Means End was a Swedish

progressive metal Progressive metal (sometimes shortened to prog metal) is a broad :Fusion music genres, fusion music genre melding heavy metal music, heavy metal and progressive rock, combining the loud "aggression" and amplified electric guitar, guitar-driven s ...

band from

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

whose sound is spearheaded by

SATB SATB is an initialism that describes the scoring of compositions for choirs, and also choirs (or consorts) of instruments. The initials are for the voice types: S for soprano, A for alto, T for tenor and B for bass. Choral music Four-part harm ...

choirs, operatic vocals, eight-string guitars, and jazz-fusion compositions. Their music is likened to an amalgamation of artists such as

Eric Whitacre Eric Edward Whitacre (born January2, 1970) is an American composer, conductor, and speaker best known for his choral music. In March2016, he was appointed as Los Angeles Master Chorale's first artist-in-residence at the Walt Disney Concert Hall. ...

Devin Townsend Devin Garrett Townsend (born May 5, 1972) is a Canadian singer, songwriter, musician, and record producer. He founded extreme metal band Strapping Young Lad and was its primary songwriter, vocalist, and guitarist from 1994 to 2007. He has also ...

Meshuggah Meshuggah () is a Swedish extreme metal band formed in Umeå in 1985. Originally, the band's name was Metallien. The band's current lineup consists of lead vocalist Jens Kidman, guitarists Fredrik Thordendal and Mårten Hagström, drummer Tomas ...

, and

Yellowjackets A yellowjacket is a black-and-yellow vespid wasp. Yellowjacket(s) or Yellow Jacket(s) may also refer to: Places * Yellow Jacket, Colorado, an unincorporated town * Yellow Jacket, Florida, an unincorporated area in Dixie County, Florida Arts, e ...

. They are notable for bridging the gap between classical composition and contemporary instrumentalism.

History

Means End was formed in late 2011 by bassist Rasmus Hemse and drummer Christian Schreil (previous member of

Uneven Structure Uneven Structure is a progressive metal band based in Metz, France. They play a style of post-metal which is heavily influenced by the Swedish extreme metal band Meshuggah. The band blends polyrhythmic passages and extremely low tunings with a he ...

). They were later joined by acclaimed

vocalist Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

and

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...

guru Robert Luciani (previous member of

Vildhjarta Vildhjarta is a Swedish progressive metal band from Hudiksvall, formed in 2005. The band plays in a Meshuggah-influenced musical style employing heavily down-tuned seven-string guitars, as well as harmonic minor chord progressions, jarring stacc ...

) and fusion guitarist Leonard Eastgrove. Within a couple of months, Means End released an

extended play An extended play record, usually referred to as an EP, is a musical recording that contains more tracks than a single but fewer than an album or LP record.

with three songs to present their particular style and began composing a full-length album. In 2012, the band earned endorsements with Toontrack, Fractal Audio,

Lundgren Pickups Lundgren Guitar Pickups is a Swedish manufacturer of guitar and bass guitar pickups formed in 1990 by Johan Lundgren and situated in Jönköping. The company provides pickups for companies and luthiers such as the Ibanez's Custom Shop, Schecter G ...

, and partnered with Grammy Winning composer

to remake his choir composition “Nox Aurumque” into a linear tempo metal song. Means End also performed at Vol.8 of the renowned

Euroblast Festival The Euroblast Festival is a heavy metal music festival taking place in Cologne, Germany since 2008. The festival was initiated by close friends John Giulio Sprich and Daniel Schneider. Background The Euroblast Festival, alongside the UK-Tech ...

with excellent feedback and an appreciated performance. After a year of focused composition and collaboration, Means End self-released their 12- debut album, '' The Didact''. The album would earn Means End their first record deal. In 2013, Means End signed a publishing and distribution deal with Rogue Records America for their next album, as well as for the re-release of their debut album '' The Didact'' in physical and digital formats. Means End said this in reaction to their new relationship with Rogue, “Of all the reputable companies we’ve approached, Rogue is the only one not afraid to their chin out. They bet on up-and-coming bands, invent modern and clever distribution and marketing strategies, work with alternative media channels like video-game publishers, and lots of other things that the ageing plus-size labels simply can’t match. More importantly though, our strategic partnership with Rogue will result in more and better music than ever before. We’re looking forward to drawing on all of Rogue’s creative talent.” The band began writing material for their next album set to be released sometime in 2015. On April 29, 2014 a new guitarist, Andreas Grimell, was introduced in an instrumental, dual-guitar, playthrough of their song Omega Barrier. The band announced their disbandment on March 8, 2015. "Thank you to everyone that has supported Means End since its inception. Our current constellation has come to an end. As band-members we shared a common interest in taking progressive metal into uncharted compositional directions. This bond produced The Didact and many good memories, but the nature of "being progressive" tore at our seams. Driven by an aspiration to progress, change, and innovate, the scope of our musical endeavor outgrew us. As a band, we were not able to balance a project of such ambition with work, studies, family, children and other responsibilities. We have an uncommonly diverse fan-base to which we owe a lot. Many of you have taken a personal stake in actively supporting Means End and spreading the word. Rest assured that we will, as individuals, continue to build on this foundation and continue to compose new great music."

