Meshuggah - Stengah (With Metronome)

Details

Description

BPM - 120

Not only is this song entirely in the 4/4 time signature (common time) but it's musical phrases are common as well, either in groups of 8 or 16 measures. This is not apparent when listening at first because of the polymetric nature of the song. This song, like most of Meshuggah's music, uses implied time signatures over 4/4. In other words, the patterns/riffs that are being played take the length of abnormal numbers of eighth notes or sixteenth notes. These patterns are played over a 4/4 groove and when nearing the end of an 8 or 16 bar phrase, the pattern is truncated, so that it can resolve in the next phrase nicely. For example, the intro riff is a pattern of 22 sixteenth notes, which is more easily grasped by saying 11 eighth notes. You can test this for yourself by tapping eighth notes to the metronome provided in the video. You will notice that every 11 taps you play, the guitar pattern restarts, but it lines up with the metronome a bit differently every time. To be exact, the pattern is displaced 3 eighth notes forward in relation to beat 1 each time, because the difference between 8 (a measure worth of 8th notes) and 11 (the pattern length) is 3. You can figure these numbers out for any riff in the song, by tapping the subdivision the riff uses and counting the number of taps it takes for the pattern to restart. The last time the pattern is repeated in each phrase, the pattern is truncated to only be 9 sixteenth notes long, this way the start of the next pattern and the downbeat of the next phrase line up. This formula is used for almost every riff in the song.

I hope this helps people understand and appreciate this song and this band better.

This video is strictly for educational purposes. All credit goes to Meshuggah for this music, and this video is not monetized.