The Djent thread
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Forum Name: Prog Bands, Artists and Genres Appreciation
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URL: http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=65076
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Topic: The Djent thread
Posted By: topofsm
Subject: The Djent thread
Date Posted: February 14 2010 at 15:04
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I guess after finding Cloudkicker's music on their website, I have stumbled across the term "Djent", which I suppose is the term for the Meshuggah-inspired genre with all the polyrhythms and the low tuned 7 string esque chugs, except the onomatopoiea is better described as 'djent' now. This has described related bands like Textures, Tesseract, Periphery, Vildhjarta, etc.
What's up with this as a genre? Anybody have anything to say about this as a genre? Can you see it expanding and/or becoming more popular? Will there eventually be a 'djent' scene that like tons of genres today that churn out a ton of the same music? ------------- 
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Replies:
Posted By: Dim
Date Posted: February 15 2010 at 08:16
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I'm upsest with the genre right now. Cloudkicker, Chimp spanner, Periphary, and obviously Meshuggah are my favorite groups. I like the genre becuase it's both technical and bludgeoning, but not overbearing and ridiculous like how I find most tech death groups.
It's a pretty new genre, but as of the last two years, it's really started to grow. ------------- 
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Posted By: Petrovsk Mizinski
Date Posted: February 15 2010 at 08:58
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Hell yeah, an actually new topic. I hate the way the word djent is being bandied around to be honest. Djent is a picking technique, not a goddamn genre, which isn't and never was exclusive to these math metal bands that frequently use the technique on the guitars. Meshuggah these days are rocking 8 strings, tuned to F standard (from low to high, F, Bb, Eb, Ab, Dd, Gb, Bb and Eb), although Misha "Bulb" Mansoor actually still plays his 6 string a lot (he frequents one of the guitar forums I go to quite often, sevenstring.org), and rarely, if ever uses his 8 string. Pretty much most of sevenstring.org's members are looking forward to Periphery's album release, myself included. I believe his 6 strings are tuned to drop C. I'm a big fan of Chimp Spanner's stuff too, he's also a regular at sevenstring.org. I quite like how Bulb incorporates two handed/ right hand tapping into his licks. Meshuggah never really did that, so it's good to see someone who can come up with new ideas. The thing about djent is that it ALREADY IS really popular among the metal guitar community and at various forum boards across the internet, there are thousands upon thousands (literally) of Meshuggah and Periphery inspired sound clips people have recorded and mixed. The "Djent" (urgh that word again) scene is well under way and has been for a while now and so much of it sounds the same really. It's gotten to the point where I rarely check the Recording forum of sevenstring.org now because I'm just sick of hearing the same old tired, cliche Meshuggah rip off song and I wish there were more death metal and just well, "normal" metal clips posted there instead. As much as I love the music of Meshuggah and Periphery, I can't bring myself to ever writing a song in that style (despite the fact I do in fact play 7 string guitars and 5 string bass guitars exclusively) and I've realized as a a metal musician my heart lies more in playing tech death stuff Also, a not on Periphery, they don't really use poly rhythms, most of it is actually just syncopated rhythms, which even Bulb himself admitted in an interview. Technically Meshuggah use polymeters anyway, not polyrhythms. They aren't exactly the same thing |
Posted By: Dim
Date Posted: February 15 2010 at 21:40
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Regardless of how you feel about the word, Djent is becoming the name of the genre that we label these groups under... even if it is a picking technique. I dont think it's an argument about the name, just the groups who play with the guitar tone that when palm muted makes a "djent" sound due to the higher amounts of treble. That on top of all the other elements that we have have already mentioned that transcend them from the term progressive metal, which I think we can all agree is far too broad to begin with.
