This album is an example of Progressive Metal at its absolute best. Well technically, if you’re really into classifying the things you listen to, this album would be considered “Math Metal,” due to the odd time signatures the band uses. Either way you put it, this album is a modern masterpiece of extreme music.

Taking advantage of the aforementioned odd time signatures and industrial-esque guitar tones, Meshuggah create a perplexing, mind-warping sound all their own on this release. Though they had been known for their odd approaches to music before the release of Catch Thirtythree in 2005, it was at the time of its release the people really started to notice. 

The album was, and still is, a great example of how to take an experimental approach to songwriting and album structure, as Catch Thirtythree technically isn’t a collection of thirteen tracks, but one long track divided into thirteen separate parts. It’s great to see a band take a single theme, that of paradoxes (hence the album name), and run with it to create an experimental release that goes beyond the usual barriers of most other themed albums that simply contain different songs with the same lyrical theme. Each song has a distinct groove and feel to it, yet sounds at home to the menacing atmosphere of the other tracks, as all of them emphasize heavy, proggy, and textured grooves that need to be heard to be believed. 

I swear these songs mess with my mind when I listen to this album. Whenever I come across one of them in iTunes I usually find myself listening to the entire album from beginning to end, finding myself captured in the technicality and ominous overtones that oozes from the release. The fact that Catch-Thirtythree is one long song makes the idea of listening to it all in one sitting even more appealing to me. One of my favorite things to do is to go outside on a nice day, put on my big ‘ol headphones, listen to the entire album and just think and allow my mind to be blown.

The technicality found in Catch-Thirtythree is absolutely amazing and should be heard by anyone interested in music that strays outside of the norm. The hooks of the band’s riffs are so engaging it’s creepy. This is a landmark album in the history of Progressive Metal and marks the beginning of Meshuggah’s rise to greatness. Truly epic in scale, grand in scheme, and original in every aspect of the word, Catch-Thirtythree should be checked out by everyone.

 

 

Label: Nuclear Blast

Year of release: 2005