DESTROY ERASE IMPROVE

To be honest, I'm definitely not someone who's into the majority of djent in the slightest, as I find the vocals to often be quite whiny and everything to sound needlessly melodramatic and more focused on technicality than actual good songwriting. This is where Meshuggah comes in, being one of the few bands of the genre that I can enjoy, being able to turn repetitive, heavy, riffs and odd time signatures into something great through creating an identity the provides each track with a mechanical quality to it. Destroy Erase Improve marks the first album where this style was being utilised, and feels like a transition between the thrashy, aggressive roots of the band, and the more complex stuff that came later, although I personally find it to work in its favour here, having certain, raw qualities of thrash, but being so precise at the same time.

The album kicks off with not only what I consider to be Meshuggah's best track, but one of the greatest metal songs of all time, Future Breed Machine. The song starts off with sounds of machinery and a high pitched beeping sound in the background, slowly becoming louder and louder until everything suddenly stops and makes way to a riff that manages to feel just off enough that headbanging to it will be awkward. This riff becomes faster and more aggressive as the vocals are introduced, seemingly screaming at random, feeling detached from the instrumental aspect of the song, with an incredibly raw sound to it that's further heightened when the backing vocals come in, sounding as if there's a group of people all angrily rebelling against something. What really makes this song so incredible is once all of this comes together, each aspect of the song suddenly begins to gel and an incredibly powerful groove explodes bin, which is then quickly replaced by a quieter instrumental bridge. The second half of the song manages to become even more crushingly heavy, with aspects of chaotic soloing behind the downtuned riffs and an even faster, more insane pace all around, with even the very end of the song continuing such intensity, the only repreive being the next few seconds of the following song. The much slower pace of Beneath in general feels much like a moment of calm, despite the fact that the song is still very heavy. The main thing I remember from this one is the sections with an eerie guitar wailing away in the background, giving the song some really great atmosphere. Soul Burn is another absolute highlight here, showing that speed isn't everything when it comes to sheer heaviness. as this song lacks almost all of the groovier elements of the previous songs, instead having slower, creeping riffs that burrow their way into your skull. The song climaxes once the tempo begins to pick up, everything begins to feel frantic, and then Jens Kidman begins screaming out "BUUUURRRNNN", which is equal parts awesome and harowing. Transfixion manages to continue this trend of absolutely killer songs, containing aspects of both the more plodding, calculated djent, and the chaotic thrash of their sound, despite not much about it in particular being notable.

Vanished is the first song which I'd consider to be a slight drop, although it's honestly one that is negligible, as it still contains some moments of pure greatness, such as the rising power of the solo, giving a light touch of the grandiose in amongst the mechanical, angry nature of this album. Acrid Placidity is generally considered to be a filler track, but I find the dark, eerie atmosphere is creates to more than justify its existence on this album, especially as the single true moment of calm to be found. Inside What's Within Behind os mainly so great for the most furious vocal performance on Destroy Erase Improve, with the spoken word fading in during certain section being disorientating, especially with the main vocals unleashing such anger and aggression. The last three tracks repeat similar themes that the previous ones did, but it does tend to lose me a bit by this point, as if they used up the majority of their genius up on the first few tracks, despite some impressive moments throughout.

This album, while losing some steam by the end, is nonetheless an amazing one that I personally don't find has any tracks poor enough to consider weak, as the ones at the end are still really great, but it just hits the point where everything just begins to sound the same after your ears have been bombarded so much. This album sowed the seeds of Meshuggah's later, more complex and calculated albums, but the thrash qualities present here make this album a really good one, definitely one of my favourite djent albums, although not an accessible one by any means.

Best songs: Future Breed Machine, Soul Burn, Inside What's Within Behind

Weakest songs: none

Verdict: a crushingly heavy album that marks the transitional period between the complex later work, and the early thrash roots of Meshuggah, making for an amazing album in many respects, albeit one that gets tiring by the end.