Tosin Abasi told Mårten Hagström about the first time he heard Meshuggah: “This music is broken.” Abasi — the guitarist of Animals as Leaders, whose own eight-string polyrhythmic technical metal was directly descended from the tradition Meshuggah established — meant it as the highest possible compliment. The music sounds structurally impossible. It sounds like it should not be able to hang together. The rhythmic patterns appear to start and stop in the wrong places; the time signatures shift without warning; the guitar riffs that Hagström plays on his low-tuned eight-string seem to come from a different metric framework than the drumkit that Tomas Haake is playing simultaneously — and yet when you listen carefully enough, you hear that they are perfectly synchronized, that Haake and Hagström have been playing music together since they were nine years old, that the “broken” quality is not accident or incompetence but the specific sonic signature of two musicians whose combined rhythmic intelligence has been fused together for forty-five years into something that sounds wrong to a listener who expects conventional rhythm but is precisely right to anyone who understands what Meshuggah is doing. “You can’t play an instrument for the technicality of it,” Hagström said in a Metal Injection interview. You play it for the music. The technicality serves the music. The eight-string guitar in Drop F serves the specific sonic and compositional requirements of the music. Everything is in service of the music, even when the music sounds broken.
Mårten Hans Hagström was born on April 27, 1971, in Örnsköldsvik, Sweden. He joined Meshuggah after the release of their first album Contradictions Collapse (1991), replacing Jens Kidman as rhythm guitarist and allowing Kidman to focus entirely on vocals. His childhood friendship with drummer Tomas Haake — the two have been playing music together since they were nine years old — is the biographical foundation of the specific rhythmic intimacy that defines the Meshuggah rhythm section: a bassist (Dick Lövgren), a drummer, and a rhythm guitarist who have developed a shared rhythmic language across decades of playing together. Hagström shares songwriting duties with Thordendal roughly equally, notably contributing “Nebulous” from Nothing, “Acrid Placidity” from Destroy Erase Improve, and “Neurotica” from Chaosphere, among others. On the obZen album, he stepped outside his exclusive rhythm role to play “the slower, melodic leads on the songs that he wrote, such as ‘Electric Red’ and ‘Pravus.'” He and Thordendal were jointly rated number 35 by Guitar World in their top 100 greatest heavy metal guitarists. He is Meshuggah’s chief rhythm machine, and there is no rhythm machine heavier.
Background: Örnsköldsvik, Nine-Year-Old Drumming Friendship with Haake, Contradictions Collapse, Anti-Shred Philosophy
Hagström’s specific guitar influences — Rush, James Hetfield, Squarepusher, Autechre, Strapping Young Lad, and GISM — are among the most eclectic documented in this guide and explain the specific character of his rhythmic approach more completely than any single influence could. Rush provides the specific progressive rock rhythmic sophistication, the compound time signatures, the drummer-and-guitarist rhythmic dialogue (Neil Peart and Alex Lifeson) that is the direct model for Haake’s and Hagström’s own rhythmic relationship. James Hetfield provides the palm-muted rhythmic authority, the specific “machine-like” precision that makes heavy metal riffs feel physically overwhelming. Squarepusher and Autechre — both British electronic music artists associated with the IDM (Intelligent Dance Music) and drill-and-bass traditions — provide the electronic music perspective on polyrhythm, complex rhythmic patterns, and non-standard time structures that goes beyond what any single rock or metal influence could provide. The electronic music influence is audible in the specific way Meshuggah’s rhythmic figures interact with the drumkit: not as rock riffs supported by drums but as independent rhythmic voices — like electronic sequencer patterns — that occasionally align and occasionally diverge from the drumkit’s own patterns, creating the specific polymetric quality that makes the music sound “broken” to Abasi on first hearing.
