Nothing by Meshuggah

Nothing is the fourth album by Swedish metal band Meshuggah, originally released in 2002. The album entered the Billboard 200 chart at number 165, slightly higher than the band's following effort, Catch Thirtythree. A last-minute decision to join 2002's Ozzfest tour forced the band to mix the album in two days and to master it in one. It was re-mastered for a new re-release with re-recorded guitars in 2006. The songs on this album consist of slower tempos and a heavy focus on groove instead of the thrash metal stylings of previous albums. This stylistic change led to mixed reviews from fans, though it received a warmer reception from mainstream critics than the band's previous efforts. Jazz fusion elements such as the interludes found in some songs on the band's Destroy Erase Improve album are still present in this release. This is also the first album where guitarists Fredrik Thordendal and Mårten Hagström experiment with 8-string guitar tunings, though the album was recorded using detuned 7-string guitars, due to their custom Nevborn guitars not being ready. The track "Rational Gaze" was promoted with three music videos; the first was a repetitive black-and-white sequence of pictures, and did not have much connection with the song structure; the second version, directed by Torbjörn Oyesvold, featured a blue-greenish environment with the band performing, heavy post-processed by blurry video filters; the third version, entitled "Mr. Kidman Delirium Version", was not an official video, but rather a handicam of Jens Kidman performing as his bandmates, with the help of different wigs. Nothing has sold over 95,000 copies in the US. ℗ 2004 Atomic Fire