This retrospective from Louder traces how Swedish band Meshuggah's 1995 album Destroy Erase Improve became a landmark record that anticipated the direction extreme metal would take in the following decades. Formed in 1987 and taking their name from the Yiddish/Hebrew word for "crazy", the band began in the more progressive corners of thrash metal before developing the intricate, polyrhythmic and highly technical sound for which they later became renowned.

The article recounts the band's early evolution, from their 1989 self-titled debut (also known as Psykisk Testbird), which leaned heavily on thrash influences from acts such as Metallica, through to 1991's Contradictions Collapse, their first full-length release for Nuclear Blast, made after drummer Tomas Haake joined the line-up. It also references the difficult conditions surrounding the making of Destroy Erase Improve, including a flooded rehearsal basement that forced the band to discard damaged equipment, underlining the practical challenges they overcame to produce an album now regarded as pivotal to the genre.