Musical Style and Lyrical Themes

Musical Style and Genre Traits

Means End's musical style would be commonly classified as progressive metal or

fusion Fusion, or synthesis, is the process of combining two or more distinct entities into a new whole. Fusion may also refer to: Science and technology Physics *Nuclear fusion, multiple atomic nuclei combining to form one or more different atomic nucl ...

. Unique components include heavy use of non-diatonic key-changes, polyphonic

counterpoint In music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more musical lines (or voices) which are harmonically interdependent yet independent in rhythm and melodic contour. It has been most commonly identified in the European classical tradi ...

chromatic Diatonic and chromatic are terms in music theory that are most often used to characterize scales, and are also applied to musical instruments, intervals, chords, notes, musical styles, and kinds of harmony. They are very often used as a pair, ...

scales, and true

polyrhythm Polyrhythm is the simultaneous use of two or more rhythms that are not readily perceived as deriving from one another, or as simple manifestations of the same meter. The rhythmic layers may be the basis of an entire piece of music (cross-rhyth ...

. The guitar style uses a guitar tone popularly known as

djent Djent () is a subgenre of progressive metal characterised by its use of off-beat and complex rhythm patterns. Its distinctive sound is that of high-gain, distorted, palm-muted, down-tuned strings. The name "djent" is an onomatopoeia of this s ...

, popularized by extreme metal band

. Full

choirs are used in the foreground of their music rather than as an atmospheric pad. Vocals are dynamic, ranging from low death metal growls to soaring operatic vocals. Walking-bass lines are influenced by jazz fusion.Means End Interview And Bio
The Core Of Brutality. 2013-05-13. Retrieved 2014-09-23.

Lyrical Themes

Means End's lyrics touch on many philosophical topics. The lyrics consists of philosophical themes such as

ontology In metaphysics, ontology is the philosophical study of being, as well as related concepts such as existence, becoming, and reality. Ontology addresses questions like how entities are grouped into categories and which of these entities exis ...

epistemology Epistemology (; ), or the theory of knowledge, is the branch of philosophy concerned with knowledge. Epistemology is considered a major subfield of philosophy, along with other major subfields such as ethics, logic, and metaphysics. Episte ...

, history of ideas,

metaphysics Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that studies the fundamental nature of reality, the first principles of being, identity and change, space and time, causality, necessity, and possibility. It includes questions about the nature of conscio ...

mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

, and other things that interest them. More specifically, a song called Omega Barrier is related to computer science, but also crosses the barrier to both

philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...

and

. An example from Omega Barrier is: ''"This fits well with the observation that we simply can’t force ourselves to describe the neural or even symbolic functions from whence something like ambition emerges from; it’s just there.
We could very well just be machines underneath it all and never be the wiser."'' Many of their other songs feature complex, open-ended, lyrics, just as Omega Barrier does.

Studio Recording Equipment

Robert Luciani uses Neumann and

Shure Shure Incorporated is an American audio products corporation. It was founded by Sidney N. Shure in Chicago, Illinois, in 1925 as a supplier of radio parts kits. The company became a consumer and professional audio-electronics manufacturer of mi ...

Microphones into a TwinFinity tube preamp to record vocals. Rasmus Hemsel uses a tube-preamp to record on his bass which as a custom made Lundgren pickup. Leonard Östlund uses a 30" 8-string VP Guitar with a custom made Lundgren pickup. An -Fx II, an all-in-one preamp and effects processor, is used on both of Rasmus and Leonard's equipment to boost sound quality. Drums are programmed with -samples used in ToonTrack's Metal Foundry.

Discography

;Extended Plays *'' EP'' (2011) (re-release 2012) ;Studio Albums *'' The Didact'' (2013)

Members

; Final line-up *Robert Luciani –

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

*Rasmus Hemse – bass *Christian Schreil –

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

*Leonard Eastgrove –

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

*Andreas Grimell –

; Former *Henrik Gennert –

References

{{Reflist *"MEANS END Signs With ROGUE RECORDS." Blabbermouthnet. Blabbermouth, 7 Aug. 2013. Web. 26 Sept. 2014. *"The Core Of Brutality: Means End Interview And Bio." The Core Of Brutality. Core Brutality, 13 May 2013. Web. 26 Sept. 2014.

External links

Means End Official Facebook Page
Swedish progressive metal musical groups