The Djent Controversy

As some readers may remember, I mentioned the controversy associated with the subgenre of heavy metal called djent in the previous post characterizing it. In this post, I’d like to talk about that controversy in more detail because it seems to be an issue that is still heavy debated.

Many critics, musicians and fans think that bands associated with djent should just be called "progressive metal bands" due to the strong similarities between the subgenres. Djent bands for the most part get their classification because of the palm-muted guitar tone associated with their music. 

One of the members of the metal band Rosetta once said, “Maybe we should just call doom metal ‘DUNNN,’” and he has a point. Why should a subgenre be as musically specific as djent? Why can’t it all be called “progressive metal” since the music certainly falls into its musical family?

When Periphery guitarist Misha Mansoor started the djent craze, he never meant for it to catch on. It was more of a joke between him and his bandmates. Mansoor doesn’t try and disassociate his band from the djent scene, and is happy to be categorized into that subgenre. However, he doesn’t think of Periphery as a djent band--he considers them to just be progressive metal.

Many bands have jumped into the djent niche head first, trying to get associated with the tight-knit scene. For example, Born of Osiris, who has now become a very popular band in the djent scene, was initially a deathcore band. Their desire to be more technical and the emergence of the scene influenced them to dabble in the music as well. Since then, they have become much more successful with the stylistic switch.

Some bands just got accidentally lumped into the scene. Animals as Leaders just wanted to be an instrumental progressive metal band. From the very beginning, their influence from Meshuggah was apparent, and their production was abnormally clean. Therefore, they got associated with the scene, and they never made an attempt to really break away. Frontman Tosin Abasi acknowledges that he does not strive to be a part of the djent scene, but doesn’t mind being a part of it anyway. Still, Animals as Leaders’ most recent album shows stylistically that the band is trying to appease fans of the subgenre.

The question now becomes: is djent a subgenre or a niche? The honest answer is: no one knows. Personally, I consider it to be a subgenre. It’s a style of music that is distinct, and the differences between progressive metal and djent just mount as time goes on. 

The scenes are also completely different. No one ever sees a fan of Periphery going to a Fates Warning concert. It just doesn’t happen, even though they both fall in the progressive family. Part of the reason why that happens is probably because the musical styles have recently become more separated. Djent is undeniably progressive, but its distinct production qualities, guitar tones, reliance on polyrhythm and usage of computerized sounds make djent a totally different subgenre of music than progressive metal.

The issue can be debated on and on, but djent has proven itself to be a distinct style of music over the past five years. It’s not a bad subgenre, either. There is definitely some musical merit to it, and the technical playing of these new musicians is incredible. Djent is a subgenre that I feel is more than welcome in the heavy genre, as long as people continue to enjoy it.

Djent

This week it’s time to talk about the most recently created subgenre of heavy metal, which is simply called djent. The word “djent” was coined by Fredrik Thordendal of Meshuggah, and is actually an onomatopoeia for a distinct guitar sound that he commonly uses in Meshuggah’s music. This sound is a distinctly distorted palm-muted guitar tone, and was made popular by Thordendal and Misha Mansoor from the band Periphery. Djent as a subgenre revolves around combining the aforementioned guitar tone with progressive metal music.

Meshuggah is often given credit for creating djent, and the band definitely shares similarities with other bands in the subgenre, but Meshuggah is notably and distinctly different from almost all of the other djent groups. Meshuggah is an extreme metal band at its core, whereas most other djent groups are more rooted in progressive metal and deathcore collectively. Meshuggah formed nearly two decades before any of the contemporary djent bands and released their genre-defying, legendary second album, Destroy Erase Improve, over ten years before anyone even began to think about capitalizing on their success. 

The albums that really started to get musicians thinking about taking greater influence from Meshuggah were Catch Thirtythree (released in 2005) and Obzen (released in 2008). These two experimental records achieved a great amount of success and attracted new legions of modern heavy metal fans. 

Among those heavy metal fans was Misha Mansoor of the band Periphery. Mansoor released solo tracks online around 2005, which attracted a very strong following. Mansoor’s tracks were more progressive than Meshuggah’s work and were praised for their very high production values. Mansoor eventually decided to form Periphery in order to release his material through a more concentrated outlet. 

Periphery’s music set the standards for all other djent bands by including incredibly technical virtuoso guitar solos, intricate progressive polyrhythms, computerized electronic sounds and the signature guitar tone of the djent subgenre. Periphery really capitalized on SiKTH’s progressive and technical insanity and combined it with Meshuggah’s extreme nature in order to create a completely unique musical style. Fans of Mansoor’s solo work immediately became immersed in Periphery’s debut self-titled album, and the group’s popularity greatly spread, encouraging the entire djent scene to form. Just this year, Periphery released their second album, Periphery II: This Time It's Personal, which has received much critical acclaim and can be streamed below.

After the release of Periphery’s debut record in 2010, many deathcore bands took interest in the group. Bands such as Born of Osiris, Veil of Maya and After the Burial completely switched styles, changing from being deathcore bands to djent bands. 

Meanwhile, there were still many new djent bands starting up. These bands included acts such as Animals As Leaders, The Contortionist, Tesseract and Vildhjarta. 

Djent has received a mixed reception among traditional heavy metal fans. Some praised the subgenre for its technicality and complexity. Meanwhile, others thought of the subgenre as a fad, and considered djent to just be a part of progressive metal. Many people also condemn the usage of the term “djent” due to the fact that the term describes a simple guitar tone. 

Nevertheless, the djent subgenre has created a large scene of loyal fans and it has become a movement that is very distinct in nature. It’s hard to deny that djent really has become its own metal subgenre, and it is currently one of the most popular mainstream subgenres of heavy metal.