The late legendary guitarist Eddie Van Halen changed the course of Hard Rock music and guitar playing in the late 70s and 80s especially, with the release of the most famous Van Halen albums. Rock and Roll music certainly wouldn’t be the same today if it wasn’t for him. Although he is considered a God of Hard Rock music, he really had a broad musical taste. So he was always open to hear new bands.
As his son Wolfgang Van Halen recalled in an interview with Prog magazine, he used to show new bands to his father. One of them was the Swedish Tech-Metal band Meshuggah. According to Wolfie, his father approved their sound but said that the drummer should get paid the most, because he was working much more than the other guys in the band.
According to his son Wolfgang, Eddie Van Halen approved the Swedish band Meshuggah
“My dad approved of them. I remember his joke when I showed him the video to (Their most famous song) ‘Bleed’. He said, ‘The drummer better be paid the most! He’s working way harder than anybody else in the band!’” Wolfgang Van Halen said.
During the same conversation he recalled that he also got his uncle Patrick Bertinelli, (Valerie Bertinelli’s brother) into the Swedish group. They both went to see the group playing live in 2022.
“Late ’22, we took a break from recording Mammoth II because Meshuggah were in town at the (Hollywood) Palladium.”
Formed in Umeå, Sweden in 1987, Meshuggah released their debut album “Contradictions Collapse” in 1991. Since then, the group released more 8 records, the most recent one being “Immutable” in 2022. In 2018 they were nominated for the Grammy Awards in the “Best Metal Performance” category, with the song “Clockworks”.
Their current line-up has Jens Kidman (Vocals and guitar), Fredrik Thordendal (Guitar), Tomas Haake (Drums), Mårten Hagström (Guitar) and Dick Lövgren (Bass). Besides “Bleed”, their most famous tracks are “Demiurge”, “Rational Gaze”, “Born In Dissonance” and “Combustion”.