Riff Analysis 001- Meshuggah "Bleed"
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 12 ก.ย. 2024
- What's going on in the hardest part of the notoriously hard "Bleed"? Armed with clunky animations, I take a closer look and offer some thoughts on music that is really tricky to play but kind of unassuming on the surface.
"Bleed" music video: • MESHUGGAH - Bleed (Off...
"Bleed" tab: tabs.ultimate-...
Meshuggah interview: • Meshuggah Metal Riff L...
Further reading on Meshuggah:
Capuzzo, Guy. 2018. “Rhythmic Deviance in the Music of Meshuggah.” Music Theory Spectrum 40 (1): 121-37. doi.org/10.109....
Hannan, Calder. 2018. “Difficulty as Heaviness: Links between Rhythmic Difficulty and Perceived Heaviness in the Music of Meshuggah and The Dillinger Escape Plan.” Metal Music Studies 4 (3): 433-58. doi.org/10.138....
Hudson, Stephen. 2014. “Fragments of Riffs and Small Alterations in Meshuggah’s ‘ObZen.’” Metal In Theory (blog). June 30, 2014. metalintheory.c....
---. 2016. “Disconnecting Rhythm and Pitch in Meshuggah’s ‘Nostrum.’” Metal In Theory (blog). October 8, 2016.
metalintheory.c....
Lucas, Olivia. 2018. “‘So Complete in Beautiful Deformity’: Unexpected Beginnings and Rotated Riffs in Meshuggah’s ObZen.” Music Theory Online 24 (3). mtosmt.org/issu....
Pieslak, Jonathan. 2007. “Re-Casting Metal: Rhythm and Meter in the Music of Meshuggah.” Music Theory Spectrum 29 (2): 219-45. doi.org/10.152....
Smialek, Eric. 2008. “Re-Thinking Metal Aesthetics: Complexity, Authenticity, and Audience in Meshuggah’s I and Catch 33.” Masters Thesis, Montreal: McGill University.
Meshuggah song learning is 50% training physically to play it and 50% studying the actual math to understand what the hell is going on
33% training 33% math 33% meth
And a 100% reason to remember the name
@@amarr8634 Math Meth the best kind!!
@@amarr8634 *mushrooms
@@yehm813what a fucking reference jezus
This made me consider that Tool riffs are basically a slowed version of the fast Meshuggah riffs.
Definitely parallels. Can't be argued.
They're both really rhythmic bands who are often harmonically stagnant for long periods of time
Gonna listen to their latest album at 2x speed now 👀
Can you suggest some Tool songs? I really need to get into them!
@@brentos5001 The Pot is their most accessible song
I always just think of it as 5 5 3 1 3, that's how many eighth notes are between each gallop.
Yep! Pretty sure that's how I learned it. That would be an example of "Meshuggah counting," which I talk about in my other Meshuggah videos. Thanks for watching!
I do 6 6 4 2 4 as I count the gallop as 1
Exactly how i learned it too.
The craziest thing about Bleed is that "Malfunction the means for its ascent" part is actually 4/4.
That's the similar thing I noticed with Obzen. When I first heard it my brain wouldn't register the 4/4
That's the amazing thing about Meshuggah! They are quite rightfully held up as one of the most rhythmically complicated bands. But almost everything is actually in 4/4 with snare on the the 3 like any other run-of-the-mill song. Just crazy shit layered on top of that.
@@iaintwiddy6836 I wonder how much of this is due to their early albums being written on a drum machine by Tomas. Machines and computers naturally push you to 4/4, and he mostly uses Cubase to write stuff, and he and the rest of the band learn it afterwards.
@@Patrick-857 Who knows except them, I guess. But IMO the 4/4 underlay provides the stability for all the other complexities overtop. If everything was playing the complex rhythms then it would seem disjointed. The contrast between the trance inducing simplicity along with the creative complexity creates the effect. Like a perfectly seasoned dish. :)
@@iaintwiddy6836 It's a pretty hypnotic effect. I love how simple their formula is, and yet how insanely complex the finished product is.
