Difficulty as heaviness: Links between rhythmic difficulty and perceived heaviness in the music of Meshuggah and The Dillinger Escape Plan

In this article I examine the nature and meaning of two different types of rhythmic difficulty – extreme metric malleability and non-metricism – in examples taken from the music of Meshuggah and The Dillinger Escape Plan, respectively. While the two bands have different rhythmic styles that create distinct rhythmic difficulties, I claim that in both examples the rhythmic difficulty enhances ‘heaviness’ through various enactments of sonic metaphors for size, weight, density, power, transgression and seriousness, characterizing the creation of rhythmic difficulty as simultaneously a transgressive practice that deforms metal’s technical boundaries and one that fundamentally reaffirms metal’s most central aesthetic.