The numbers behind OBZEN by Meshuggah (part 2)

Hinzugefügt: 2026-05-12

[00:00:00]Okay, this video is a direct continuation of Obsen part one. So, go watch that one first and just imagine that I repeated the whole intro and everything blah blah blah and let's uh get on with it.

[00:00:17]Yes. Yes. If you like cool music and visuals and all that yada yada, just subscribe and like and comment and all these things, my Chronicle course is out and ready for you. So, please go check it out. But let's continue. So, iso rhythms. An iso rhythm is a musical technique where the rhythmic cycle and the melodic cycle are independent from one another. We'll get to that in a second in riff number five. But first, I need to go back to where I left you guys off in the last video. Um, where were we? Ah, yes, we got to riff number four.

[00:00:51]This riff is the outlier of the song.

[00:00:54]It's very simple. It's very short and it really ramps up the vibe for a second before going back to brutally assaulting the eighth string of the guitar. So the numbers here are eight and nine. That's it. The eight looks like this. So 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 dut.

[00:01:13]And the nine looks like this. So 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 T.

[00:01:21]One thing to notice is the snare drum which is hitting these beats creating a really cool outline of the riff. This section is eight bars long and it repeats twice. So we have a total of 64 eighth notes for each rep. Which means that we can take this short 17 beat phrase, repeat it three times fully, and then we'll have to add 13 more beats. So just this portion of the cycle and then we restart again. And actually now that I look at it, I divide it differently. I divide it into three 2 and four instead of 3, three, and three because these four notes sound more like one unit.

[00:02:08]That's our Very cool. Uh, all right. I hope you're ready for this because here comes the juiciest riff. Riff number five. Riff number five is very special because there are two cycles going on. There's the rhythmic cycle and there's a separate melodic cycle. This is called an iso rhythm. This is a term that I've been taught by a good friend of mine and a guitar player called Stefan Thelen. Go check out all the fractal sex and of his solo projects. They're amazing. And he taught me this term iso rhythm. So let's hop into this iso rhythm. And I really hope I got this one right. So the rhythmic pattern here looks like this. 3 3 3 3 3 2. It's a 23 eighth note pattern. And it's pretty nasty. This is how it looks rhythmically. Notice how this hook figure from part one is back.

[00:03:21]1 2 3 4.

[00:03:26]tutadoom tag.

[00:03:30]Now, this section is 16 bars long. So, we have a total of 128 eighth notes, which means we can repeat this 23 beat phrase five times fully. And then we'll have to add 13 more beats. So, just this portion of the cycle. And as opposed to the previous riffs, I'll lay out all of these reps. You'll see why in a second.

[00:03:55]Okay. So that was the rhythmic side. On the melodic side, we have a different sequence. Now, this whole section is in the F symmetric diminished scale. And no, I did not figure that out by myself.

[00:04:08]Of course, you all told me he's an amazing guitar player, an amazing guitar teacher. So, if you're looking for a guitar teacher, he is your guy. Check him out. But anyway, this is the sequence. So we have these two lines and combined they create a 22 note melody I guess and this 22 note series let's say loops around over these rhythms. So here's the first line and then the second line and then the first line again and then the second line again and then finally the first line one more time. This is confusing as hell because that high A is so powerful, I automatically thought that it was the beginning of the riff of each cycle. But then when I laid it out that way, I couldn't really find any consistent pattern here. And it looked like this, which as you can see, things kind of repeat, but not really. So it didn't really make sense. So anyway, it took me a while to actually understand what's going on here. But suddenly remembering about that iso rhythm idea, I checked it out and I think I found the answer. Oh, and let's not forget about the drums. On the drum side, the crashes play quarter notes all the way and the kick and snare alternate like this.

[00:05:37]So, after all of this, here is what I suspect is going on in riff number five.

[00:06:11]I really hope that I'm correct on uh this one. Let me know if you guys found anything else uh in the comments. And one day when I get to meet these guys and I will grill them on all of their 100 plus songs, I will report back and see if uh I was wrong or right about all these Mishuga videos that I've been doing. Ah, yada. We have one last riff and this one is a banger. It's simple.

[00:06:35]It's aggressive as hell and I love it.

[00:06:38]The numbers here are six and seven. And no, I'm not going to put any of the 67 gen alpha here because I'm not 5 years old. The six looks like this. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Where these notes are the high notes. The snare joins these notes. And these are the low notes and the kick joins these notes. 1 2 3 4 tou toodoom. And the seven looks like this.

[00:07:05]1 2 3 4 5 6 7. Exactly like the six with an extra tail, which is pretty similar to the riffs we had in part one.

[00:07:18]Okay, so the cool thing here is that they start with just the guitar playing this kick-ass phrase going between the six and the seven. And then there's an epic drum fill.

[00:07:31]And then when the full band comes in, they loop the six pattern only and not the seven, which gives it a very predictable, headbangable and aggressive vibe because it's really short and consistent. And it's also melodically the same two notes as before. And then after that, when Yens comes in with the vocals, they add the seven pattern back, plus they introduce more melodic variability to the riff, which that ramps the metalenness of it all to like 11. This is one of the coolest and grooviest Mishuga moments ever. The drive here is just out of this world.

[00:08:15]Heat. Heat.

[00:08:25]Heat.

[00:08:46]HEAT.

[00:08:50]HEAT. HEAT. HEAT.

[00:09:01]my sh.

[00:09:16]Wow. No wonder this is the title track.

[00:09:19]It's short. It's punchy. It's aggressive. The drive here is amazing.

[00:09:23]It's everything you want from a killer title track. Wow. Bravo. This song is awesome.

[00:09:32]How cool is this song, huh? Every time I think I know a Mishuga song and I dive into it to make a video about it, I find so many cool things that I didn't notice. It just makes me love these songs even more. Anyway, folks, that's it for today. Make sure to check out my Chronicle introduction course if you're interested. The link is in the description. Make sure you submit your song requests for what Mishuga songs you want to see here on the channel next through the song request form also found in the description. And of course, make sure to stay cool. Thank you very much for watching and I'll see you in the future.