Someone mentioned in an earlier review that Meshuggah does for metal what Stravinsky did for 20th century classical! In some ways, that is accurate, but for a more contemporary comparison, I see more similarities between what Meshuggah do for metal and what Autechre do for electronica! Meshuggah don't just make music but they create an almost DNA-like substance of sound and structure that resonates through the rhythm of your body. In other words, this music is a living force in it's own right.
"I" is Meshuggah reaching the zenith of such a pursuit that began with "Destroy Erase Improve." The opening minute and a half is proof enough that even when they create a straightforward pulse as they do here, they NEVER repeat themselves. And for the entire course of this piece, they manage to move you in ways that are similar to a three-dimensional digital landscape built on some barren planet far away in space.
Oddly enough, I don't listen to much metal! Too much metal that I hear since the days of Black Sabbath and Deep Purple just sounds too generic, gimicky and lifeless. In fact, I approached Meshuggah through my obsession for progressive rock. And even then, Meshuggah sound too out there for it to be prog. Even prog outfits like Yes and Van der Graff Generator have certain conventions to their compositions. Meshuggah seem to construct their music not from theory and harmonic analysis. I almost feel that they construct their music like a mandlebrot set that is capable of warping into different shapes and patterns whenever you listen to it.
Anyways, I highly recommend "I" for these very reasons! Listen to it for the quieter moments as much as the hard hitting moments. There are two seperate sections where Marten plays some of the most impressive quiet interludes ever. One section has a really minimal solo that has almost a Robert Fripp-meets-a-super-computer-type sound to it. I like how following this solo a massive onslaught of drum-guitar interplay comes in where the drums alternate between accenting the guitar on every 2nd or 3rd beat of each phrase. (Mind you, I am only basing this off of having listened to it for 5 consective listens so my observation could be WAAY off because that is how tricky these guys are) Another section towards the climax has some delicious sounding arpeggios lightly treated with distorted reverb. It is one of those moments where the piece sounds altogether beautiful and ominous at the same time.
I could drag on forever expressing how amazing "I" is! Get this album with every desire you can muster! Your life will become enlightened after each listen I can guarantee you! After this, get ANYTHING else by Meshuggah because you will be hard pressed to find another metal band as unique as these guys! (Besides TOOL anyway, but that is another story)
Peace :)

This is like metal's version of a rock opera. Think. the Who's "A Quick one..." just done by Meshuggah. 20+ minutes of crushing bliss. All Meshuggah is very heavy, but it all sounds a little different. This one song covers all the bases. I won't dissect it minute by minute like some other reviewers. I'll just say this- If I was on a desert island, and not even picking a whole album- just one song, this would be the one. Unbelievable drumming from Thomas Haake, Insane guitar work, and brutal vocals. I love it! You will too.

God is on the side of the machines, and Satan is on the side of man. Guess who wins.

That is "I."

If god was a machine, churning atoms, splicing lines of code, dissecting planets, mining deep psychic lodes, carving celestial plasma into macro-organisms... well, you get the idea.

I is Meshuggah's magnum opus, and that is a hefty claim which listeners already steeped this band's work will feel the weight of. Those who aren't: go to Destroy Erase Improve, and may god speed you. Either way, I envy your virgin ears.

Quite a few bands lately have been of the mind that taking a single, meandering, horrendously long song and making an entire album out of it is a great and novel idea. Unfortunately, most of the time what you get is a crawling exercise in patience and a burning desire for the album in question to be re-arranged into a condensed, 5-minute endurable version of what you just had to sit through (read: Green Carnation). Sometimes, though, a group of guys get together who have so many ideas running through their heads that a single-song album becomes not only a great idea, but a vessel for ultimate expression.

This is such an album. In its simplest form, I is a 21 minute summary of everything that Meshuggah has done prior. The high-speed staccato thrashing; the calculated rhythmic irregularities; the eerie stretches of ambience; the swirling, alien guitar leads; the atonal roaring and paradoxical, destructive lyricism - it's all here. However, it's all tied together by a menacing atmosphere of utter devastation that makes even the creeping onslaught of Nothing seem tame in comparison. Whether the unwavering and machine-like rolling tom patterns that constitute the hypnotizing introduction, the absolutely crushing breakdown of roaring guitars and time-shattering drums that occurs at around the 3:30 mark, Fredrik Thordendal's mechanical assault at 5:40 which consists of an incessant flurry of notes backed by an unadulterated display of inhuman endurance and accuracy from drummer Tomas Haake, the disturbing reverberations of oddly conflicting notes that mark the transition from the chaotic permutations that came before to the massive soundscapes that will follow, the heavy-as-hell riffing that comes in at the 10:30 mark which encompasses what's probably the only moment in this entire song that you'll be able to effectively headbang to without getting confused, the diabolical whispering of Jens Kidman at 12:00 and the hive-like guitar lead from Fredrik that soon follows, the slow pulsing of dark arpeggios that steadily builds into a Nothing-era displaced pattern of shifting drums and twisted guitars at 17:00, or the standard Meshuggah-esque rhythmic motif that slowly coalesces into a lengthy stretch of foreboding feedback that closes out the song - the only word to properly describe this is... monolithic. Without the respite of track breaks, this becomes an unstoppable machine bent on the complete annihilation of everything in its path.

I is a tremendous achievement in Meshuggah's career and in the world of metal. While there are albums out there that are louder, heavier, and more extreme, none of them come close to exhibiting the cerebral and uncompromising nature of the music found here. The only album that does manage to sort of come close is Meshuggah's own follow-up, Catch Thirty-Three, but even that has more of a post-apocalyptic feel than the malevolent destruction found on I.

Absolutely mammoth music.