Meshuggah: Jens Kidman (vocals); Fredrik Thordendal (guitar, synthesizer); Marten Hagstrom (guitar); Peter Nordin (bass); Tomas Haake (drums, background vocals). Recorded at Soundfront Studios, Uppsala, Sweden in February 1995. Swedish future-thrash band Meshuggah's jaw-dropping technique and monochromatic, scalpel-sharp sound seem like the product of a band of perfectly engineered machines, and on their second album, DESTROY ERASE IMPROVE, they've fulfilled their programming. Despite the showy time-signature changes and elastic riffing, the songs are surprisingly minimalist, rejecting contemporary metal's over-the-top bombast in favor of a pared-down attack. Opener "Future Breed Machine" offsets drummer Tomas Haake's polyrhythmic machine-gun bursts with flurries of rigid guitar and Jens Kidman's hoarse military bark, while "Inside What's Within Behind" functions as a series of devastating body blows compounded by stabbing sheets of steel-grey guitar. By contrast, both "Acrid Placidity" and "Terminal Illusions" flirt with moments of quiet, but with Meshuggah, a furious electrical storm is never far away.

• Genre: Rock
• Format: Vinyl
• Released: 11/30/2018