Meshuggah

Meshuggah

http://www.meshuggah.net
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Biography

Dick Lörgren - bass
Tomas Haake - drums
Fredrik Thorndendal - guitar
Jens Kidman - vocals
Mårten Hagström - guitar

Meshuggah (Yiddish for crazy) began in the town of Umeå, Sweden back in the late eighties. A time when Slayer had just released 'Reign in Blood' and bands like Judas Priest, Saxon and Iron Maiden were making the rounds despite the lack of MTV in Sweden, the band blames the big interest in heavy metal on the weather. Meshuggah's mix of math metal and oddball tempos of experimental jazz has always kept them on the major list of the underground metal scene.

To begin their story we have to start with a band called Metallien. Metallien were Roger Olofsson (vocals), Peder Gustafsson (guitar), Fredrick Tordendal (guitar), Janne Wiklund (bass) and Örjan Lundmark (drums). After a series of demos they broke up but these were the roots of Meshuggah. Thordendal continued the work ethics of the band and recruited Jens Kidman (vocals), Johan Sjögren (guitars), Jörgen Lindmark (bass) and Per Sjögren (drums) to form Meshuggah in 1987. A complicated pattern of events occured with members joining other bands and bands changing names but eventually Meshuggah had a stable line up for a year. In 1988 the band released a three song mini-album 'Psykisk Testbild'. Tomas Haake replaced the drummer Örjan Lundmark just before Nuclear Blast decided to sign them. But Meshuggah never had the mindset of getting famous or impressing the girls it was just something they did. They released 'Contradictions Collapse' in 1991. They then decided they needed a second guitarist so in came Mårten Hagström to record 1993's EP release 'None' and two years later 'Self Caged'. Then injuries plagued the band as Thordendal severed a finger whilst carpentering and Haak injuring his hand in a mysterious grinder mishap.

They returned in late 1995 with 'Destroy Erase Improve' that included a tour as support slot to Machine Head. During this tour the bassist Peter Nondin became ill and had to return to Sweden. The rest of the tour saw them manage without him even though Machine Head's bassist offered to step in. Scandinavian and German tour with Clawfinger followed. The next tour with Hypocrisy saw them recruit Gustaf Hielm on bass (but he wasn't officially a permenant member till January 1998).

'True Human Design' EP was released in 1997 and the band relocated to Stockholm to be closer to their management and their record company.

Thordendal started on a side project Special Defects and released 'Sol Niger Within'

Meanwhile Meshuggah kept releasing albums 'Choasphere' in 1998 was followed by a successful tour with Entombed through Scandinavia that started to see them recognised in mainstream magazines. A US tour with Slayer finally went ahead and the band started playing all the major rock festivals, Meshuggah's popularity rocketed, unfortunately internal issues within the band ment Gustaf had to leave in July 2001.

At this point the guys were making it big enough to actually quit their day jobs and Hagström started playing a custom made eight string guitar. In 2002 Meshuggah started a massive tour of the US with Tool, playing in front of 100,000+ audiences then with the support of JAck Osbourne appeared at the 2002 Ozzfest.

Meshuggah release 'Catch 33' in 2005. It consists of only one track that is a huge forty-seven minutes long. This is their fifth album in a career that has spanned over 18 years. read less

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