Meshuggah

Ordinarily, it's a travesty to mess with a classic album, especially in the metal genre. But Sweden's Meshuggah are no ordinary metal band and never have been. 2002's Nothing, was first released in 2002; it has been widely regarded as the band's cosmic, asteroid shattering masterwork. While the band appreciated the acknowledgement they received for it, they were never entirely happy with the recording. Maybe it was the fact that no one really knew how to create the proper space for eight-string guitars which added a huge, freaky low-end thud to the proceedings. Maybe it was that those guitars never got to be tracked as many times as they wanted to be, or there were loose ends that needed to be trimmed to make the songs even tighter -- despite the already suffocating precision present on the set. Who knows? The bottom line is that founding guitarist Fredrik Thordendal re-edited and remixed this album, and also added some layers of additional guitars, creating in the process not just a new mix but a new work. The end result is something so utterly devastating, so unconsciously heavy, dark, metallic, freakish and knife-slash perfect, it blows the original mix away. In addition to the newly added to music, Meshuggah added a bonus DVD that includes live footage and actual videos as well as a cool slipcase with a new cover and a happening three-dimensional insert. If ever there were a heavy metal record worth purchasing again, it's this one. ~ Thom Jurek, All Music Guide