically have any tone they want directly from the head. They don't use cabs either, the Vettas are directly connected to the PA. Their setup is as clean as it can be.

"Unfortunately... *rollseyes* I have NO idea what kind of wood selection..." I lol'd.

@linitweapon CANNOT WAIT FOR KOLOSS!

@Azgaroth666 Well, I was right about the maple and the Alder lol. What's the main body wood?

I just saw on different forums that he has two different tunings : 5 strings : Bb3 Eb3 Ab3 Db3 Gb3 4 strings : Standard tuning , up half on each strings

@iancidplaysguitar The scale length on their guitars is about 4 inches longer than standard strat style guitars, the tension on those strings will be much MUCH higher than it would using the same strings and tuning on any other guitar.

Someone can tell me what is the tuning of meshuggah for six syrings?

no, they switched to using the fractal audio axeFX, which is a rack preamp

God, I love Marten's Iceman guitar.

Actually Meshuggah uses Line6 Vetta II heads. Still I saw information that Meshuggah also had started to use Fractal Audio AxeFX Ultra processors.

I just improvise until it sounds cool. Yes Frederik. Yes.

I've got an Ibanez RG2228 and I'm in 74 for the F# (in standard tuning), and in 64 for the B, so I assume they are running something like 54 or 62 for the low B. But as they probably said, there 8 strings guitars have a 29.4" scale, which is huge (RG2228 has 27" scale), so a 70 gauge is not the same for them than for us, even if they mostly play in F (standard tuning 1/2 step down). Rawk on!

@th1nkman Not true, dear Sir. Pickups are Lundgren M8=) Guitarz are maple neck-through with ebony fingerboard and alder wings.

These were the first 8 strings I saw when I was 15 and thought it was crazy....and now there's nine

Good point! ;-)

@Theseventhknight Scale length changes the tension considerably.

those are monsters of guitars. i love that iceman though.

@musicguitarlessons whoa are you gonna make a video on it?

I've always made that sound by just fretting a note on the lowest string, then on the next string fret one fret higher, and one fret higher on the string after that. That's what i was trying to convey through my ghetto tab haha. Its a power chord except with a diminished instead of a perfect fifth. Alot of death metal bands use that for the sheer growl it produces. On bass if you did that with distortion it would probably bring your walls down. Hope that helped, have fun \m/

@Theseventhknight I got a 0.72 on 25,5' 7 string and when i tune to f it falls like spaghetti, on a 30,5' it must be really tight.

when he says: the tension and the measure is able to carry the tone.. thats the whole deal. what is he meaning? that in part the sheer mass of the guitar and added tension of the 7th and 8th strings is adding to the overall tone?? can anyone explain please?

Standard tunings: 7 string - BEADGBE 8 string - F#BEADGBE

@horrorandmetalfan001 Have you not listened to songs until the solos such as on one of their most famous tracks 'New Millenium Cyanide Christ'?

Sorry for multiplying posts 5 strings is Bb-F-Bb-Eb-Ab

@Xiphos707fx yeah fredriks on the right its backwards on the description

With locking tuners, restringing an 8 string is actually a little faster than restringing a 6 string.

@dujl 100% agree John Frusciante said it best "It's not about showing what you can do with a piece of wood and some strings, it's all about the music."

even when Fredrick is just sitting he has to still practise, thats why hes so insane

yea but but do they have this sound. like that dull no eco kind of sound like these guys guitars?

Meshuggah are probably the only band that could make a line 6 vetta 2 amp sound good.

i'm not quite sure if it the same size but if I remember right then they use bass strings at least some times

@EliteNoodle249 they have one coming out in 2012

wat guitars are best for this kind of metal??

Yep, correct.

@Marshallfan567 so u gauge it as a 8 string like me?

cool

@DezeroMusic For sure they are underrated.I am still playing on 6th string guitar still haven't played ever on 7th string and even talk about 8th :)

Does anyone know what Line 6 product they used in this era? Kinda keen to find one and try to replicate their tone via that

Swedish bomb guitarists love em love their music

line 6 FTW!!!!