The Math Behind Meshuggah Riffs

Yes, it seems to be a foundation of 4 bar 4/4 section(s) with other time signatures over the top, but resolving to the foundation by adding beats. I think people feel comfortable with a 4/4 foundation.

I did a really simple track by repeating a 4/4 phrase and a 7/4 phrase on a sequencer which was liked far more than anything I actually put effort into!

From the video, it looks like a lot of their time signatures are actually 4:4, it's just that they use those beats in very inventive ways.

Just googled a random guitar tab [1], and can see 4 different (3 very odd) time signatures in the first 20 seconds or so. Perhaps Meshuggah's style is a mix of both quirky signatures (11:8, 7:4 etc) and quirky use of traditional signatures (4:4, 8:4).

[1] https://www.songsterr.com/a/wsa/meshuggah-gods-of-rapture-ta...