It's not often that you hear Rush and Meshuggah mentioned in the same breath, given the stark contrast between Rush's progressive rock sound and Meshuggah's elaborated yet extreme metal. However, it turns out that Meshuggah guitarist Mårten Hagström is a big fan of Alex Lifeson.
In an interview with Ultimate Guitar, Hagström was asked if he would take potential guitar lessons from any guitarist in history. After clarifying he's not really into the idea, simply because he doesn't want to mimic anyone's style, he mentioned he would had loved to pick Allan Holdsworth's mind:
"I would have loved to sit down and talk with Allan Holdsworth. I wouldn't want him to show me tricks and licks and stuff because that's just boring. I would just want to talk to him about how he conceptualizes what he did and his approach and his writing process. That's one dude."
Hagström then revealed that he was drawn to Lifeson's ability to create a unique and identifiable sound, even in a band with two other highly skilled musicians.
"But one guy that really made a shitload of difference outside of the Bay Area thrash metal stuff and really impacted the way I thought about playing guitar and made me want to actually focus more on playing rhythm was Alex Lifeson."
"Look, they were three guys, and granted, Geddy Lee was playing Moog and bass and vocals. That was a big part of them sounding bigger than they were. But the Alex Lifeson approach to tone and playing those open chords and harmonies and the impact it made on me when I was between 10 and 15 was not even funny — especially the old Rush stuff. You can instantly hear it's Alex Lifeson. It's not, like, 'Oh, who's playing this lead?'"
Meshuggah has a ton of tour dates coming up, all of which you can check out below. Tickets are available here.
w/ In Flames & Whitechapel
11/21 SOMA – San Diego, CA
11/22 Hard Rock Live Sacramento – Wheatland, CA
11/24 Paramount Theatre – Seattle, WA
11/25 Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre – Vancouver, BC
11/27 Midway Music Hall – Edmonton, AB
11/28 Grey Eagle Event Centre – Calgary, AB
11/30 Burton Cummings Theatre – Winnipeg, MB
12/1 The Fillmore Minneapolis presented by Affinity Plus – Minneapolis, MN
12/2 The Sylvee – Madison, WI
12/3 GLC Live at 20 Monroe – Grand Rapids, MI
12/5 The Hard Rock Live Northern Indiana – Gary, IN
12/6 The Andrew J Brady Music Center – Cincinnati, OH
12/8 The Paramount – Huntington, NY
12/9 MGM Music Hall at Fenway – Boston, MA
12/10 The Wellmont Theater – Montclair, NJ
12/12 Toyota Oakdale Theater – Wallingford, CT
12/14 Wind Creek Event Center – Bethlehem, PA
12/15 HISTORY – Toronto, ON
12/16 Place Bell – Laval, QC – (w/ Voivod)
3/7 – HU – Budapest, Barba Negra (+ Avatar)
3/8 – CZ – Prague, Forum Karlin
3/9 – NL – Eindhoven, Headbangers Parade (Meshuggah only)
3/11 – DE – Wiesbaden, Schlachthof
3/12 – DE – Hamburg, Grosse Freiheit 36
3/15 – PL – Warsaw, Stodola
3/16 – DE – Berlin, Columbiahalle
3/17 – PL – Krakow, Studio
3/19 – DE – Munich, Tonhalle
3/20 – IT – Milan, Alcatraz
3/21 – CH – Lausanne, Salle Métropole
3/23 – ESP – Bilbao, Santana 27
3/24 – ESP – Madrid, La Riviera
3/25 – ESP – Barcelona, Razzmatazz
3/28 – DE – Cologne, Palladium
