John: I'm glad you enjoyed it! Yeah, the TesseracT material is some of my favorite material ever. I can't wait for them to finally complete their CD. Hopefully that will happen this year, for sure. Once again, I'm glad you found this thread beneficial!
Gorgrotesque wrote:I never got around to checking out more polymetric bands. Decent bands you listed there. And, I will say I actually like Mudvayne (Despite my love for death metal) and I was listening to them earlier today.
However, why the f**k do most polymetric bands play with 8 string guitars and/or low ass tunings man?
Well, the only polymetric guys that play with the 8 string guitars that I have heard so far are Ion Dissonance, Bulb (from Periphery) and Meshuggah. Dino Cazares (ex-Fear Factory, now in Divine Heresy of whom I DO recommend you check out!) uses one but he's not really a polymetric sort of riffer. I'm sure there are more but those are the ones I can think of off the top of my head.
Using the low strings just adds to the feel and the dynamics of the music. When you first start listening to the stuff, it's like, "wtf, that's extremely low... why do that?" It takes a bit of getting used to and it definitely comes off as unnecessary if you're not used to it but play that sh*t on a GOOD stereo system and that type of music will move you, man. Granted, you've got to be a metalhead and into the feel of polymetric music to truly enjoy it. Sometimes, you have to study the tunes and figure out what to bang your head to and when but if you hear the stuff and it just sounds like randomly placed notes instead of intricate patterns, you'll never enjoy it.
Do you tune down at all? If you never have, you should try it sometime. In the event that you have, then you have the basis for working with something to understand the 8 string guitars. Why do you tune down? You want to sound heavier? Do you just like it more? It's enjoyable to you! You may want to find some new lows to reach, etc. It's no different for these guys but their ear is fine-tuned to hear that low F# (or even low F if you're Meshuggah!).
So anyway, hopefully that'll make a little more sense to you. Give it some time if it's just absolutely overbearing to you. If the polymetric stuff moves you, go try the same type of riffs on a standard guitar and they just lose every dynamic that makes them heavy.
-Stephen