Customer Reviews

Destroy Erase Improve

5 star:		(71)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

To the uninitiated, Meshuggah's music is relentless: odd-metered, crippingly heavy power chords (Meshuggah uses 7-string guitars further detuned by a minor second); anti-melodic and seemingly amorphous structural blobs of inorganic noise give the listener no purchase. Bassist Peter Nordins picks monstrous bass lines to layer the guitars about one octave lower -- since the guitars themselves are already detuned to quite a low level, there is little breathing room amidst the storm of riffs, creating a dense, suffocating attack. However, the bass never bleeds into the guitars' own frequencies or gets drowned out by them (as is the case with most metal bands), so Meshuggah's sound has a great sense of sonic expanse. Drummer Thomas Haake usually plays 4/4 on the cymbals and snare drum, subdivided with odd-time signatures on the bass drums. Interestingly, he executes few fills, and those heard are quick and simple. Rather than dexterity, Haake's strength is rhythm and impressive sense of time. The robotic vocals of Jens Kidman are single-note, vicious shouts executed solely for rhythmic effect -- there is no melody in Meshuggah's vocals. The vocals themselves are executed in unusual time signatures as well, generally independent of the guitars themselves. Catchy music Meshuggah is not (Hater of the Human Race's comments notwithstanding, heh). The band's assailments occasionally retreat into haunting atmospheres of chiming arpeggios, and even these seem heavy. The production is distancing and There is pretty much zero emotion in the music -- this is heartlessly intellectual, and virtually inhuman. (This fits with lyrical themes of organisms merging with technology.)

Personally, I barely consider this album "fun". This is the kind of thing I soak up with my brain and leave my heart squarely at the curb.

Yet, to the Meshuggah fan, all the difficult, disagreeable things I described above are key elements in what makes the band distinct and amazing. It's all a matter of perspective.

Meshuggah defines mutation of rhythm, their pulverizing jackhammer rhythms writhing in different time-signatures like a tortured cat. If a metalhead tried headbanging to this stuff he'd probably look like he was in the throes of a seizure.

Frederick Thordendal's unique guitar solos evoke a demented, bizarro Allan Holdsworth. Like Holdsworth, he uses a breath controller for his guitar. With this he accomplishes a tremolo-like staccato effect like a super-computer punching out lines of code. Among the armies of Hammett and Malmsteen imitations in metal, Thordendal is easily one of the genre's most unique soloists.

To get the full Meshuggah experience, it would help to be versed in some music theory. I have to say I can't completely understand the music (but at least I admit it, eh?), but I still love it -- it is unique, powerful, challenging, and unmerciful. Also worth mentioning is the fact that Meshuggah doesn't have any notable imitators -- I think that would trivialize what they do, unless of course someone came along who did it better (good luck!).

As a side-note, I saw Meshuggah open for Tool in October and needless to say I was impressed. Granted, I was a little too far away to get wrapped up in the performance's intensity (if it's a metal show I like to be close), so it was a dull enjoyment. But beholding their flawless execution of this Einsteinian metal was fookin' impressive. Composing and recording it in the studio is one thing, but to play it live...eegah! Such is a testimony of Meshuggah's uncanny talent.

Cold, mechanical, and cerebral, _Destroy Erase Improve_ is high-art out of Sweden...without a doubt one of the best and most original metal albums ever.

Every genre has its malcontents. Classical music had Beethoven and Stravinsky; jazz had Miles Davis and Jaco Pastorius; rock had Frank Zappa. And starting with this album, Meshuggah did the same thing for metal - stomped eardrums flat, pulled the genre somewhere it probably didn't even realize it could go, and generally served notice that the existing rules & definitions just weren't good enough anymore.

And the result is.. scary stuff. Time signatures and meters are a joke. Gut-punching guitar hits and jagged drum lines tackle multiple time signatures in a psychotic stew that encompasses so many rhythms, you'll need a calculator to figure out how they all go together. Lyrics - visceral and highly cerebral all at once - are shouted in rhythmic patterns that act like another instrument, weaving around the others. (I hate death growls, but I don't mind these tortured screams. Go figure.) Melody is simply a fringe element that may or may not happen along the way, apart from an occasional masterful interlude like "Acrid Placidity" or the loopy bridge to "Future Breed Machine." Frederik Thordendal tops things off with the most innovative guitar work I've ever heard in the metal world. He spins out spidery atonal-but-not-really lead lines that I don't even know how to describe. It's always elusive and trying to remember what you've just heard is nearly impossible.

Chaosphere is much louder, faster and more intense; Nothing is slower, more subtle and heavier. And while those two albums are also brilliant, they're probably easier to wrap your gray matter around if you start with Destroy Erase Improve and then follow their progression. As an alternative, the EP I manages to basically consolidate the sound of these three discs in one 21-minute helping, and it also makes a good introduction for the curious. Just be ready for some good brain-pounding whichever way you go.. it may hurt a little, but nobody said evolving was easy.