His stated position on “shred” guitar — legend states he has an aversion to shred guitar, which Premier Guitar raised in their 2016/17 interview — reflects the same philosophy as his Metal Injection quote: “You can’t play an instrument for the technicality of it.” Where many metal guitarists pursue technical display (speed, sweep picking, tapping patterns) as ends in themselves, Hagström pursues technique as a means to a specific musical end. The specific difficulty of Meshuggah’s rhythm guitar parts — the exact rhythmic placement of every palm-muted note within the band’s polymetric structures, at high tempo, consistently across three-hour touring sets — is technically extreme by any objective measure. But the technique is always in service of the music’s specific requirements, not demonstrated for its own sake. His anti-shred position is not anti-technical but anti-technical-display: the distinction between mastery (complete technical facility in service of musical expression) and display (technical facility as the primary content).
The relationship with storied Ibanez custom-shop luthier Tak Hosono — discussed in the Premier Guitar “A Higher Standard” interview in the context of The Violent Sleep of Reason — represents the specific instrument-development partnership that has produced his custom eight-string instruments. Tak Hosono is the luthier at the Ibanez Custom Shop who has built custom instruments for multiple Ibanez signature artists, and his collaboration with Hagström has resulted in the specific black custom eight-string instruments that are Hagström’s primary live and recording tools.
The Rig: Mårten Hagström’s Guitars, Amps, and Effects
Guitars
Ibanez Custom 8-String (Black, Primary Live and Recording Guitar): Mårten Hagström’s primary guitars are Ibanez Custom Shop 8-string instruments — mainly black, built by Tak Hosono at the Ibanez Custom Shop to Hagström’s specific preferences. The UberProAudio documentation: “Ibanez Custom 8-String guitars (mainly black)” as his primary guitars. These instruments share the fundamental configuration of Thordendal’s eight-strings — Lundgren M8 pickups, extended scale length for Drop F tuning, locking nut, specific bridge hardware — but are built to Hagström’s personal specifications, which differ from Thordendal’s in specific ergonomic and tonal details. The black finish on most of Hagström’s instruments is both a visual choice and a consistent aesthetic identity across his career.
The Premier Guitar interview about The Violent Sleep of Reason discusses his work with Tak Hosono at the Ibanez Custom Shop in the context of the new instruments built for that album and tour — reflecting the ongoing, album-by-album refinement of the custom instruments that is characteristic of a professional touring musician in a long-term relationship with a major guitar manufacturer’s custom shop. Each album cycle brings new instruments that incorporate the lessons of the previous cycle’s touring and recording.
Ibanez MH8 / RGA8 (Production Models, Secondary Instruments): The UberProAudio documentation lists “Ibanez Custom 8-String guitars (mainly black) (rga8 pic below)” — suggesting that Ibanez RGA8 production models appear in Hagström’s documented gear alongside the fully custom instruments. The RGA8 (part of Ibanez’s RGA series, a more accessible production 8-string) provides a quality instrument that shares the fundamental multi-scale eight-string architecture without the fully custom specifications and Tak Hosono craftsmanship of the primary instruments.
Nevborn Custom 7 and 8 Guitar (Earlier Career, Discontinued Due to Intonation Problems): Both Hagström and Thordendal used custom guitars built by Swedish luthier Fredrik Nevborn in the earlier Meshuggah career. The Equipboard documentation notes: “This picture shows Marten (left) holding his custom Nevborn 7 guitar, which was made specifically by luthier Fredrik Nevborn for him and his bandmate Fredrik Thordendal. He stopped using this guitar because of intonation problems.” The intonation problems that ended the Nevborn relationship are a practical demonstration of the specific precision that Meshuggah’s music requires: instruments that cannot be accurately intonated at the extreme low tunings of Drop F are instruments that are, regardless of their other qualities, unsuitable for this specific music. Intonation accuracy — the correct pitch at every fret position — is non-negotiable for music where every note’s pitch relationship to the others has a specific compositional meaning.
