Meshuggah
I

Giving a rating to this EP is totally pointless. Surely for lovers of Meshuggah and this type of totally unhealthy, brutal, dark, neurotic, and annihilating music, this is a masterpiece, while those who hate extreme metal think, “A totally useless album that contains a jumble of noises in just over 20 minutes.”
I must admit that years ago I listened to a few songs by Meshuggah and was almost disgusted by how they treated the instruments and the imbecility and total uselessness of the abnormal passages in their music. If I had listened to an album like this at that time, I probably wouldn't have been far from defining it as a useless and incomprehensible album, and I probably would have vomited up my entire Christmas dinner. But then over the years, something changed in me, and I wanted to try to understand something about this genre of music that seemed to have neither head nor tail. So I decided to purchase “I.”

Start – 1.54
A minute and a half of the same guitar riff supported by the drums that almost grumble to drive us to exasperation, but it's just the beginning. Then 30 seconds totally rough, hyper-fast and vicious that, like a tropical hurricane, engulf the listener with a violence I had never heard before. Already from this first part of the track, we understand that the minds of these musicians cannot be considered normal.
1.55 – 1.56
The only second of silence in the track.
1.56 – 3.33
Kidman's scream and an acidic riff (that seems to echo the initial one) welcome us into the depths of this work, absolutely unique in its madness. The last 40 seconds are dedicated to the first guitar solo that, with the complicity of the rhythmic section, begins to nullify our minds.
3.34 – 5.39
The brain begins to suffocate with the ever darker and heavier progress of the guitars which coincides with the first scene change that proposes yet another oppressive and brutal phase of the work.
5.40 – 6.19
Second guitar solo, fast and neurotic like the first. Hats off to the drumming, technically at the edge of the possible with astonishing and extremely difficult solutions.
6.20 – 7.46
The part that struck me the most in this work is precisely this one with the always aggressive singing and a sequence of totally inhuman notes and rhythms that hit each single neuron in our brain with mighty punches…until the stop of music gives us a moment of respite to the brain and ears put to the test by these first 8 minutes.
7.47 – 8.39
Light detuned and almost melancholic guitar arpeggio that allows us to catch our breath, but there are still 13 minutes to go, and anything must be expected.
8.40 – 12.00
We start again with another heavily intoxicating riff that once again brings our consciousness to an almost comatose state.
12.01 – 14.42
Second scene change with rhythms and riffing stemming from what we have already heard so far, but with a more oppressive vein with the first words almost whispered under one's breath and later another solo and another morbid and delirious part.
14.43 – End.
A sort of guitar intro accompanies us to the last part of the song. The beginning is almost disarming; it literally seems like another song while keeping the same dynamic and hammering structures with the same continuity that nullifies the thought. The few moments of apparent calm still give way to intricate and cerebral structures. By now, our brain is on the ropes, and the neurons are addicted and almost drugged by this musical trip. The initial neurosis has passed, and now we have the insistence of music on ever oppressive schemes. We feel the brain pulsating, and the rhythm and progress of the track leave us no escape until the last 30 seconds where a high-pitched, shrill note of the 6 strings takes us out of the tunnel we entered 21 minutes earlier.

Unhealthy and hallucinogenic album suitable only for the cultists of the genre. And precisely for them, I believe this EP should be placed at the top of all time in terms of originality, technique, and above all, brutal musical aggression.