Tool is complex yet groovy and hypnotic too, but I don't think they have as much of a clearly defined formula. Each song is different.
God that 77535 riff is so difficult for me right now. After getting the main riff down, I felt like a god, but that 77535 riff really taxes your pattern and tempo skills more than your physical skills. Still practicing and slowly making progress. Bleed managed to improve my picking technique and for some reason, I feel like I gained muscle in my arm after playing it often. Really inspiring content!
Thanks! Yeah that first pattern is a big hurdle, but this 77535 thing is something else entirely. So physically demanding, so easy to lose your place. Definitely a new sort of demand on my wrists and forearms.
the 77535 pattern became all about feel for me as time went on and it become second nature as it suddenly becomes "groovy" if that makes any sense
Dude, this is brilliant! I literally search "meshuggah" under most recent upload date every day looking for this kind of content! Please keep doing these , I'd love to see you tackle dancers, straws pulled at random or glints collide!
Thanks so much! I’ll be making more as fast as I can! In the meantime, I also have a bunch of low-tech versions of these, including several more on Meshuggah (though none of those songs), on my Instagram!
@@metalmusictheory5401 sweet dude, shoot me your insta 🙌
HaroldLimest @calderhannan
@@metalmusictheory5401 cool! I got you
I came here to say this!
I love his response in "i don't know" when asked about why they put that much stuff into the song, when nobody is gonna hear it.
Yet, all this work has paid off tremendously, as the song has become a case study for all metal lovers who play themselves. It has become a measuring stick for polyrhythm and stamina, as well as technique and that's what makes this song so great.
As soon as I saw the thumbnail I knew it would be this exact riff.
I've been able to play the rest of Bleed for over a year now but not this part. Like you said, it's an utter wall.
As a swede who loves Meshuggah, it's so cool to see someone across the Atlantic, who has the same kind of love for this band. And furthermore, to put the time in to learn, analyze and explain the music too. Really inspiring.
One planet, one world.
This broken rhythm is my favorite part!
6:18 I think it's because you make music for yourself. Music that you love personally. Those details and complications that make zero sense from a fan perspective is, for me, exactly what provides a big chunk of self-fulfilment making music. You do it, because you can and because you want to 🤷♂️.
I agree completely!
As soon as I saw the Car Bomb shirt I immediately knew that shit was about to go down
Very good analysis. Meshuggah is a cool band and very low key, I live in the same city with mutual friends and they really are a timeless band.
This was gold, thank you so much
Whenever I blast this in my car, I always tap to the rhythm on my dash board, and I could never fucking do this part lol. I totally get it now! Thanks for the breakdown of it (pun totally intended) I love you’re style man. I smashed the “cubscribe” button. Get a little inflection in your voice when you talk about your passions though, think like a newscaster, how they bring their voice up and down n shit. It’ll make this stuff even more interesting to new guys. Can wait for the next vid. Do some Old Veil of Maya or early After the Burial next!
I actually prefer his neutral tone. It comes across sincerer to me than the affectionate youtube style that's already all over the place.
Thanks for the analyses dude! Your explanations are really clear and as an added bonus we see how this stuff is actually played and it's just you and your guitar sound without any loud backing tracks. You got yourself a subscriber.
The last-minute joke at 7:00 seems to have gone unappreciated here but man do i love me some good dry humor 👌🏼
For me i find myself naturally coming up with rythmic patterns when coming up with riffs with less notes to make it interesting and memorable. Meshuggah and Tool are the masters. Deftones drummer Abe was the first time i heard this idea of exploring rythmic ideas within the one riff and letting it breathe/bleed. ❤
This youtube Chanel provides the best analysis I've found of complex rhythm. It is ivory tower stuff explained so clearly I can understand. Awsome!
I also find this riff very interesting. it's hard to play with drums and at the original tempo even if you understand the pattern. It's because the metre of drums is 4/4 but the metre of guitars is 27/16 and each repeat of the riff begins at a different drum rhythm stage, sometimes not even with drum notes but between them.
Exactly!
Just found your channel and I really enjoy it because I learn lots about the music I’ve loved for years! Keep up the good work man!