Lundgren Custom Wound Pickups (Specific to Hagström’s Instruments): The UberProAudio documentation specifically notes “Lundgren custom wound pickups” for Hagström — the Lundgren M8 family, but potentially wound to specific resistance and magnetic specifications different from the standard M8 configuration. Custom winding allows specific adjustments to output level, frequency response, and dynamic sensitivity that factory-standard pickups cannot provide. Hagström’s custom Lundgren pickups — like Thordendal’s — are tuned to the specific tonal requirements of the rhythm guitar role: the ability to produce absolutely consistent, clean note-to-note precision at high gain and extreme down-tuning, with the specific “thump” character of each palm-muted low-string note that makes the rhythmic figures physically overwhelming at concert volume.
DR Strings, 8th String Gauged .070 (Heavy Gauge for Drop F): The UberProAudio documentation notes DR Strings with “7th string gauged .052 and eight string .070” — the specific heavy gauges required for proper string tension at Drop F tuning on extended scale instruments. The .070 low F string (for an eight-string in Drop F) is significantly heavier than the .056 or .059 that standard seven-string players use for their low B, reflecting the additional tension needed to maintain proper intonation and tone at the lower pitch. DR Strings are co-endorsed by both Hagström and Thordendal.
Amps
Fractal Audio Axe-FX Ultra (Primary Live Amp Simulation, Shared with Thordendal): Like Thordendal, Hagström uses the Fractal Audio Axe-FX Ultra and Axe-FX II XL as primary live amplification — sending signal directly to the PA without physical amplifier cabinets. The shared approach between the two guitarists ensures that their rhythm and lead guitar signals are processed through the same modeling platform, maintaining tonal consistency and balance within the Meshuggah mix. The Equipboard documentation confirms: “At 11:55 in this Rig Rundown for Mårten Hagström of Meshuggah, his gear is displayed, showing a Fractal Audio Axe-Fx Ultra Guitar Effects Processor.”
Randall Ola Englund Satan 120W (Rhythm Parts, Shared with Thordendal): The 2016 Premier Guitar Rig Rundown confirmed that both Hagström and Thordendal use the Randall Satan 120W head for their heavy rhythm parts. The Equipboard documentation for Hagström specifically: “Mårten Hagström uses the Randall Satan 120 Ola Englund Signature amplifier head, primarily for heavy rhythm parts.” For Hagström, whose role is almost exclusively rhythm guitar, the Randall Satan’s specific high-gain, tight, aggressive tube character is especially important: the quality of his palm-muted rhythm tones is the foundational sonic identity of Meshuggah’s live sound, and the Satan provides the specific tube-amplifier character that makes those rhythmic attacks feel physically present and dynamically alive in ways that even the best digital modeling cannot fully replicate.
Fortin Meshuggah Signature Amp (Shared with Thordendal): The Fortin Meshuggah Signature 50W amplifier — described in the Equipboard Fortin documentation as designed “to cover the entire arsenal of amps used on the new record, but could also nail the older classic tones” — is shared between Hagström and Thordendal. The Fortin designer’s quote: “‘Late 2016 just before The Violent Sleep of Reason Tour, I was asked to create an amplifier for Fredrik & Mårten that would not only cover the entire arsenal of amps used on the new record, but could also nail the older classic tones. As a result of much research and development, we are pleased to present this machine of torture, the MESHUGGAH Signature 50W amplifier.'” The “machine of torture” designation is both accurate and appropriate for an amplifier designed specifically to produce one of the most physically demanding guitar sounds in metal.
The Violent Sleep of Reason: Real Tube Amps for Live Recording: The Premier Guitar interview about The Violent Sleep of Reason documents a significant departure from the band’s recent digital modeling approach: Thordendal and Hagström dispensed with the digital modeling amps that have been a staple of their rigs of late in favor of real tube amps for the live recording of that album. The decision to use real tube amps for the live recording session (which required two months of rehearsals) was motivated by the desire for “immediacy and an organic, incendiary quality that departs from the somewhat sterile sound of recent Meshuggah albums” — reflecting the specific tonal advantages of real tube amplifier saturation (harmonic complexity, dynamic sensitivity, specific breakup character) over the best available digital modeling at the time. This decision documents the continuing relevance of real tube amplification even for musicians whose live rigs are primarily digital.
