[2] The band has performed in various international festivals, including Ozzfest and Download, and embarked on the obZen world tour from 2008 to 2010, and also the "Ophidian Trek".

[15] During this period, Thordendal, who was working as a carpenter, severed the tip of his left middle finger, while Haake injured his hand in a router accident.

It contained one new song entitled "Sane", and one live and two alternate versions of Destroy Erase Improve's opening track "Future Breed Machine".

[4][21] In March 2002, Meshuggah recorded three-track demos with programmed drums in their home studio, which were based on Haake's sample Drumkit from Hell.

[36] The video for the track "Shed" was released in June, and the previous album Nothing sold approximately 80,000 copies in the United States to that date, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

[40][41] A remixed and remastered version of Nothing with rerecorded guitars was released in a custom-shaped slipcase featuring a three-dimensional hologram card on 31 October 2006, via Nuclear Blast Records.

The release also includes a bonus DVD featuring the band's appearance at the Download 2005 festival and the official music videos of "Rational Gaze", "Shed" and "New Millennium Cyanide Christ".

Killswitch Productions said: "It's extremely cool to work with a band who is willing to allow the music and imagery to speak for itself and who does not insist on themselves being the prominent focus of the video.

[48] In April, Meshuggah was forced to cancel its Scandinavian shows in early 2009, due to Haake's herniated disc in his lower back, which was causing problems with his right foot when playing.

[58] The EP features a previously unreleased track, "Pitch Black", that was recorded by Fredrik Thordendal in 2003 at Fear and Loathing, in Stockholm Sweden.

[69] Trademarks and characteristics that define Meshuggah's sound and songwriting include polyrhythms, polymetered riff cycles, rhythmic syncopation, rapid key and tempo changes and neo-jazz chromatics.

"[4] The early work of Meshuggah, influenced mainly by Metallica, is "simpler and more straightforward than their more recent material, but some of their more progressive elements are present in the form of time-changes and polyrhythmics, and Fredrik Thordendal's lead playing stands out".

[9][16][72] AllMusic describes the style as "weaving hardcore-style shouts amongst deceptively (and deviously) simple staccato guitar riffs and insanely precise drumming—often with all three components acting in different time signatures".

[16] Thordendal adds the melodic element with his typical lead guitar[16] and uses his "breath controller" device most famously on the opening track "Future Breed Machine".

[74][75] Rockdetector states: "Whilst fans reveled in the maze like meanderings, critics struggled to dissect and analyze, hailing Haake's unconventional use of dual 4/4 and 23/16 rhythm, Kidman's mechanical staccato bark and Thordendal's liberal usage of avant-garde jazz".

[34] On Catch Thirtythree, Meshuggah again used eight-string guitars,[4] but utilized programmed drums for the first time also for the release,[80][81] with the exception of two songs from 2001's compilation Rare Trax.

[84] Some songs still use Meshuggah's "familiar template combining harsh vocals and nightmarish melodies over coarse, mechanically advancing, oddball tempos", while others explore ambient sounds and quieter dynamics.

The album loses some of the quick, mathematical rhythmic changes of past releases and the melodic orchestration of Catch Thirty-Three[85] and uses "angular" riffs,[88] mid-tempo and common 4/4 beats.

[85][87] In an interview for Gravemusic.com, Haake stated, "['Bleed'] was a big effort for me to learn, I had to find a totally new approach to playing the double bass drums to be able to do that stuff.

[6] A common quality in Koloss identified by multiple critics and outlets is the album's relatively straightforward, more groove-oriented sound, summed up by Metal Sucks as the band having "streamlined their compositions to a great extent.

[93] The album invokes a greater sound of menace and "darkness" according to Metal Injection; additionally, Jens Kidman's vocals were described as "exponentially more anguished" than previous works.

[94] The record's guitar riffs have been noted as deviating somewhat from Meshuggah's earlier catalog, with SPIN identifying "an almost bluesy swing" in the playing style.

[95] SPIN further elaborated on the guitar leads, comparing the solos in "The Demon's Name is Surveillance" and "Marrow" to the (non-metal) works of experimental composer Philip Glass and jazz-guitarist Allan Holdsworth respectively.

[24] AllMusic describes Destroy Erase Improve's lyrical focus as "the integration of machines with organisms as humanity's next logical evolutionary step".

[16] PopMatters' review of Nothing singles out the lyrics from "Rational Gaze": "Our light-induced image of truth—filtered blank of its substance / As our eyes won't adhere to intuitive lines / Everything examined.

"[77] Haake explains that Catch Thirtythree's cover, title and lyrics deal with "the paradoxes/negations/contradictions of life and death (as we see it in our finest moments of unrestrained metaphoric interpretation)".

[86][99] Revolver Magazine finds the lyrics of the title track from obZen representative of the entire album: "Salvation found in vomit and blood/Where depravation, lies, corruption/War and pain is god."

"[4] RockDetector stated about Destroy Erase Improve: "[T]he band...stripped Metal down to the bare essentials before completely rebuilding it in a totally abstract form".

[27][77] Listeners perceiving a polyrhythm often either extract a composite pattern that is fitted to a metric framework, or focus on one rhythmic stream while treating others as "noise".

[101] Meshuggah has found little mainstream success but is a significant act in extreme underground music, an influence for modern metal bands[102] and has a cult following.