Meshuggah – Disenchantment

My OpinionI'd just like to point out that, "The struggle to free myself from restraints, becomes my very shackles," is the greatest line I have ever heard/read in a song. That is all.

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  @nufy8

General Comment"Catch 22" was a novel based on life's many contradictions,"Catch 33" burrows many of the same underlining ideas. The album revolves around a character who feels enslaved to his own mind and feels unable to cope with the aburdity of society's norms, shattered hopes and dreams, the realization of there being no exit; not even suicide. He witnesses painful atrocities taking place world wide, as well as in his own life. He is baffled by the rest of mankind's capacity for apathy,wondering what sets him part from living an enjoyable and "normal" life like his peers; Amazed at how others could wander about life aimlessly with a smile while not being crushed by the weight of their own guilt. He questions wheather it is truly him who has a problem.



His Neurotic thought patterns finally get the best of him,leading him to believe that his peers, his own mind, and the earth itself (manifested into a functioning conciousness) join together to scrutinize and ridicule him




"I stay my breath to escape this slavery" means he attempt to kill himself through some form of suffocation. "I stay my breath, to reawake and face it encore" means that if the idea of an after-life or better yet reincarnation exists, he would be doomed to repeat living through another form.

"The struggle to free myself from restraints becomes my very shackles" means the very act of suicide just dooms him to start his existence over again.

This is one of my favorite Meshuggah albums, the fact that I think this character makes more sense to me then rest of the "sane normal people" I'm surrounded by is a contradiction all on its own.

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  @ManInRed

General Commentbuddhistic philosophy in heavy metal. most of meshuggah's work deals with such ideologies. check out frederich thordendal's special defect "sol niger within" album... it even has the ancient langauge of "pali" in it...

stay my breath to escape this slavery... perhaps this refers the practitioner of meditation. a yogin's determination and goal to be free from the bonds of existence... hence "stay my breath to re-awake and face its encore" meaning... digging deeper into the practice to open one's "third eye" to experience englightenment... and awake... buddhist scholars tend to portray enlightenment as the "waking up" from the long slumber of ignorance...

HOD

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  @heart of darkness

General Comment"disenchantment" or snuffing out the flame of passion, being after all... the final goal of a buddhism.

we really need to see the whole catch 33 album as a complete picture... each song playing a vital part in the construction of the album... the album is after all a "concept" album.

HOD

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  @heart of darkness

General CommentThanks for the insight. Didn't even have the feintest idea of what this meant. Kick ass CD though...although the grind on the first riff a little too long.

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  @Quiet Fury

General CommentI recognize the term disenchantment from Max Weber's theory of the development of capitalism from the Protestant work ethic. It's the calculation of everything, a turning away from prior magical beliefs. When we calculate everything, the world becomes cold and disenchanted, and we encase ourselves in an iron cage of rationalization

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  @craftman32