DESTROY ERASE IMPROVE

I was positively surprised when I heard these crazy swedes for the first time. I was really into complex and harsh metal back then and was already familiar with bands such as Extol and Dillinger Escape Plan, but finally managed to stumble over these boys. They create so technical and polyrhytmic metal that make most other tech-metal bands pale in comparision and their 1995 release and second main release, "Destroy Erase Improve" is no exception. The albums style is fairly thrash-metal influenced with strong progressive elements only way more brutal. Heavy and brutal guitars and incredibly tight drumming messes with your head throughout it's 46 minutes playing time and rarely, if ever sounds dull or even uninspired. The scariest thing is their it's two followers, "Chaosphere" and "Nothing" are even more challenging!

The production is great; clear and allows you to hear all details needed and it's a great support to the brutal music making it sound raw, but still very clean. Tomas Haake's drumming is amazing, his technical abilities leaves most other metal drummers I've heard in the dust and his overall performance is mindblowing. Vocalist Jens Kidman's vocals sounds like a mutated James Hetfield and is quite raw, but more in the thrash style rather than growling. The guitar duo of Fredrik Thordendal and Mårten Hågstrøm works wonderfully together and Thordendal easily manages to stand out as one of the best metal guitarists around, while Hågstrøm supports him with really great rhythm guitar work. Tight, heavy and just awesome. Some more melodic guitar playing from them are also present in the albums calmer parts as well. Peter Nordin's bass work isn't as audible but adds the needed heavyness of the guitars very well.

This album is perhaps their most accessible and obviously the best starting point for this band. I also think this is overall their best one and it has NO flaws at all. All songs goes perfectly together and offers several brilliant moments. The best tracks are "Future Breed Machine", "Beneath", "Soul Burn" and "Sublevels". Masterpiece! 5/5