BTW Meshuggah have said themselves that they almost exclusively use 4/4 time, just in polyrythms. -------------
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Posted By: Petrovsk Mizinski
Date Posted: February 15 2010 at 22:06
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Being Mr Pedantic-Pants, it's actually an increase of frequencies around 2-3KHz which increases that pick attack sound, which is technically the upper mid range and not treble :P I'm aware Meshuggah use 4/4, but poly rhythms are still poly rhythms (well actually, technically, as I said, its' polymetric rhythms, not polyrhythms, they are two entirely different things and these "Djent" bands don't use poly rhythms, they use polymeters) What I meant about Periphery is that they don't even use that many polymeters that much, it's mainly just a lot of syncopation. Bulb himself said he just likes writing what comes out, and often it's just syncopated stuff And it's not just me that feels that way about the word anyway, a very large portion of the guitar community doesn't like to refer to it that way. If you hung around sevenstring.org as much as I did, you'd understand why the term annoys me so much because you get all these retard new members asking "GUIZE HOW DO TEH DJENTZ?" every week  |
Posted By: Firdous e Bareen
Date Posted: February 16 2010 at 03:49
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I'm glad to see this thread here, although I'm not really that fond of the term "djent" either. TesseracT in particular are a perfect example of why "dtent" just doesn't suffice when it comes to labeling this genre of music. Honestly, when I first heard TesseracT it was as though my dream band had just materialised into reality. I often describe them as having the groove of Meshuggah and the atmosphere of Isis, but thanks to the slight change in direction brought about by the recent change in vocalists, I'd have to add the melody of Tool to that list as well. Periphery are another awesome band, but in terms of musical depth and creativity, TesseracT outshine them in every aspect. They have a lot of potential to be quite big, but at the moment few people outside of the extreme metal community have actually heard of them. The prog world needs to get behind them - I can't believe that they haven't been added to this site yet. Textures are another similar band, although I'm still really upset over their vocalist leaving. IMO he had the best clean vocals of any split growls/clean vocalist I've heard. ------------- 
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Posted By: Petrovsk Mizinski
Date Posted: February 16 2010 at 06:15
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Periphery lacking musical depth and creativity? I dunno man, Bulb is a
VERY diverse guitar player stylistically and the band themselves can do
a lot of different. Listen to "All New Materials" and then "Icarus Lives" and then tell me they aren't capable of really playing with totally different, diverse and creative stuff. Hell, go to Bulb's soundclick page and listen to the cover version of "Black and White". That is easily the most creative cover of that song you'd ever hear. I agree more people need to get behind this music. It totally sh*ts on the current Dream Theater type prog metal for pure creativity. Ultimately, what kind of music is it? It's mainly just a lot of groove metal at the end of the day, that's been tech'd up and more so driven by 7 and 8 string guitars. It might be hard to understand how that works if you've come straight in Periphery and Textures and didn't really follow metal before that, but as someone who really knows metal from Sabbath, through to the NWOBHM, thrash metal, death metal, and the earliest groove metal, You really need to understand that lineage to see where bands like Meshuggah came from in the first place, otherwise I'd have to seriously call into question someone's knowledge of the metal genre as a whole if they see this "djent" thing as being entirely new. Fact is, while it's an innovative take on it, it's not an entirely new genre, it's still at it's core as groove metal as Pantera and Machine Head were, but it's just taking groove metal in a more modern direction with a greater degree of instrumental prowess, compositional complexity. This is not a bash on bands like Meshuggah, Periphery etc, I love the music these guys put out, but the music is still fundamentally groove metal in a lot of cases because it has that feel and that mid range tempo Edit: Until bands release albums they can't be added to PA, hence why no Periphery and Tesseract yet. |
Posted By: Firdous e Bareen
Date Posted: February 16 2010 at 21:58
Don't get me wrong, I like Periphery a lot, and I'm not saying that they lack depth or creativity. It's just that when I compare them to TesseracT, they always come off second best IMO. Periphery are more technical, but I reckon TesseracT has better groove and I generally find their music to be more moving. They also have the best clean guitar sound I've ever heard - it's so good other bands have already picked up on it.
Ah I see. Personally though I don't think that's really the best way to gauge a band's notability these days. Periphery and TesseracT are both way bigger than plenty of other bands on this site. They may not have released albums yet, but they're already regarded as idols by a new wave of bands and musicians, which is pretty crazy when you think about it. -------------
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Petrovsk Mizinski wrote:Posted By: topofsm
Date Posted: February 17 2010 at 23:42
I understand what you're saying, and it makes sense. However, I hardly think of say, Chaosphere as a groove metal album simply because of the rapid tempi on it, same with Destroy Erase Improve for a lot of the jazzy atmosphere surrounding some of the songs. I assume you've heard Cloudkicker, since you know way more music than I do. They/he is definitely not really groove-oriented, there's a vibe that's much more atmospheric. Like Meshuggah but more post/math. If they're inspired by Pantera, I'm pretty sure it's distantly through bands like Meshuggah.
Anyways, I know what you mean by polymeters and polyrhythms. I'll admit I made a mistake in the OP.
For those who don't know and can understand the theory (or my amateur explanation of it), polyrhythms are basically when you fit groups of notes in the space of two notes. Like when you do three triplet eighth notes in the place of two 'straight' eighth notes. While a polymeter is groupings of phrases in different time signatures than other phrases being simultaneously played. -------------
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Posted By: Tapfret
Date Posted: April 03 2010 at 10:30
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OK, I've been away for awhile and come back and my wish has come true. Punishing, hard, complex, mental punishment with deep textures and no cookie monsters or cartoonish screamers. Good times.
------------- https://www.last.fm/user/Tapfret" rel="nofollow">  https://bandcamp.com/tapfret" rel="nofollow - Bandcamp |
Posted By: qlacs
Date Posted: April 04 2010 at 09:20
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Hehe. Periphery's and Tesseract's debut album coming in April. Most technical djent is definitely Animals As Leaders. Also need to mention Vildhjarta, Fellsilent and Uneven Structure (a new band). |
Posted By: stealingaxion
Date Posted: July 14 2010 at 00:47
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Hi guys. First post on here, but I wanted to share this new band
that my buddies and I started called "Stealing Axion." http://soundcloud.com/stealing-axion - http://soundcloud.com/stealing-axion
(HiFI) any comments are greatly appreciated. Thanks, JD |
Posted By: Cristi
Date Posted: October 14 2016 at 04:32
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here are a few djent (& related) bands I listen to Widek Tesseract Abnormal Thought Patterns Disperse (2nd album) The Algorithm (djent meets electronica, very interesting) Space Is Not Empty Walking Across Jupiter Outrun the Sunlight
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