A second of structured chaos: Kosmos/chaos dialectic in Meshuggah’s Catch 33

Abstract

Among the most frequent features of the Swedish extreme metal band Meshuggah’s music, there is an omni-presence of minor-second intervals and distorted eight-string guitars, a remarkable amount of odd time signatures, aggressive vocals and an endless attempt to thwart the listener’s expectations. In this case study I analyse the many contradictions present in Meshuggah’s album Catch 33 (2005), which I interpret as a concept album about paradox or a long single song (constituted by thirteen individual tracks not separated by breaks) that seeks to balance the variety, complexity, ‘imperfection’ of its starting material – the chaos side of the album’s style – with elements that promote order, intelligibility and ‘perfection’ – its kosmos side. By which musical means does the band represent contradiction and paradox in this album, and their style in general? I argue that there are specific musical (but also conceptual, lyrical, structural and contextual) reasons that make the album representative of the band’s discography and style, to the point of being possibly considered their quintessential work (despite often being labelled as an experimental entry in the band’s output), and one of the most coherent incarnations of (proto-)djent stylistic features. The kosmos/chaos dialectic is the idea I choose to describe the ongoing struggle for stability at work in this music, capable of magnifying the beauty of imperfection and the paradoxical truth behind the sentiment, expressed in the lyrics, that we are ‘sentenced to a lifetime | a second of structured chaos’.