Bleed, although one of the most popular songs by Meshuggah, certainly deserves praise for being one of the most influential songs in progressive or thrash metal because of its 4:3 polyrhythmic drum patterns, fast guitar riffs, and powerful vocals. The band's drummer, Thomas Haake admitted in an interview by stating that it took him months to learn how to play the drums for this song and it shows its validity by making the drums the backbone of this track.
Kidman’s vocals add paint to Meshuggah’s dismal canvas which portrays life seething out of a man through an aneurysm. By saying, “Malfunction-the means for its ascent; Bloodletting-the stringent voice to beckon my soul”, Thordendal draws parallels between a machine breaking down and losing its fuel to a dying body losing blood. He ends it by saying, “A sneering grin, the voice of my reaper; Chanting softly the song of depletion” which symbolizes the descent of the man from life to death, after
all the pain and hurt is peacefully brought about by the grim reaper signing him a lullaby as a mother sings her child to sleep. This song shares the French philosopher, Rene Descartes’ mechanistic world view which looks at the universe as nothing but a machine but unlike him, Meshuggah admits to the presence of gods and supernatural entities that haggle over things like souls just as people do over money and property in the lines, “Scornful gods haggle for my soul” and “Taunting whispers accompany my deletion”.
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