Fredrik Thordendal’s Special Defects – Sol Niger Within

This is the kind of album that’s hard to review… well because it’s so awesome, i know, i know, so instead of going on a rant fest and just saying good things about everything, i’ll just give a quick and dirty review, i’ll try and talk about the things i like the most and a bit of the background.

Well Fredrik Thordendal’s Special Defects is basically a solo project of … well … Frederik Thordendal, the lead guitarist from the best band in the world… Meshuggah (well at least i think so, muahahah) and one of the best in the world in my opinion… ohhh well gotta stop with the ranting, so the Sol Niger Within crew is: Thordendal on the guitars (and pretty much everything else…), then Meshuggah buddy drummer Tomas Haake on vocals …. yeah vocals hehehe oh and Marcus Persson as well with some vocals, Morgen Agren on the drums (from the progressive rock band Kaipa), Jerry Ericsson on bass, Mats Oberg on keyboards and Jonas Knutsson on the saxophone.

This solo project was completed, pretty much after Meshuggah’s – Destroy Erase Improve, so in a lot of ways it borrows from it, so you got the polyrhythmic calc metal, with all the niceties, the difference is that instead of being greeted with a standard Meshuggah tracks we are given a more experimental trip that combines those features with complex jazz elements and eerie atmospheric sections… its difficult to explain, well let’s just say it, that if this was a Meshuggah album i would say it has 5 Meshuggah tracks and 8 strange interludes, strange but not bad, it kinda all works together, it’s catchy and combines well the rawness of metal with some weird softening undertones.

Well it’s not all flowers and happy bunnies, all this stuff sure does bring a strange pace to the album, and sometimes it feels it’s just played out too long, but i think it works pretty well, its one of those albums you have to listen to it to believe it. Also note that there are at least 2 distinct versions, the original 1997 one and a 1999 remix with better audio and extra tracks, the album has 26 tracks (some a couple of seconds long…) but it works pretty much like one big track, anyway it’s supposed to be one big song and you should listen to it like so, so both versions are pretty much the same, also the mp3’s here, the first is basically the first 2 tracks, “The Beginning of the End of Extraction (Evolutional Slow Down)” and “The Executive Furies of the Robot Lord of Death” (yeah funny track names), both together are about 3min long, and the second is one of the extra tracks from the 1999 version.

Yeah i know it’s weird, strange and somewhat kinky and of course the taste for Meshuggah does enhance the experience… but what can i say i like it ^_^.oO( NO, i love it )

Somewhat Official Site? Myspace Fredrik Thordendal’s Special Defects

Fredrik Thordendal Special Defects – Sol Niger Within First 2 Tracks

Fredrik Thordendal Special Defects – Missing Time