Meshuggah wanted to shake things up a bit after their 1998 album Chaosphere. The band would eventually get their hands on some eight-string guitars, though guitarist Mårten Hagström said in an interview with Guitar World that Meshuggah also toyed with the idea of using all basses to achieve those low notes.
"We started discussing different ways to come up with new things after touring the Chaosphere album. We wondered what would happen if we recorded three bass guitars, for example. Just to see how different the band would sound.
"Randomly we ended up talking to a guy from Nevborn Guitars, who wanted us to try out their eight-string prototypes, though we were actually already working with Ibanez on custom seven-strings at the time. It was far from finished, but me and [Meshuggah guitarist Fredrik Thordendal] found that his eight-string lent itself well to playing differently."
Hagström later joked about the entirety of Nothing originally being recorded on seven-strings tuned down to the eight-string range, and what a pain in the ass the whole process was. Nothing would eventually be re-recorded for a 2006 release featuring actual eight-string guitars and new drum samples.
"We sounded deeper and started to write unusual things that seemed to capture the imagination, with this whole other kind of sound. We then started write things for the eight-string before we even owned one. We would tune down our seven-strings, the entire Nothing record is an eight-string album recorded on seven-string guitars… which was a bitch! We would play four bars and then need to retune, again and again."
Make sure to catch Meshuggah on tour with Converge, In Flames, and Torche at one of the below dates.
w/ Converge & Torche
9/16 Worcester, MA – Palladium [Tickets]
9/17 Philadelphia, PA – Franklin Music Hall [Tickets]
9/18 New York, NY – Hammerstein Ballroom [Tickets]
9/20 Silver Springs, MD – The Fillmore [Tickets]
9/21 Norfolk, VA – The NorVa [Tickets]
9/23 Louisville, KY – Louder Than Life (Meshuggah only) [Tickets]
9/24 Cleveland, OH – Agora Theatre [Tickets]
9/25 Columbus, OH – Express Live [Tickets]
9/27 Pittsburgh, PA – Stage AE [Tickets]
9/28 Detroit, MI – Royal Oak Theatre [Tickets]
9/29 Chicago, IL – Radius [Tickets]
9/30 Minneapolis, MN – Myth Live [Tickets]
w/ In Flames & Torche
10/2 Denver, CO – Fillmore Auditorium [Tickets]
10/4 San Francisco, CA – The Warfield Theatre [Tickets]
10/7 Sacramento, CA – Aftershock Festival [Tickets]
10/8 Riverside, CA – Riverside Municipal Auditorium [Tickets]
10/9 Los Angeles, CA – Hollywood Palladium [Tickets]
10/10 Tempe, AZ – Marquee Theatre [Tickets]
10/12 Dallas, TX – The Factory in Deep Ellum [Tickets]
10/13 Houston, TX – Warehouse Live [Tickets]
10/15 Orlando, FL – Hard Rock Live [Tickets]
10/16 Atlanta, GA – Buckhead Theatre [Tickets]