I am a jazz musician and I have been getting into bands like Opeth and Tool lately in my never-ending search for new musical sounds and ideas. (And having lots of fun, too !)

I have previewed Chaosphere a few times on Amazon, but still don't know quite what to make of it - I think the poor quality of the Amazon Realaudio/Media Player samples makes it hard evaluate. I always look for good musicianship in all styles of music and I am suspicious of some metal bands whose main aim seems to be as heavy as possible just for the sake of it. Nevertheless, I always try to keep an open mind.

Anyway, since nearly everyone rates this album (DEI) very highly, I felt obliged to give it a try. I picked up a copy, took it home, bravely inserted the CD, cranked up my system and braced myself for the onslaught !!

Well, I must say it brought a tear to my eye (in a good way) - its amazing.

What you get is truly delicious rhythmic complexity, flawlessly executed with brutal intensity. These guys have great chops and a lot of discipline. They are very accomplished players.

My impression of this music is that the emphasis is almost entirely on Rhythm - with very little melody. If you take the time to transcribe some of this stuff, I'm sure you will have an entire encyclopedia of new rythmic ideas at your disposal.

There are a few quiet passages too, with clean guitar chords and guitar solos that sound very similar to Allan Holdsworth (In fact in some parts I could have sworn it WAS Allan playing..). This was also a pleasant surprise for me, being a long-time Allan fan.

Anyway, as others have pointed out, due to the complexity of this album, much of the music might be lost on non-musicians (although anyone can appreciate the 'heaviness' of it.)
To those of you that think that this music is too hard to listen to - you are forgiven - as this is a very potent brew and not for everyone.

However, these guys are doing something very important - they are pushing the envelope and truly creating something new.

Personally, I love it.

People who think being heavy means downtuning your guitar, burping into the microphone and ignorantly yelling about Satan and anarachy will be proven dead wrong after hearing this. (Not that I don't like those bands, they just get boring after awhile)The riffs pulse like machine guns yet can actually be classified as music as well. Jens Kidman produces a quality vocal performance which sounds a bit like Kill em all era James Hetfeild done in a more death metal style. The solo's are downright alien sounding and 100% original. I know this is a pretty big statement, but no one out there right now sounds as original as Fredrik Thordendal when it comes to solo's. The rhythem section is solid and keep up with the music, which is a huge compliment right there. Lyrically they focus on abstract stuff that you really have to think about to understand a bit like Tool. I would recommend to this to many people since it is enjoyable on many different levels. If your into intelligent heavy stuff or just want to bang your head, this is the album for you. One of my personal favorites of all time.

I recommend getting Death, In Flames, Opeth, At the Gates, Decapitated and Fredrik Thordendal's Special Defects(if you can find it!) in addition to this album.

Destroy Erase Improve is one those albums in which we see a group of musicians step beyond their self-imposed limitations and create something completely original. What I mean by this is that Meshuggah's first album (1991's Contradictions Collapse), as lyrically intelligent and technically demanding as it is, showed the band basically following the Bay-Area thrash metal template. They were doing no worse than a thousand other bands at the time, but they were capable of far better. One of the more noticable changes is how lead guitarist Fredrik Thordendal started incorporating more of a jazz fusion style to his soloing when so many other guitar players were stuck trying to be Kirk Hammett or Kerry King. Much like his band, Thordendal doesn't sound like anyone else. And let's not forget Thomas Haake's utterly incredible use of polyrhythms while just about every other drummer was learning that cool double bass solo on "Angel of Death".

I really can't describe DEI as anything except technical and brutal. Let me reiterate, it sounds like nothing else. Since I bought DEI in early 2000, I've heard Meshuggah described as many things that they are not: death metal, nu metal, thrash metal, industrial metal, etc. Instead Meshuggah is one those great bands like Tool, Black Sabbath, or Iron Maiden that comes along every few years to completely mess with everyone's preconceptions as to what heavy music should be.

"Future Breed Machine" starts off with a siren like noise that I believe comes from Thordendal's guitar before launching into a brutal guitar-drum machine-gun attack. There are numerous tempo changes including a (relatively) soft jazz section. Lyrically, the song can mean one of two things. If you take it for its literal meaning, it is about a Terminator/Matrix future in which machines have taken over and are redesigning humanity in their image. Or it can be about an all-too-human political regime, such as the Communists or the Nazis, that maintain their power by dehumanizing the population. "Terminal Illusions" may offend those deeply into religion with lines like "I don't need religion" or "God bless no one". The three-minute "Acrid Placidity" is the only soft song that Meshuggah, to the best of my knowledge, has ever released. And even it is a little odd with its otherworldly guitar tunings and string bends. The closer "Sublevels" proves that not only are Meshuggah a highly technical band, they can also provide some neat atmosphere too.

