Riff Analysis 069 - Meshuggah "In Death - Is Death" p3 (+ full band playthrough!)

[@Guiquipedia]

We have never in the history of humanity been more back

[@DannyJ_bass]

Hated and loved every second learning this song. Thanks for pushing me and thanks for having me!

[@TheSquareOnes]

All three of you killed it, great work.

[@cjyacoub]

describes my experience perfectly as well. was a fantastic (and maddening) challenge

[@trialbyicecream]

Wow a whole band performance! I was NOT expecting this after reading the title!

[@growlandroll]

"Altered snakes and ladders" that's the best description I have seen for all of those parts you've written there LOL. Thank you for dissecting this piece of art, really fan of your work!!

[@drumkidstu]

HALF STEP. This is awesome man! Top 5 meshuggah track for me. Up there with GHSIM, Pineal Gland Optics, Stifled/Nostrum, and TVSOR. I love just the absolute reckless abandonment of these riffs. Just reflections of themselves over and over. So intricately written and thought out. They never really go in depth about their compositional approach, just usually scratching the surface, but you can tell they can go to just huge lengths to write interesting music and they absolutely do. Proper nerd stuff on Meshuggah’s part.

[@roseredflechette-vidya]

I can't remember if I mentioned this to you before, could've sworn I did, but I was surprised you didn't mention it either way - the "altered snakes and ladders" riff coincidentally seems easier to play - in terms of fingering - if you treat the octave-displaced notes as the first notes of descending minor 7ths. Compositionally its mind-blowing that it works out this way, and it only does because of the ascending whole-tone nature of the original riff (ensuring that any evenly staggered octave displacement creates minor 7ths/major 9ths). I couldn't play this riff for ages because I was trying to orient my fingering from low to high notes, which results in some massive 5-6 fret stretches, and when I started orienting myself from the high notes and treating the riff as a series of descents, that's when I noticed how almost all the octaves form minor 7ths on the descent, and suddenly it became a piece of cake to play. Its just really cool that it works this way, and makes me wonder if the un-altered riff wasn't composed in such a way as to allow this.

[@LiamGaughan]

JFC. Worth the wait. Thank you. And the cover, really really insane. Especially considering its no secret that every 16th of a meshuggah recording is quantized to perfection.

[@Blackerer]

That snakes and ladders riff is what got me into Meshuggah. That was something so mind twisting to me back then, that it was only matched by Gorguts, but Ive enjoyed this somehow more, because of the real sense of vertigo it induced in me. I still cant work while listening to Meshuggah :D. I have caught myself humming In Death - Is Death many times. It is also so satisfying to nail the "patterns". This song always feels like the riffs are jumbled in a massive knot and they are trying to sort themselves out, but end up tangling with each other in between. A truly unique exprience. I saw them live couple months ago, and they played all (MM, IDIS, IDID) sequence. One of my top experiences at a live performance of anything.

[@Hellscrap3r]

The snakes and ladders riff is one of my favourite riffs ever written. For some reason, it perfectly encapsulates the concept of "steadily losing one's mind". The Whole Tone scale used in there is so evocative of delirium.

[@supermot34]

Absolutely insane, the layers of patterns that construct these riffs. Not just in rhythm, and pitch but even in pitch displacement

[@unknownartist0101]

This video should be considered a part of metal history. Mate you are legit legend 🤘

[@theoppositeistrue]

Absolutely mental, deranged, masterful, and wonderful. Insane props to CJ and Danny for enduring the torture of learning this one. It's time to update that website, doctor!!

[@someonesomewherewithsometh9604]

Great video!! I've been watching for some time now and this is one of the channels I can put on whenever and be happy watching whatever songs. I would love to see a breakdown of defeated sanity's Dhamarta album.

[@Wojacksamillion]

HE HAS RETURNED. I AM SO EXCITED

[@FreepowerUG]

I've been saving this for a treat, and wow absolutely unbelievable! Honestly, I've been focused on more composition but this reminded me why music theory content can be awesome and I feel like doing it again for the first time in ages! Some thoughts: 1) If intellectual difficulty == heaviness, theres a few interesting things about complex pattern combinations as a listener. Things are only really heavy to us conceptually if we know they are liftable. Eg, general relativity to me is a "heavy" concept to me not because *I* can lift it, but I know others can lift it. When you have a stretch of music produced by multiple generative rules, theres an interesting effect where you can a little intellectual traction on various components and can actually feel the "weight" move before you hit failure. 1b) I notice that often, learning to play this kind of material actually has to happen before the intellectual understanding. Its odd - youd assume the patterns would jump off the page but actually they only jump out to me once the whole thing is in my ears and fingers. 2) sometimes, when I've learned music like this, theres an odd sensation that I've closed some gap between me and the musicians. Like I'm allowed to walk all the way around a sculpture instead of just view it from the front. Do you get anything like that? 3) I think this video supports my thesis that kicked off my own analysis videos - a lot of people hear a few rhythmic tricks but Meshuggah actually have deeply interesting pitch choices that influence the rhythmic choices and not just the other way around. Whatcha think? I am immensely proud to counted as your friend. ❤

[@AndrewKlinger]

Let’s freaking go I was just listening to this and I see your video pop up.

