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Listen: Meshuggah – I

Now, I’ve heard some heavy songs.

The first time I heard Metallica’s ‘One’ on headphones as a kid, I felt I was literally inVietnam, frenzied and overwhelmed.

In my first experience with The Beatles’ ‘I Want You (She’s So Heavy),’ I was nearly comatose in the absorption of apocalyptic drone and the fuzzed out march of death (though the brownies might have aided in that).

But as this decade comes to a close, I’ve got to say that Meshuggah’s track (and EP of the same name) ‘I’ takes the cake as not only the heaviest song ever recorded, but perhaps the heaviest song that can be recorded. If you haven’t heard it yet, throw on your headphones, hit the LaLa button above, and sit back. You’re in for a ride.

‘I’ is the sound of everything going haywire. It is a journey through the forthcoming era of machine dominance, when man transcends his own biology and merges with technology. And ‘I’ is when it all goes wrong.

Not only that, but the song is practically self-aware. Just when you think a section within it’s 21 minutes are getting slightly dull, it blindsides you over the head with a drop deeper into the chasm. The floor falls out from under you, and the 8 string guitar pummels you into a bouncing pit. ‘I’ knows your thoughts, and how to fuck directly with them.

The song is unquestionably a studio piece. There was never any intention of performing this behemoth live, and it likely wouldn’t even be possible. The sheer force of this thing lies in the production itself.

Now there are certainly other kinds of heavy. High on Fire, Electric Wizard, and Ufomammut come from a completely different world of heaviness, and are totally badass for doing so. But for my pick of heaviest song possible, I’m the technology of production in mind. Meshuggah know how to produce modern metal (few do, it seems…), created for the listener.

And for the observant listener, they stuck little easter eggs in the track too.

The intro is exactly 1:32 of pummeling drums and chugging riffs. Not 1:30. Not even 1:31. But 1:32. That’s the nature of the Swedish sense of ironic and absurd humor.
Look at your music players little ball to see that they placed the very heaviest riff at exactly halfway through the song.
The song is 21 minutes long. 20 would be too easy. 22 is right out.
Have a listen.

But just know that if you can’t make it all the way through, Meshuggah wins.

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