As I said before, DEI is one of those albums that comes along and changes things like Kill'em All, Reign in Blood, or Black Sabbath's debut did for their time. Even though the vast majority of hard rock fans don't know about DEI's true impact, I have a feeling its reverberations are going to make their way outside of the underground and into mainstream society real soon.

Having acquired a sampling of their work via BearShare, I gave Meshuggah a good, respectful listen and ended up buying DEI, Chaosphere, and Nothing in short order. Having listened to all three in random rotation, I'm ready to help out new listeners with this review.

Meshuggah is clearly a musician's band. If the fact that Tool, the reigning smart-metal band, asked Meshuggah to open show isn't a clear indication of the direction and quality of the music, then here's your other hint: there really aren't many other bands today, much less metal bands, that can carry the tag "math metal" and mean it.

If you aren't a musician or music theorist, then the odd-time signatures are going to be missed by you. Your idea of fun just may not be to deconstruct everything you hear. The musicians that hear Meshuggah can recognize what's going on, and are impressed. I'm an average listener and awful drummer, so I can only appreciate them viscerally.

Still, the comparison or relation to Tool is apt. This is more of a jazz metal band for lack of a better class; the time is indeed complex and you'll have to accept the fact that the standard guitar solo is never going to make its appearance here. If you hang tight, though, you'll get your payoffs: thundering bass drums, really excellent tempo changes and outro beats, a multitude of well-executed good ideas, and some pretty interesting sounds.

Highlights? Well, the other reviewers delineate them, but my favorite cut from this is "Soul Burn". That "burn!" vocal just fits the Icarian intensity in the music. Yeah, this CD will definitely keep your legs moving if you're on a stationary bike. God help you when the CD is over and your legs have turned to jelly...

Destroy Erase Improve(1995). Meshuggah's second studio album.

(This review is mainly for anyone new to Meshuggah, like I am.)

A year ago, when I first heard of Meshuggah, I initially wrote them off as a "wall of noise, toneless band with crappy death vocals". Needless to say, I wasn't quite ready for them yet. Over the year though, I began to develop an ear for much heavier and often deathier bands like Opeth, Strapping Young Lad, and several others. No matter where I looked, I saw tons of praising reviews hailing Meshuggah as "the most progressive and jawdroppingly evolved metal band of our generation". Eventually, my curiosity sparked and I thought I should give them another try. Many have stated that DEI is the best place for people to start with Meshuggah, so I bought this release and proceeded with caution.

Then after the first listen, it finally clicked with me... This album is a METAL MASTERPIECE in every sense of the word! The reason why I didn't appreciate Meshuggah before was because my dislike towards death-styled vocals prevented me from enjoying the music. Ego and pre-perception can get in the way of enjoyment and is usually the source of close-mindedness. Thankfully, I've made it past that. The other mistake that close-minded people will make often is that they will approach Meshuggah expecting there to be melody to the music and end up sloughing them off when they find none. I've learned that melody is one approach, but not the only way to hear music. With Meshuggah, most melody is compromised in exchange for intensely complex, lush, and machine-like rhythmic songstructures. I repeat: MESHUGGAH SPECIALIZES IN RHYTHMIC SONGSTRUCTURES. Both rhythm guitars stay within the same general range throughout the disc, so for first-timers it may sound all the same. Once in a while, a lead solo is played by Fredrik Thordendal, though the melodies are very cool and unique, yet strangely indiscernible (it's difficult to describe, you'd have to hear them).

Like the band Spiral Architect, there is so many time changes that your brain is likely to twist into 14 different knots. However, one way that Meshuggah has surpassed the aformentioned band is in their ability to play in polyrhythms/polymeters. For those who don't know, the way it works is by each bandmember playing separate rhythms, yet at the same time managing to stay as a whole cohesive unit. Each time you listen, you can follow one bandmember and come up with a different tempo and rhythm from the others, though somehow it all comes together. People often dismiss this aspect as "off-time and unorganized" but with proper inspection, you can see that this couldn't be further from the truth. This must be very difficult to play live for the band, let alone follow along. As for the deathy vocals, I'm still not a big fan of them, but with Meshuggah that doesn't really seem to be a problem for me. I'd say now that Jens Kidman's vocals resemble more of a powerful throaty toneless roar as opposed to the cookie monster style that Opeth employs. It fits with the intensity of the music perfectly, and quite frankly I think that melodic singing would seem out of place here. Not to mention, that the music is just plain HEAVY! All these factors come into the success of DEI, as Meshuggah managed to finally craft their own unique sound. Other bands may share similar characteristics, but overall there's no one out there quite like them.

