I've got another theory people that I'd like to get other people's opinions.
Meshuggah fans were recently blessed (or so they thought they would be) with the Re-Issue of Nothing, using the now obtained 8 string guitars and the drumkit from hell program. I bought it recently too, me being a meshuggah fan. First track, Stengah. Yeah! Brutal as hell! Loved it. Next track. WOAH! WTF?!? Rational Gaze had been totally killed. The guitars seem to obliterate the drums, and the vocals have some weird effect on them which does NOT work with the music. This continued for the rest of the album...

About halfway through Nebulous I turned it off. I couldn't be bothered to listen to the new version of Obsidian. I couldn't understand why such an amazing band as Meshuggah would put such a half arsed attempt into a re release all in favour of a better guitar sound. In all honesty I expected them to put MORE effort in. After quite a while of pondering I realised something. Everything is waaaay clearer. And clarity I believe is the reason for this album.

The original Nothing was brutal and awesome, with everything at the right levels and jens giving the vocals his all. Yeah, it was sooo damn orange! But for a lot of the album, it was pretty frustrating to decipher what note was actually being played. Most people probably don't care, but I think the re release enables us to clearly see the patterns and riffs and tones and tunes and all that other stuff that we couldn't quite decipher in the original. Listening to the new version allows you to appreciate the first album more (as well as getting a kick ass dvd with it).

Now I could be talking a load of crap, as I usually do anyway whether people like it or not, but those are my honest opinions. I don't believe for second that they really needed to re record the WHOLE album with 8 strings, or that they would put as little effort into it as they did, not even bothering to use real drums, unless this was for a different cause other than making the album sound better.

And that's my opinion. =]

The only reason I'd get it is for the DVD. I think the album is fine as is.

They should have put that effort into writing their next album.

I agree to a point, but after hearing the re release, I'd say I appreciate the first version even more than i did before because of the new one

Just a note, I don't think they actually changed the drums apart from maybe swapping a sample or two and redoing their mix. As far as I know they're still 'real.' Catch 33, on the other hand, uses the Drumkit From Hell.

I've seen it mentioned in a few reviews, so I assumed it was true, plus, they are pretty down in the mix.

greed? sheer boredom?

The drums are not programmed. They were merely slowed down a little, and I think a snare was triggered or something. And they had the 8-strings for the original recording, they just weren't the final versions and had to be retuned all the time.

Here's the official info, as I REPLACEed in the previous thread on this topic.
( http://www.hevydevyforums.com/forums/vi ... php?t=6097 )


Fredrik said:

The only thing I've done is I re-recorded all the rhythm guitars cause they pretty much sucked IMO, re-recorded the guitarline-thing at the end of CEV, put a new crash cymbal on top of one of the old ones that was broken and sounded like shit, triggered the kick, snare and toms and mixed the whole thing from scratch and I also timestretched Nebulous before I recorded the guitars cause I thought it was way too fast on the old Nothing...

No vocal overdubs or drum programming... The drumprogramming was a thing we did on Catch 33 because we wanted it to have that kind of a machine like vibe and because it sounded great on that song... Nothing wouldn't be Nothing if it wasn't Nothing if you know what I mean =)

Tomas posted this:

Sorry to have to disappoint some of you guys, but the drums are not programmed, but we did use "drumagog" and changed out a particularly ugly sounding cymbal and we did re-record the guitars cause we felt the original guitar sound didn't quite measure up to what we wanted! We also re-mixed and tweaked the vocals.....
So ....enjoy or don't....

Here's to all you guys, you're great! Thanx for your thoughts and interest!
/Tomas Haake

And here's some info on the guitars, snagged from Wikipedia:

The 8-string guitars implemented on 'Nothing' were virtually brand new when the band initially recorded the album, but they suffered from a number of technical problems. It took a few years to refine the design of these guitars, including their pickup technology and suitable amplification, so Hagström and Thordendal decided to re-record their parts with the improved instruments.

And yet, I still like the original better.

Oops. Double posts suck.

The drums are not programmed. They were merely slowed down a little, and I think a snare was triggered or something. I linked to it in another thread. And they had the 8-strings for the original recording, they just weren't the final versions and had to be retuned all the time.

ah, well then I'll change the programmed thing. and I didn't say they recorded the original without 8 strings, I said the "now obtained" 8 strings, because as you say they didn't HAVE them then.
but whatever the case, my theory still stands the same. it could've been greed. but meh

Well, it's the artist's prerogative to change what they think is sub-par. I agree that the original is better; it's more raw and brutal.

I am of course a fanboy, I guess. Meshuggah has climbed in my mind from "what the hell is this? this isn't music!" to "holy shit, this is awesome."

Therefore, Meshuggah can do no wrong. If they want two versions of an album to be in existence, it's all good with me.

I find it odd how meshuggah and primus always seem to be major influences of people who like townsend. even I like em both

theres nothing wrong with the original nothing, why fix something not broke?

theres nothing wrong with the original nothing, why fix something not broke?

As listeners we might see, or in this case hear, nothing wrong with it.

Though, the artists often have a vision of what they think their music should sound like.

Personally, I don't see the point in complaining about it since you have 2 versions of the album to listen to. Unless of course it's something like Dave Mustaine remastering the entire back catalog... lol.

i love the reissue, like, a lot. It's a better mix overall, and this is a drummer speaking (so you can either take it by the "he doesn't have an issue with the drums being low, so being a drummer, they're probably not that low" or "he's a drummer, he's just talking shit" )

anyways
it's indeed, the artist's baby. So he's free to change it. For exemple, i LOVE the original version of Storm on AE for several reasons. But devy totally changed the vocal lines on the Synchestra DVD. Why? beats me!
i like the original version better? hell yeah
do i have a saying on that? bet your ass not

I like the new Nothing, it sounds bigger and more encompassing. That being said the only Meshuggah releases I listen to with any regularity are I and Catch 33