Introduction to Meshuggah’s Rhythmic Style

Alternate title: “Music theorists react to Meshuggah!“ Second alternate title: “So you’ve heard of a Meshuggah, but what does it do and what is it used for?“ There are a few versions of this type of thing on Youtube, but I haven’t seen any that draw on the very cool scholarship about Meshuggah’s music. Here I try to both explain the basics of Meshuggah’s style and show some of the directions that their music, and scholarship about their music, have gone. In alphabetical order, here are the sources I mention. I realize not all are easy to access; if you really want to read something but don’t have institutional access and don’t want to pay for it, try contacting the author! I love knowing that people want to read my work and am happy to send a pdf if possible, and that’s been my experience with most scholars. For some very cool visualizations and interpretations of riffs, and several in-depth analyses (including of “Do No