Line 6 Vetta II (Earlier Career, “Mainly Uses Built-In Effects — No Pedals”): In the earlier Meshuggah period, Hagström’s primary amplifier was the Line 6 Vetta II — a 300-watt digital modeling combo that was among the most sophisticated guitar amplifiers available in the 2000s. The UberProAudio documentation quotes him from a 2009 interview: “he mainly uses the Vetta built in effects — no pedals.” This minimalist approach to effects — using only the amplifier’s built-in processing rather than a dedicated pedalboard — reflects the same philosophy as his anti-shred position: he uses what the music requires, and what the music requires in his rhythm guitar role is primarily the correct gain structure, the correct EQ, and the correct palm-mute character — not an extensive effects palette.
Effects and Signal Chain
Minimal Effects Philosophy (Consistent Across Career): Hagström’s effects philosophy has been consistently minimal throughout his career — reflecting both the specific requirements of his rhythm guitar role (which needs clarity, precision, and consistency more than tonal variety) and his anti-display musical philosophy. The 2009 “mainly uses the Vetta built-in effects — no pedals” quote captures this; the 2016 Randall Satan + Fractal Axe-FX combination represents the same philosophy with updated technology. The rhythm guitar in Meshuggah’s music needs to produce one thing, consistently: the specific palm-muted, low-tuned eight-string tone that makes the rhythmic figures physically overwhelming. Achieving this one thing perfectly is the entire task; additional effects variety would add nothing.
Behringer FCB1010 MIDI Foot Controller (Shared with Thordendal, Axe-FX Control): Like Thordendal, Hagström uses a MIDI foot controller for live patch switching — the Behringer FCB1010 providing access to the Fractal Axe-FX patches programmed for each song in the Meshuggah set. The Cubase laptop automation handles most of the patch switching automatically, but the MIDI foot controller provides manual override capability.
Fortin Amps Custom Preamp Pedal (2016, Supplementary): The Fortin Amps Custom Preamp Pedal documented in Thordendal’s rig also appears in Hagström’s documented gear for the same period — a supplementary preamp stage used in conjunction with the Fortin Meshuggah Sig Amp for the Violent Sleep of Reason tour.
Playing Style & Tone Philosophy
Mårten Hagström’s playing style is the most rhythmically specific in heavy metal guitar — a style built entirely around the precise execution of polymetric rhythmic figures on a low-tuned eight-string guitar, with every other guitar value (tone, technique, expressiveness) subordinate to rhythmic precision. His Premier Guitar characterization as “Meshuggah’s chief rhythm machine” is exact: he is a human rhythm machine, and the quality by which a rhythm machine is judged is the accuracy of its timing and the consistency of its attack, not the expressiveness of its phrasing or the sophistication of its harmonic language.
His tone philosophy is the rhythm guitarist’s philosophy in its most extreme expression: the exact right tone for the exact right note in the exact right rhythmic position, with no deviation, no variation, and no improvisation. Meshuggah’s live performance reputation as “quite possibly the most precise live act in the known universe” (Wired Guitarist) is primarily a statement about Hagström and Haake — the rhythm section that has been playing together since they were nine years old — and the specific precision that this decades-long rhythmic partnership produces. Thordendal’s lead guitar and jazz fusion improvisations are expressive; Hagström’s rhythm guitar is precise. Both qualities are essential to the Meshuggah sound; neither is more important than the other.
His “you can’t play an instrument for the technicality of it” philosophy is the foundational statement that explains everything about his approach: the eight-string guitar in Drop F, the heavy gauge strings, the Lundgren custom pickups, the Fractal Axe-FX’s patch automation, the Randall Satan’s tube character — all of these are specific tools for a specific musical purpose. The purpose is the music. The tools serve it.
