«Destroy Erase Improve» is the second Meshuggah album, released on 12 May 1995 by Nuclear Blast. It was recorded in February 1995 at Soundfront Studios in Uppsala, with Daniel Bergstrand and the band producing. The line-up was Jens Kidman on vocals, Fredrik Thordendal on guitar and keyboards, Mårten Hagström on guitar, Peter Nordin on bass and Tomas Haake on drums.
“`Country: Sweden
Style: Progressive / Technical Metal
For fans of: Fear Factory, Gojira, Pantera
It is the first album with Mårten Hagström and the last with Peter Nordin, who left after the tour because of vertigo.
This is where the signature Meshuggah sound appears for the first time: riffs that seem to rap, asymmetrical metres and heavy, almost mechanical drums. The critic Martin Popoff sees the record as the point where the band found itself, and links it to the birth of mathcore and djent.
The standouts are the opener «Future Breed Machine», «Beneath» and «Vanished». «Acrid Placidity» is instrumental. «Future Breed Machine» and «Vanished» were used in the «Traces of Death» film series.
The album runs 46 minutes. «Soul Burn» and «Sublevels» set the level of intensity, with Kidman’s vocals sounding like a machine. All the lyrics were written by drummer Tomas Haake. Peter Nordin played bass across the whole record before leaving, and the production kept the sound dry and direct. Daniel Bergstrand mixed it and Peter In De Betou mastered it.
In 2015 Rolling Stone placed it at number 42 on its list of the 50 greatest prog rock albums, and in 2017 at 77 on its list of the 100 greatest metal albums. The cover is a triptych, painted by Stefan Gillbald.
See also: Gojira – L’Enfant Sauvage and Hippotraktor – Annihilist.