Great video! Meshuggah able to make something like this enjoyable for a casual listener and also for music nerds is a true sign of skill. I love analyzing metal theory and look forward to your other videos!
I love how you really play with passion, eyes closed, just living in the moment
Been waiting for a video like this FOREVER. I literally can play the rest of the song for over a year now but could never fucking understand this part no matter how many times I’d listened to it, it makes a lot more sense now. Thank you bro!
I've always struggled to grasp the rhythm pattern on this part. Your video helped a hell of a lot. Thank you dude! Subbed.
"Sike, Lomment, and Cubscribe" hahahaha you got me there
Amazing content on your channel
Subscribed!
Loved the overlay with the 4/4 counter. I think I usually bob my head to the 1 and 3 from the 4/4.
Great video, and fantastic that you can show by playing along!
Hey man, great video! Subscribed! Please allow me to talk briefly about the "bizarre complicated things". You speak from my heart when you say that thinking about these things makes you enjoy the songs even more. I totally agree. Furthermore, I would like to share a technical term from the realm of philosophy: When something is being done not in order to fullfill a certain purpose but "just because", we call that intrinsic value. In my humble opinion that is one of core aspects of art in general. Greetings from Germany
Exactly! My other philosophical / aesthetic idea about this is the sublime and the sense of awe: the idea of realizing that something is much bigger / more complicated than you originally thought. Which I think appeals to a lot of people who are fans of this stuff. Thanks for watching!
@@metalmusictheory5401 Aaahh ... the sublime. Very nice :) Thank you for your answer and your Videos. Keep up the great work!
Siked, Lommented and Cubscribed. :)
I've been enamored with Meshuggah ever since I first heard them in 2010 and they remain my absolute favourite band in all of music.
Being a drummer and bass player myself I have tremendous love and appreciation for their art. It's a very fun exercise to get a Meshuggah song down and lock in perfectly with the album.
I'm self taught and have barely any music theory knowledge, I just have a very good ear and dedication to this music.
Hearing your formal, well structured breakdowns of this music is much appreciated.
And I fully agree, this section of Bleed is an absolute brain twister. I must admit, I've never been able to get this section of the song down until now because I keep losing track of the repetition of the pattern.
I will give it another go, now that you blessed me with this insight into what our favourite Swedes are doing in that verse. Thank you for producing this video. Cheers!
Thanks so much!
dude, you explained this so clearly even i was able to understand it! massive props
It's great to see what I've never grasped in what I hear and love.
Complexity is one of my favourite things in music. Pneuma by Tool for example has a very complex drum track but doesn't sound it. I've seen it described as 33/8 with a midsection of alternating swiss triplets over 4/4.
Also, another way to keep that rhythm steady while playing and not confuse the count is realizing that there can only fit an odd number of notes between the first 3-note groups of each herta. Thats because you can never start a herta with an upstroke, so they had to play an odd number of notes in between the "triplets" to reset their hands for a downstroke on the next herta. Heres what i mean in detail:
So the pattern goes like this:
(000)-[0-0-0-0-0]-(000)-[0-0-0-0-0]-(000)-[0-0-0]-(000)-[0]-(000)-[0-0-0]-
1) So you should stop hearing the pattern as hertas but rather a 3-note group followed by an odd number of 0-s. Youll see that the odd number of 0-s always resets your hand for a downpick right before a new herta starts, and the 3-note groups serve as kind of accents that give you the pulse of the riff. Dont try to follow the beat of the song right away, first learn the entire 27-note pattern by heart then play along with the song only counting and concentrating on the riff subdivisions and not the snare/backbeat. It will be really hard at first, start at 70% speed and build your way up and id suggest learning the whole song at 90% speed and practicing for a couple of weeks like that before switching to 100, its shocking how relatively easy it is at 90% and becomes seemingly impossible when you switch to 100%. Btw, theres a software called Transcribe! which is really useful for slowing down tracks, isolating/EQ-ing, etc, its a great practice tool.
