Motif development in Meshuggahs 'I Am Colossus'

Time Consuming Ep #75 and week 4 of 'MAYshuggah' is a deep dive into "I Am Colossus".
I love this song and the rhythmic ideas behind it are super simple yet super effective!

'I Am Colossus' original song:

Riccardos' channels:

And his cover video !

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The "Time Consuming" playlist has all songs covered in the channel.

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Thanks for watching, Yogev

#musicanalysis #iamcolossus #meshuggah

0:00 intro
1:02 some background
2:14 the HUGE riff
6:09 riff 2
7:14 mini riff
7:39 the HIGH riff
9:34 the MESSY riff
11:11 Rickys thoughts
12:18 GTR solo
14:05 the OUTRO
15:37 my public humiliation

[crownjewel]

You know the band is crazy when you need to invent a calculator to understand their rhythms

[Chronic_meshuggah_face]

You and Riccardo nailed this one!

The reason they didn't end the song with a complete 192 beats is so that you don't accidentally play the full cycle three times in a row, which will actually summon Colossus. Pretty sure it was their label that made the ultimate decision, purely from a legal point of view.

[lefeesh]

By far my favorite track on Koloss, it’s so ambient and groovy

[Toxoplasmosis]

The music video for this song is also fucking incredible

[JunkieMonkey]

one of their best tracks ever. “i am that thirst” is also sick. that whole last section where they go through like 5-6 different mini riffs is too sick

[lallomes]

Awesome! Btw, in that 'messy' riff (10:00): the 5+3+3 can be written as 5+4+2, and then you get a nicely repeating 5+4+2+4 pattern throughout. The guitars match this too, the higher accented notes follow this pattern not 5+3+3

[Sol_nvictus]

Breaking down these song makes me love Meshuggah even more. Pure metal genius!

[josephperkins-zn]

One of my favourite meshuggah songs, the groove always seemed easier than others despite me still not understanding it. Thanks for the breakdown.

[lerk.]

Finally, I needed this. One of the most confusing Meshuggah songs imo.

[mariohelbig]

Thank you for this one. Probably the one Meshuggah song that grew most on me. What a mons... äh Koloss.

[tobiasschmuecking]

Thank you again, Yogev! And the very ending is priceless! (Thank you, Riccardo!)

[honk]

one of my favorite meshuggah tracks ever
thank you

the atmosphere feels so real

[thomasreuter]

Thanks for the shoutout Yogev/Ricky! Great analysis :)

[peaceindarkness.darknessis]

I’m so ready for yogev’s breakdown of kaleidoscope!

[lucasradeuil]

You finaly did it ! Awesome work as always =)

[NoStickTricks]

This is one of my ABSOLUTE all time favourites my Meshuggah! It grooves so damn hard. I can't count how many times I found myself dancing and twitching to it obsessively! The lyrics are just so very uncompromisingly crushing. I love how it keeps escalating towards the middle and than just collapses into that big beautiful void before the final verse. And all that while being entirely accessible since, as you're pointing out, it is actually not very complicated. It's that song you feel like you got from the first listening (even if you surely don't, haha..)
This song is super close to my heart and just a few weeks I shot a drum cover of it, where I try to release all that emotion this track evokes in me. God I love Meshuggah..! <3 thanks Yogev for yet another good one! Cheers from Berlin

[tkachenko]

Awesome as usual! No, even more so with these isolated guitars

[maxyboy]

Ive listened to this song hundreds of times of times and i never noticed that they truncated the opening riff into the ambient guitar section

[l.a.s]

Meshuggah is so good. It took years to its musics "click" in my head and since them i love this band

[smokejc]

that section in the middle with the ebow is one of my favorite Meshuggah moments ever