TOMAS HAAKE

Meshuggah is easily the band i've listened to the most over the past 6 years so it's only fitting that I kick this thing off with them. At times my relationship with them has bordered on obsessive. All factors of composition and execution come into play as far as my interest in this band goes and in my mind they're not really a metal band anymore so much as an experimental fusion outfit masking itself with 7 or 8 string guitars, a sea of gain and the dummer from hell. Few bands have evolved and mutated as well as these Swedes while continually crushing those who are considered to be their peers. I won't justify my admiration for them anymore as it is a waste of both my time and yours but let it be known that the rhythm's these guys have recorded are scarred in my brain.

As this site is all my opinion, it is my opinion that Tomas Haake is the best metal drummer that has ever walked the earth. His hands are generally working in 4/4 but his feet are locked in tightly with whatever mess Thordendal or Hagstrom are grinding his way. The difference with him though and what makes him special is his ability to play with machine like precision but keep an impossible groove.

I could go with obvious choices like Future Breed Machine, Sickening or Soul Burn but it's going to be The Mouth Licking what you've Bled from Chaosphere. Not their most complex work, in some ways more straight forward than the material post Destroy Erase Improve but frankly this song is crushing. It's all about groove topped off by Jens Kidman's insane delivery.

highlights - :52 to 1:33 including Thordendals patented jazz/tapping explosion solo.
- 2:46 The 4th, 11th, 18th, 25th, 32nd, and 39th time the riff is repeated how it just slams on the 1. It's great, trust me.

The Mouth Licking What you've Bled