2) Its REALLY important to tighten up your upstroke for this song. There are many places where the upstroke falls on the downbeat or other accents, so you need to start perceiving the upstroke as something you start riffs with, not just an incidental side effect of alternate picking. Start practicing reverse hertas where it starts with the 8th note, eg instead of 000-0-, try 0-000-, and play the first 0 with an upstroke, in fact its the same riff sans the first note, you just have to keep your internal rhythm and perceive the upstroke as the first beat as practicing to a metronome could be as confusing as playing the actual song. Speaking of metronomes...
3) One of the hardest things to keep track of is the actual placement of the pulse in the main/intro riff. Sure you can play it up to speed after some practice, but youre never quite sure where exactly the 4/4 pulse accents fall at that speed, is it on that middle 0 of the "triplet"? Is it on the last one? You dont know. One way to check this is to play the riff without any backing/click track and seeing if you can actually keep the 4/4 feel with nodding your head or tapping the foot. Most likely not. So its really important to nail it down and know exactly where the pulse falls. This one thing really makes a huge difference in how you perceive the whole song later on. It transforms it from the incomprehensible mindfuck to something you can actually feel like you can feel any easy 4/4 song with no polymeters. So the accents on the main riff fall in this pattern:
[0]00-0-00[0]-0-000-[0]-000-0-.
And thats it. Thats the whole repeating cycle as far as where the accents of the pulse fall. The confusing element is the fact that this pattern only contains 3 of the 4 beats in a 4/4 rhythm, so theres always an unaccounted for 1/4 beat, and thats why the snare falls on a different one of those highlighted accents each time. The cycle completes after every 3 bars, so you have the first herta on a downbeat every 3 bars, here i marked the first and 3rd beats of every bar, 3rd is where the snare falls and the (1) in brackets is where the pattern restarts with the downbeat:
[0]00-0-00[0]-0-000-[0]-000-0-[0]00-0-00[0]-0-000-[0]-000-0-[0]00-0-00[0]-0-000-[0]-000-0-[0]00-0-00[0]-0-000-[0]-000-0-[0]00-0-00[0]-0-000-[0]-000-0-
1------------------------------3-----------------------------1----------------------------3------------------------------1-----------------------------3---------------------------(1)
A good way to practice this is to replace the accented "0"-s with 12s or any other note and go slow trying to feel the beat. Youll notice your fretting finger moves in exactly to the beat in equally spaced intervals and sort of replaces the metronome. Also notice how some of the accents fall on the upstroke as ive said above, you really need to articulate the dynamics of those accents and the upstrokes more so.
If you spend enough time youll then start to feel the actual beat of the song, regardless of which riff youre playing (with the notable exemption of the one at 1:41 in the song (not this video), its the easiest to play but the hardest to keep the 4/4 feel of, you just kinda learn the whole pattern an go with it). As for the particular riff in this video, it will come eventually, its just one of those riffs where you have to constantly pay attention, it almost never lets you off. Sorry for the wall of text, hope this helps someone, cheers.
For sure! Yeah I don't get much into the tricks and things that helped me learn it but I've done most of these at some point and they'll definitely help someone! Thanks so much!
Absolutely great details there, never taught it would be that much complexity in there as well, i suscribed right away keep going you know your stuff and you explain it like a pro!
i listened to all kinds of metal in my life but one thing i love about meshuggah is that when get the pattern in the song (drums or guitar), the song gets a lot more immersive and fun to listen to because its like you think all the time and not only listen passively to the song.
Cal, this is amazing!
Thanks man! Hope you're doing well.
man if bleed wasn't hard enough already this riff alone is one of the hardest riffs ever. thanks for making a video on it
@5:20 that gif is really grooving. man. "sicket jävla tung-gung" as we say in sweden.
1:49 Yeah that’s the riff I was thinking of before this video started. Honestly may be the hardest part of the song and I’ve tried figuring it out before. I found it to have sort of a 5, 5, 3, 1, 3, pattern then it repeats (the numbers being the open notes before each triplet)
dude... love the car bomb representation in these videos
Love the car bomb shirt
This is my absolute favourite part of the song also after finally comprehending it’s concept.
This riff was my favorite moment in Bleed, and it really gives the song its soul. Every time I get to this part, I just want to roll my eyes back, and become some kind of robot.
