Meshuggah - Destroy Erase Improve (1995) Reviews
I admit that, even as a prog fan, I never really held djent in the highest respect. Not that I don't judge the albums fairly, but I never have the highest expectations for djent considering that it turned one of the world's most innovative music genres into a monotone mess full of would-be innovators that need to resort to grindcore and other like genres to have some sort of edge over Meshuggah. This is because Meshuggah, who invented the "genre" brought some sort of class to it on the first ever djent album: Destroy Erase Improve.
Out intro alone, Future Breed Machine gives us this Voivod-noise atmosphere while the band effortlessly takes us through thrash, industrial, and some weird Cthulhu shit that all feels natural because Meshuggah have their own fairly unique tone. And you really have to appreciate some of their weirder timing techniques, molding 120 BPM drums with 180 BPM guitar riffs like it's nothing, and when it's not thrashing its riffing with the same kind of energy displayed by some of the best guitarists in metal. Soul Burn is one of the slower songs on the album, being more groove that thrash, and it pulls many of these tricks with perfect personality mingling with a healthy sense of art. And this djent album also leaves some room to just thrash out, like with the shorter song Transfixion. And while Vanish combines thrash with djent, its behavior in heaviness and structure is a more akin to death at times.
You may notie that I only covered the first half, well that pretty much shows you what we're dealing with. Side B starts us off with a calmer electric guitar instrumental that us soak in the vibes while we cool ourselves off after such menacing examples of Meshuggah's power. And it does a pretty good job at it (although it doesn't match some of the segues in Issues). The problem here is, after the sixth track, it largely runs out of freah ideas. I mean, unlike Hetfield in Ride the Lightning and Majewski in Butcher the Weak or Jax Coleman in Extremities, our singer here is mostly just shouting the same way usually does. And on top of that, all the ideas that were present on the first five tracks are pretty much repeated, so the variety suffers a little bit. But overall, the album still builds itself on its strengths while largely justifying the flaw. There's no denying that Meshuggah were a very creative band at one point, and they've managed to maintain their rep in the music industry. However, it would be nice to see them try to reack the creative hieghts of Destroy Erase Improve instead of just trying to maintain their djent rep.
After the technical thrash sound of Contradictions Collapse, Meshuggah had their breakthrough success with their second album Destroy Erase Improve. They DESTROYED and ERASED their original sound from their first album and IMPROVED it into a more industrial-influenced progressive thrash style with more guitar strings attached. Destroy Erase Improve is what many metalheads believe to be one of the best metal albums in 1995 along with Fear Factory's Demanufacture, and with this album, Meshuggah has packed much more of their brutal technical force. Pretty much every song here has the off-meter alien-like guitar playing of Fredrik Thordendal, precise drumming of Tomas Haake, and Jens Kidman shouting like an arrogant drill sergeant.
Unlike later albums which have each song seamlessly blend to another constantly and have a thick groove, Destroy Erase Improve is, a little like Contradictions Collapse, still focused on thrash metal. That does NOT mean this band is thrash! Well they used to be thrash before this album, but this is the start of the sound that would later be djent. The guitar tone and soloing here is never really parallel to thrash but still masterful progressively.
The chaos begins with "Future Breed Machine" which starts with a bit of an apocalyptic atmosphere that sounds like robotic machines taking over the world; industrial noises for almost 30 seconds, then a piercing siren over a total headbanging onslaught. "Beneath" starts with a brief ambient intro, and the rest of the song is nothing too special but still enjoyable. "Soul Burn" begins with some pounding groove before leading you into a wild direction of furious guitar riff-wrath. Jens Kidman sounds great here especially in the chorus where his syncopated vocals give the song more rhythm. Nice solo after the midway point!
"Transfixion" has more thrash and less groove than most other songs in the album, continuing the brutal riffs and heavy lead work. That song, along with "Vanished" have amazing drum work rolling like a bullet-train. However, the speeding bullet-train hits an unexpected halt with the instrumental "Acrid Placidity". Wow, an incredible ambient interlude! You might expect Kidman to sing nicely like Burton C. Bell in some Fear Factory ballads, but nope. I guess Kidman just wanted to stay shouting in the other tracks.
"Inside What's Within Behind" continues the chaos, beginning with a pulsating rhythm then kicks in some crazy drum rhythms that would be an essential part of the band's career. Then after the midway point, a soft yet spooky break comes in before the heavy ending. "Terminal Illusions" is just filled with thrash within the riffs and drums that would cause you to head-bang until your head gets flung off. "Suffer in Truth" is the most cohesive track of the bunch. There isn't as much staccato as the previous songs, and it is more of a groove track with steady rhythm. "Sublevels" is softer and has less of Kidman's vocals but also has the spoken monotone of Tomas Haake. There's a good soft guitar solo towards the end of the first half, and the song ends with the last bit of heavy strength from the screams and the riffs.
This is an excellent album, and many of its moments are more vile and twisted than most death metal albums, though still lyrically clean. It's a nice balance of thrash/death metal aggression with the thick, heavy atmosphere of progressive metal, leaving you struggling through a huge riff and rhythm exchange. The djent sound is rising!
Favorites: Future Breed Machine, Transfixion, Inside What's Within Behind