How to Sound Like Mårten Hagström
Guitar: An eight-string guitar with extended scale length (27″ or longer) and high-output passive humbuckers. The Ibanez RGA8 provides accessible entry to the eight-string format with production quality appropriate for serious playing. Lundgren M8 or comparable ceramic humbucker pickups. DR Strings in .070 gauge for the low F string at Drop F tuning.
Amp: Fractal Audio Axe-FX (any current generation — III or FM3) or Randall Satan 120W for the tube tone. The Axe-FX provides the consistency that precision metal requires; the Satan provides the tube saturation character that makes the palm-muted low notes feel physically present.
Amp Settings (High-Gain Metal — Rhythm):
| Control | Setting (0–10) | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Gain | 7–9 | High — but controlled, not maximum. Clarity requires managing gain |
| Bass | 4–6 | Controlled — excessive bass blurs palm mutes at low tunings |
| Mid | 4–5 | Slightly scooped — metal rhythm tone needs the scooped character |
| Treble | 6–7 | Present — gives the palm mutes their specific “thwack” attack character |
| Presence | 5–6 | Moderate — defines the attack without excessive brightness |
Technique: Palm muting is everything. The side of the picking hand resting against the strings near the bridge, with the exact pressure and position adjusted for the specific mute character required: too much pressure produces a dead, muffled sound; too little produces an open, ringing sound; exactly right produces the specific tight “thump” of the Meshuggah palm mute. Absolute rhythmic precision — with a metronome, at all tempos, until the rhythmic placement of every note is exact. Study Meshuggah’s rhythmic figures carefully: most of them are not in the time signature they appear to be in. The 4/4 drumbeat plays against riffs in 5/8, 7/8, or irregular meters, creating the polymetric overlay that makes the music sound “broken.”
Influence & Legacy
Mårten Hagström’s influence on metal rhythm guitar is the most specific in the tradition — he invented a way of playing rhythm guitar that was genuinely new, based on the polymetric approach that he and Haake developed together from their nine-year-old musical beginning. The djent movement, the progressive metal expansion of the 2010s, and the widespread adoption of eight-string guitars all trace back directly to the Hagström/Thordendal partnership — and the rhythm guitar dimension of that tradition traces back specifically to Hagström’s polymetric, palm-muted approach.
His connection to Fredrik Thordendal (Series 2 #166) is the most important single relationship in his musical career — the lead/rhythm division between the two guitarists creates the specific Meshuggah guitar dynamic that neither could produce alone. His connection to Misha Mansoor (Series 2 #171) of Periphery — one of the primary inheritors of the djent tradition — documents the specific lineage that the Hagström/Thordendal partnership established. Tosin Abasi’s “this music is broken” assessment and his subsequent career building from the Meshuggah foundation is one of the more specific lineage testimonies available in contemporary metal.
Internal Links:
- Fredrik Thordendal, Hagström’s Meshuggah lead guitar partner and 8-string co-developer at #166
- Mikael Åkerfeldt of Opeth, a fellow Swedish metal guitarist of the same generation at #168
- Misha Mansoor of Periphery, one of the primary inheritors of the djent/8-string tradition Hagström helped establish at #171
- Bill Kelliher of Mastodon, a fellow technical/progressive metal rhythm guitarist of the same era at #186
Frequently Asked Questions: Mårten Hagström Meshuggah Guitars & Gear
What guitar does Mårten Hagström play?
Hagström’s primary guitars are black Ibanez Custom Shop 8-string instruments built by luthier Tak Hosono at the Ibanez Custom Shop to his personal specifications. They feature custom-wound Lundgren M8 pickups tuned to the specific requirements of his rhythm guitar role, DR Strings with .070-gauge eighth string for Drop F tuning, locking nuts, and the extended scale length needed to maintain proper tension at extreme down-tuning. Earlier instruments included custom Nevborn 7- and 8-string guitars (discontinued due to intonation problems) and standard Ibanez production models including the RGA8.