I correctly guessed that THIS would be the part... I love the aggressive "revving" feeling... powerful stuff
Just saw this and i liked and subscribed. Keep ip the good work.
Your content is A M A Z I N G !!! Please continue.
Hearing that first riff ramp up faster and faster until it was Bleed tempo was such a cool way of showing how difficult this song is to perform
Thank you Metal Music Theory for this video. I agree completely that the most unassuming riff in Bleed is the most difficult by far. Currently working on a drum cover and I can attest that it is crazy difficult to try and master the 77535 pattern offer the standard 4/4 cymbals + snare. I thought I would struggle with the opening and closing riffs because they have so many notes, but that is where I feel the most comfortable. Cheers.
I can't imagine playing this on drums and keeping both patterns going at the same time, just playing the one on guitar is hard enough! Good luck!
I love that section aswell. Super enjoyable and easy to understand breakdown! I aspire to learn Bleed at some point, I’ll be sure to come back here when the time comes! Take care, friend.
I noticed that riff on the first listen.
But it turned out to be waaaaay more complex than I expected.
Thank you for analysis.
Someday I'll learn to play the whole song just for the doubtful fun of it.
Dude your channel rocks man. Good stuff!!!
As always love your stuff, sick shirt
This is awesome! There's so much more about music theory I'd love to learn, and often I find myself wanting to know it in relation to compositional choices made in metal songs. So, thanks for sharing your breakdowns and insight for plebs like me to learn from! Off to more videos!
Love your videos! They're exactly what I've been loooking for a long time! Thank you so much and keep making more please :)
One of the best analysis videos on TH-cam! Subscribed.
man ur channel is so good
Finally the remaining Part of bleed which i cant Play on Drums without crashing. No Progress since First learning the Main part, unbelievable.. Great Videos!!
Indeed that was the only part in bleed i couldn‘t figure out. Thx for your work man
I need to quit being lazy and practice. Glad you're putting out straight forward content thank you.
So True,
The more I look at bleed with a magnifying glass, the more I am in love with it.
It was a doozy to do the vocal cover,
and it is crazy fun when you can play it just right on the guitar.
Also there's a reason why your favourite drummers, favourite drummer is Haake.
Awesome video. Here before your channel blows up.
This channel is criminally underrated
This is, honestly, one of my keast favorite Meshuggah songs. Don't get me wrong, it's incredible, and I've seen it live, which is another level of technicality, but it is vastly overshadowed by so many ither great Meshuggah songs, I skip over it more than any other
Loved the video bro keep it up!!
Sick channel bro! Keep up the awesome work big fan of your content
so much way to go, but so excited for the journey!... regards to all my fellow Meshuggah fans 🫶🏻
3:30 Someone is doing meditation with Meshuggah beats
Haha that's the goal
Really cool video! I look forward to watching more.
isn't it wonderful how something can become seemingly MORE complicated by analyzing it ? especially if its something that's played fast.. there is so much opportunity for note by note analysis to get you completely lost. i really think if you want to get this down you have to think in a more "condenced" way about rythmical patterns.. its like a stamp you put in something that gives you an "negative" for breaks, rather then a rythm for every hit. Or trying to structure to a slower beat beneath the actual one.. and focus on the "on beats" within that one to get the pattern.
Amazing channel so far. Love it
I've always wondered what Jens pays more attention to for his vocals: the riff patterns or the underlying quadruple meter rock beats. But I guess it must change from song to song.
An interesting question! From the little bit of analysis I've done I think it probably changes riff to riff and even changes within riffs, where he'll line up with the guitars for a few beats and with the drums for a few beats (and I saw or read something about this not too long ago; might have been on Daniel Crawford's channel but I'm not sure). But I have to do some more digging; I've ignored the vocals in my Meshuggah analysis for too long
I can't imagine timing the vocals to be that difficult. Just listening along I always know where they are personally.
