Drummer's Connection:
It would be easy to hear the music of Meshuggah and Tomas Haake’s drumming, and dismiss it as some kind of noise experiment. To the casual ear, there’s a feel of almost complete randomness to everything about them…the rhythms are supremely strange, the guitars play notes that are almost too low to be called “notes” and the singer scream nearly incomprehensible lyrics over the top of everything.
Fortunately for those who take the time to listen to what’s actually happening, there’s just a massive well of musical innovation happening in almost every Meshuggah song. And there’s no doubt about it: drummer Tomas Haake makes it all possible.
Unlike most any other band that’s ever existed, Meshuggah’s music is based on a principle that has nothing to do with style, popularity, musical history, or any form of copycat-ism. Their music is based on a principle of layering numbers on top of each other. Now, I’m sure other musicians have attempted this before in the past, but until Meshuggah, no one had found a way to use this concept to create something so compelling.
The basic idea is this: Guitarist Frederick Thordendal comes up with a riff on his guitar that is, for instance, based on a repeating phrase of 11 notes. Just even the concept of using 11 notes can sound alarm bells because western music has no use for 11 notes…the only numbers that are typically used are 2 and 3. “2s” turn into 4, then 8, then 16, and “3s” turn into 6 and 12. This is the basis for 99% of rhythms used in the popular western styles of music (though in India, a phrase of 11 would be quite normal).
What Haake does with these rhythms is where it gets very interesting; he overlays a drum part that gives the impression of normality to the riff. Using the 11-note riff as an example, he might overlay an 8 note (typical) drum beat to it. As the guitar part repeats itself, the 8 note drum beat starts and ends at a different time relative to the guitar. This creates quite a challenge for him, because while he’s playing his “typical” 8 note part with his hands, his feet are simultaneously mimicking the 11 note part that the guitar is playing. This creates a massive amount of tension in the music, a tension which is rarely released. Every now and then, there’ll be something that happens in the music that brings you back to reality, but most of the time the listener is held in a sort of “limbo” which prevents him/her from fully understanding what is actually happening. This limbo feeling doesn’t suit most people for daily listening, but it’s something that I think most people can at least appreciate.
Now, while Meshuggah was borne out a purely original concept, there have been many copycats since then. In fact, in modern heavy music, a huge debt is owed to them for introducing their “polyrhythmic” concepts to younger musicians who have attempted to adapt Meshuggah’s style into something that works for them. Versions of their sound can be found on almost any modern metal album in the last 5-10 years. It’s a very common tool for bands to pull from in order to create tension in their music.
But all Meshuggah fans know that there is something uniquely different about the original that the copycats have yet to be able to reproduce. In my opinion, that ‘x-factor’ can be described a few ways: Fluidity, Groove, Bounce, Feel, Smoothness. Without that element, Meshuggah’s sound would be too cold and clinical to be enjoyable on the scale that it is. Tomas’s playing is not only extraordinary for his immaculate timing and coordination, it’s even more extraordinary that he somehow maintains an ease-of-playing that allows the groove to seep back in.
Watch how the man’s drum kit quakes and grumbles as he lays into it, but also notice that he’s constantly shifting his dynamics. There’s so many accents and ghost notes going on, and they’re all so perfectly placed. Those “inner-notes” and subtleties take his playing from “something to study” to “something to bob your head to.”
You can really see how, when he settles in, he’d be at home playing with a funky dance band. That element of his playing is so unusual for heavy drummers to possess and makes his music all the more enjoyable.
What has always truly excited me about Tomas Haake is his ability to make me think and make me feel at the same time. That sort of dual role is rare to find in any musician, especially in a drummer. And that’s why he’ll always be someone to look up to and admire.