The songs all have a similar tone from one another, but they're by no means identical. Each one has its own subtle identity which comes off as thought-provoking, contemplative, and more important than anything else.... memorable. The album kicks off with a bang in the opener 'Future Breed Machine'. The song pulsates and pounds like an ever-changing row of thunderous hammers, topped off with an eerie bleep pattern that starts and ends the song. There are places in many of the tracks where the vocals have a shouty quality, faintly reminding me of early Anthrax. `Beneath' has a nice lead melody that sticks in your brain long after you turn the cd off. `Soul Burn' slows things down a bit, yet the music remains equally complex (they would further explore the slower realm on Nothing(2002)). I love the intro of `Transfixion' where you can slowly hear the music fading in and halfway through the process the music suddenly jumps to full volume! It gets me every time. `Vanished' continues the sheer speed and intensity while `Acrid Placidity' is more of a short melodic instrumental, serving as a nice quiet break from all the chaos. `Inside What's Within Behind' is as mind-bending as its title implies. In `Terminal Illusions', the track starts out with a really awesome industrialized guitar melody followed with an interesting speed-fest. `Suffering Truth' prolongs the metal assault, but perhaps the best track on here besides `FBM' is the album closer `Sublevels'. It's got one of the most unique song structures that I've ever heard in any song to date.

Replayability: Often. Perfect for when you're in the mood to challenge yourself with a rhythmic brutal metal assault.

Well this review has gone on way too long, but I'll just say that DEI is the perfect starting point for anyone new to Meshuggah. Believe it or not, they only get more intense and complex on the newer releases such as Chaosphere(1997), Nothing, and I(2004). DEI is still a milestone masterpiece in the context of the others. Meshuggah is certainly not for everyone, but for those who can get into this kind of stuff you'll be pleasantly surprised. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

Recommendations:
-Any of Meshuggah's other albums: _ALL_ are excellent.
-`A Skeptic's Universe' by Spiral Architect (much more melody, but similar in song-structure composition)
-Any Opeth release (Another awesome heavy death metal band)

From the first listen, Meshuggah's emphasis on jazzy beats, dynamics and lyrical content are right on the money. What other metal (and most pop) bands miss, in my opinion is heard here immediately. Meshuggah paints souls lost, without identity, and trying to find their true selves. The myriad influences, ranging from Rush to Allan Holdsworth to Metallica...are all well integrated without being too obvious. While I understand some people's dislike of Jens Kidman's vocals, his approach works out very well. Fredrik Thordendal may take his tone and feel from Allan (in the lead breaks) but it's pushed further with "otherworldly" sounds and awesome 12-tone runs. Even if you're not a musician or a metal fan, this album has a lot to offer adventurous listeners of every sort. TEN STARS! ;)

it's probably not for you then.

This album is just fun really. A lot of people don't understand why some of us get into time changes, clean breaks, precision, polyrythms, etc. A lot of times it gets chalked up to us being music-snobs, pseudo-intellectuals, or whatever. For a lot of us that like Meshuggah, that couldn't be further from the truth. Speaking as a musician, it is just fun to listen to. I have a blast listening to this album and trying to keep up with where it meanders. And when it slams into a straight tempo, Yesu! It is just brutal.

So, no ill words for those of you that don't like it. Tis cool, if we all liked the same stuff the world would be pretty boring. But if you are in to listening to music where you know the band is working their collective nards to push their playing, and you like metal of course, this is just a neat album to hear.

That's right, I called DEI fun!

I was a little hesitant in buying this album, as I wasn't thoroughly impressed with Chaosphere (although that album is pretty good), but the store had a used copy on sale for $5.99, so I picked it up. Popped it in the truck's CD player, and was hooked immediately. Not a single bad track on here. They even included an acoustic piece, "Acrid Placidity," which isn't the best acoustic segue in metal, but is something new for Meshuggah and effectively displays the band's versatility. As for the best track, well they're all above-average to very good, but standouts are "Future Breed Machine," "Soul Burn," "Inside What's Within Behind," "Suffer in Truth," and "Sublevels." It's not bad lyrically; I'm normally opposed to angst-driven metal, but in this case, I think they've channeled their protests effectively instead of just screaming out over the music.

Meshuggah is definitely not for everyone, especially the folks that think Korn constitutes a heavy metal band. But if you've got an open mind and can see the load of talent that lies within these Swedes, you're going to enjoy this album. It's really fun to blast out of your vehicle's stereo when you drive past a bunch of kids listening to rap. You'll definitely get some laughable reactions. Anyway, it's a good CD to listen to just to listen to something, unless you're trying to sleep, of course. Anyway, get it.