What amplifier does Mårten Hagström use?
Hagström uses a combination of digital and analog amplification: Fractal Audio Axe-FX (Ultra and II XL) for modeling-based tones with patches programmed and automated via Cubase laptop, and Randall Ola Englund Satan 120W tube head for the heavy rhythm parts where tube saturation’s organic character matters. The Fortin Meshuggah Signature 50W tube amp (shared with Thordendal, limited to 150 units) was used for The Violent Sleep of Reason. For that album specifically, both guitarists “dispensed with the digital modeling amps in favor of real tube amps” to achieve a more organic, live recording character.
What is Hagström’s philosophy on guitar playing?
“You can’t play an instrument for the technicality of it.” Hagström views technical mastery as a means to a musical end — not as an end in itself. His legendary aversion to “shred” guitar reflects the same principle: technical display for its own sake is artistically empty. The extreme technical precision of Meshuggah’s rhythm guitar parts is justified by the music’s specific requirements, not by any desire to demonstrate technique. “Tosin Abasi told me once, the first time he heard us, he said, ‘This music is broken'” — and Hagström considers this the perfect characterization of what Meshuggah was pursuing.
What is Hagström’s relationship with Tomas Haake?
Hagström and Meshuggah drummer Tomas Haake have been playing music together since they were nine years old — a musical partnership of over forty-five years that is the foundational basis of Meshuggah’s specific rhythm section dynamic. The two have developed a shared rhythmic language across childhood and professional musical careers that produces the specific polymetric precision that makes Meshuggah’s rhythm section sound simultaneously “broken” (to unprepared listeners) and perfectly precise (to anyone who has absorbed the compositional logic). Hagström and Haake also co-wrote the Catch 33 album together, and Hagström wrote the entirety of the lyrics for the EP I.
What is the significance of the Violent Sleep of Reason recording?
The Violent Sleep of Reason (2016) was recorded live as a band — a rare feat for modern metal productions, which typically record instruments separately for maximum precision. The decision required two months of rehearsals and, as Hagström described to Premier Guitar, the decision to use real tube amplifiers rather than the Fractal Axe-FX digital modeling that had been their recent standard. The result was “an immediacy and an organic, incendiary quality that departs from the somewhat sterile sound of recent Meshuggah albums” — documenting the specific advantage of live recording and real tube amplification for capturing the physical energy of Meshuggah’s performance that studio overdubbing and digital modeling cannot fully achieve.
What contributions has Hagström made to Meshuggah songwriting?
Hagström shares songwriting duties roughly equally with Thordendal. His specific documented contributions include “Nebulous” from Nothing, “Acrid Placidity” from Destroy Erase Improve, and “Neurotica” from Chaosphere as primary songwriter. On obZen, he stepped outside his purely rhythmic role to play “the slower, melodic leads on the songs that he wrote, such as ‘Electric Red’ and ‘Pravus.'” He co-wrote Catch 33 with Tomas Haake and wrote the entirety of the lyrics for the EP I. This compositional role — substantial but less visible than Thordendal’s — reflects the rhythm guitarist’s position in Meshuggah’s creative partnership.
Why did Hagström stop using Nevborn custom guitars?
The Nevborn custom guitars — built by Swedish luthier Fredrik Nevborn specifically for Hagström and Thordendal — were discontinued due to intonation problems. At Drop F tuning and extended scale lengths, intonation accuracy is significantly more challenging than at standard guitar tuning: every change in scale length, nut position, saddle position, and neck relief has a greater effect on intonation at low tunings. Instruments that cannot be accurately intonated at these extreme pitches are unsuitable for Meshuggah’s music, regardless of their other qualities. The move to Ibanez Custom Shop instruments built by Tak Hosono resolved the intonation issues.
