As promised, this is the sequel to my paper at SMT 2020! This second half is part of the Progect 2021 conference organized by Lori Burns at the University of Ottawa, which will be happening online May 18-29, 2021.

In this paper I show how Meshuggah’s style evolved gradually from more mainstream thrash metal and groove metal from the 1980s and early 1990s. Their famously complex rhythms are not a completely radical new thing in metal, but are a recursive recombination of existing riff techniques including overlay, syncopation, 332 rhythms, and camoflauged alterations. I also argue that part of why their rhythms have such a powerful effect is that most of us hear their music with ears trained on mainstream metal’s riff techniques.

Here’s the video:

Here’s the handout: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-KA8FHqIXOrr8THEBwjXoXwEGP0dSHCP/view?usp=sharing