@@tonycarpaccio9550 Yeah, because you've heard the song 100 times before perhaps? xD
Just from listening to how they're structured, I have a feeling he mostly listens to the drums. The vocals are almost always more predominantly following the 4/4 pulse. Certain parts that jump out where they feel more synched with the guitars I think are just from the way that he probably writes certain words to line up with them, but I don't get the sense that those serve as his basis for *counting* the part.
In the koloss documentary, they talk about how Jens marks the lyrics on the rhythm of the track, so I assume he follows both. In Obzen, frederick and tomas made him sing exactly as they wanted him to
Hey man, thanks so much for doing what you do. I really appreciate it.
love the car bomb shirt!
Excellent breakdown of an awesome song, mate.
Love your channel bro, great work!
Absolutely great. Excellent videos
amazing channel this is
Great video! I definitely love the math behind metal, even tho I can’t understand some of it for crap. As a drummer, I try my best tho
The analysis here is awesome. But just to be clear, Fredrik thought of that part as just chugging with accents. start the riff with the accent, and sprinkle it in there after every third accent with a 4th to play with the rhythm.
Omg! Sike & Lomment are my absolute favourite metal bands! I don't know Cubscribe, but will definitely be checking them out!
|m| hell yeah!
I don't even understand that much music theory but this stuff is sick imo
Great video. Extra points for the Car Bomb shirt!
I've always wondered about that part! It's such a flat "plane" of notes that I could never really pick where it repeated.. not that I'm a good enough guitarist to actually play it :P but good work in figuring it out!
Dude!!! Subscribe AF! Can you analyze Monuments and obviously Car Bomb too?
Thank you! And yep, I have a long video about Car Bomb that I did for a conference and will post here eventually. And I'll add Monuments to my list!
I loved this! thanks man
I can definitely hear it
that riff is hypnotizing!! can you do for tesseract concealing fate? we will love it!!
nice Carbomb shirt, awesome video too. You should make a theory video on them, people milk that metric modulation 15/16 / 13/16 section on TH-cam.
Haha, just saw that you made a video on Blackened Battery, I’m assuming based on the Quintuplets?
That's my favorite part of the song. Hits so damn hard.
thanks so much for this man, I had major issues with playing this at speed. I could get it for a bar or two and kept losing it. Especially with the timing around the string stretch.
"....every time you repeat 27/16 notes...." gsus....
Still can not recall how i properly moshed to this....
When I first heard Bleed back in the day, it reminded me of Jambi by Tool, but you know.. more demented.
This bit is fucking up us drummers as well. Literally took me equally as long to nail this part down as much as the rest of the song. AND it's the first bit that disappears from muscle memory, the bastard.
Thank you for the vid mate!
Thank you
Finally i know what the bass drum pattern is
Quality video, keep em coming!
Amazing vids and channel man, youre really summing up all the things i want to share with people about metal and Meshuggah in particular.
One thing, i think youre playing the breakdown at 5:02 slightly wrong, the last note before the open 8th string should not be palm muted. Also in the very next riff the last note on each herta pattern should be a tritone "chord", easier to play on the 6th string instead imo, like this:
----------1~
111-1-0~
There are separate tracks for each instrument on youtube (extracted from either Rock Band or Guitar Hero), you can download them and listen closely, youll see for yourself, a lot of the tabs have it notated that way too.
:55 Fredrik doing the very exact riff in acoustic hahah
Great! Hope to see more like this.
Thanks, stay tuned!
I personally think the hardest part of “Bleed” is the section at 1:42, but not based on physical demand. It’s a bit tricky to mentally tune into the 4/4 pulse when the accents shift on the offbeats in so many places in that section.
For sure! Really hard to play to a metronome without hearing the recording.
@@metalmusictheory5401 what Byron said for sure. I've been having a way harder time grabbing the pattern for this than the pattern for the part shown in this vid, maybe because it's more than two notes? my face is getting a permanent hand mark from all the palming
Because..... that’s the way they feel it bro!.🤘
Awesome video! I’m trying to play this song and I’m still trying to build speed on the first riff- I’m stuck around 100 bpm, can’t get to 115, any tips on how to get your wrist to physically move that fast to play the down up?? Is it almost a “twitch” Type thing or really just a sped up version of a normal picking action?