[@dylanhoward718]

Yeaaaaaaaa. Was so glad that played this on the last full us tour. Favorite meshuggah song. Also the idea of phasing the rhythm against the melody is so awesome. After all of this.... How the f do they write this?

[@ludvigm]

Awesome video, loved the karaoke in the end!

[@cmd_f5]

catch 33 is amazing in its scope. One of my tops. They really took the concept of familiarity from prior tracks to build a cool tonal story. Damn, I'm gonna have to spin it again. lol Awesome vid

[@tkachenko9584]

Just awesome, your videos are exactly what I was looking for. I wish you lots of inspiration and hope for future meshuggah vids

[@ChawedMirthPrattEnterprise]

I literally found your channel last week after I listened to Catch ThirtyThree and I was wondering if you would ever get back to this series. Glad I came in at the right time.

[@michaeldebecker1472]

Great video, full of amazing content that really helps to figure out what's going on in this song! That's also very nice to see Danny performing with you on this one. His skills as a bass player are impressive. I am a fan of his Meshuggah playthroughs.

[@sinkopation]

LET'S GO ive been waiting for this!

[@WhiteRussianDolls]

Hi! your videos have been very inspiring. Over the last few days I've been conducting my own analysis on the entire record and I found something really interesting that I've not come across before. If you look at all of the time signatures you can spot the fibonacci sequence. in the major riffs.

[@maerarun4992]

you should write a book with all the theory in this series, its so interesting

[@ults1]

Finally! You delivered and you delivered real good

[@Hell_Inc]

you are a blessing to youtube guitar. invaluable knowledge. thank you, man

[@trialbyicecream]

Still think this is in my top 10 songs ever.

[@basserman]

missed you brudda, hope to see some stuff around Ad Nauseam, particularly coincidentia oppositorum, my fave song off their masterpiece. also i noticed you're a big reader, always loved seeing what books have taken up your shelf over the years - nice copy of knausgaard :]

[@dan.j.boydzkreationz]

One of my favourites

[@CallusedFuture]

Good to see you back

[@Owofbfbajfbsnsn]

praise the algorithm on this blessed day

[@JaMeshuggah]

I am edging to this whole vid

[@KilWilShow]

Based and a scholar

[@sahamal_savu]

It's really strange to have lived the last 40+ years. It used to be an insult to make gay references, now here we are masturbating to metal which is arguably one of the most masculine things in existence.

[@indridcold777]

FLORID EKSTASIS IS FUCKING BRILLIANT.

[@Unanythang]

Needed me anotha shuggah breakdown. Thanks

[@fatph]

i was SO surprised by the playthru

[@emptycloud2774]

Oh shit, stop everything, Metal Music Theory released a video!

[@BirdNoise77]

love the POUND shirt man

[@olfrud]

I'd love to hear an arrangement of meshuggah stuff for string quartet

[@stiflingmystrife]

You should do a riff analysis of the Band Off Minor anything from Heat Death of the Universe. It's really "jazzy" hardcore.

[@bl00dy_c4p3]

I'm onto you, you waited til #69

[@KilWilShow]

bruh 420 is soooooo far away for the rest of the album

[@budaroddy]

Omg I missed a lot of videos 🤯

[@buddy.boyo88]

bro really went to music school just to chug the low string

[@dylanhoward718]

Lol. Yea right

[@Daphie_the_Duck]

stop having kids with your sisters

[@buddy.boyo88]

@@Daphie_the_Duck i pull out

[@gurukimci]

Hey, would you ever consider looking into King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard? While traditionally not exclusively metal, they have a few albums going into metal territory. I don't think they're half as complex as Meshuggah or Carbomb, but they might be interesting, perhaps.

[@mariajosequintanalopez5479]

Meshuggahntastic!! \m/

[@InfamousRomie]

You metal af. Meshuggah the best piece of ass shaking music ever written

[@cjyacoub]

31:55 sipsipsipsipsipsipsipsipsipsip

[@katharinekatharsis]

nice

[@jasonshepherd5750]

can we please talk about the band the locust ????

[@Kromhoff09]

How do you like your legator x6? Im thinking of getting an x8

[@danelgegeev4144]

Watching this with my wife

[@ProgToph]

Pound shirt

[@goatman3057]

Hell yeah man! Freaking incredible break down as always I was wondering you ever heard Gran from Miami? That guy is super weird and kinda sounds like an in between of Tool and Meshuggah to me if that makes any sense haha, if you haven’t lemme get you a link cause I never spell his last name right haha kzbin.info/www/bejne/kHOueoifZsp6Z6Msi=hTAeaYiRkyqCdtvL CC is in English, lmk what you think!

[@kairosguillot9227]

First!

[@prsplayer12]

Nice