What is Djent

If you’re in any way invested in today’s metal scene, then you will definitely have heard the term “djent” thrown around (and I mean in more contexts than the “does it djent?” meme).

What began as a relatively underground section in the modern metal scene in the early 2000’s has now pushed its way into the mainstream with quite a few of the original pioneering bands very much still at the forefront (though having progressed their own sound a lot in that time, which is great).

Maybe you’ve heard hardcore guitar and gear enthusiasts discussing “djenty” rhythms and tones or extended range guitars (used to kind of cap out at 8 strings, now we have 20 string guitars) in very low drop tunings and felt completely out of touch?

If the movement has passed you by, then this piece will help get you up to speed.

What is Djent?

Some History

At its very base definition, the word djent is an onomatopoeia. Originally used as a joke term by Fredrik Thordendal of Meshuggah (whilst drunk according to Marten Hagstrom, the other guitarist).

It was used to describe the guitar sound they were going for in the early days of their band (around the time of the release of Contradictions Collapse). They were aiming for a really high-gain, distorted guitar tone, with lots of palm-muting and reasonably low tunings. At this time the band was using 7 string guitars tuned one half step down (to Bb standard).

In an effort to describe this sound, Fredrik apparently said “We want that dj- dj- dj- sound”. This evolved into the word “djent” to describe the chunky noise produced when you play a palm-muted chord on the lowest strings with lots of distortion.

What Next?

At the time, this carried on in the underground scene, with Meshuggah becoming one of the bigger bands in aggressive heavy metal for people who wanted a rhythmically technical sound that you could still headbang very satisfyingly to.

Meshuggah didn’t really sound like anyone else at the time (although heavily influenced by Metallica, evidenced by singer Jens’ earlier vocal style), which was great for them. Their ability to combine quite bizarre and seemingly complex guitar (and bass and kick drum) rhythms with a straight 4/4 groove was their niche.

It wasn’t until the release of “Nothing” in 2002 that Meshuggah really took on their now signature sound and forged the genre of djent we now know today.

Using 7 strings tuned down to 8 string tuning and then a further half step (F standard) and slowing the tempo they used down a lot from their previous release (Chaosphere) solidified them as a powerhouse of low tuned, odd timed groove.

It was also around this time that newer bands were beginning to draw influence from them.

Emergence of New Djent Bands

One of the most prominent earlier bands in this movement was English band Sikth. At the time they were probably not particularly associated with Meshuggah, but their style can definitely be heard as an influence in Periphery’s earlier stuff (Totla Mad tapping riffs being a prime example).

Speaking of Periphery, these guys are one of the most important bands in this movement, but we’ll get onto them in a bit.

Soon after Meshuggah released Nothing, another English band entered the scene.

Fellsilent were one of the first bands that could really be called “djent” in terms of genre. They brought with them the technical and groovy low end chops typical of the sound so far, but with added melodical elements.

It’s not surprising to see the success that Fellsilent had (they’re album The Hidden Words quickly became a favourite, which saw them tour with Enter Shikari) when we consider the band members.

The two guitarists were Acle Kahney (now TesseracT) and John Browne (now Monuments and a solo project, Flux Conduct). These two bands, along with Periphery, were real pioneers in the genre, leading to tours such as LXD (League of Extraordinary Djentlemen) and bringing the genre to more ears, while sounding sufficiently different from each other.

While Fellsilent and later TesseracT and Monuments were heading up the UK scene, Periphery were becoming big players in the US scene.

What started as a bedroom project (something which is now very common in modern metal due to huge accessibility boosts in terms of price and quality of at-home hobbyist recording gear) of Misha Mansoor (known online as Bulb) became a fully fledged triple guitarist band.

The song “Icarus Lives!” off their debut self-titled album will undoubtedly have been many peoples first introduction to djent and has been a solid staple of the genre since then.

The Djent Sound

What do all these bands have in common? That djent sound.

This is typically achieved with high gain distortion with a decent amount of mid-range boosting. The key part however is noise gates.

To get that proper stop/start staccato chugging that’s so prevalent in the genre (just listen to the introduction of Insomnia by Periphery for a perfect example) the guitar tones need to be suitably distorted and then tamed or tightened up using reasonably harsh noise gates, but in a way that doesn’t strangle the distortion.

The sound typically falls into a couple of categories: either low and slow grooves (like Meshuggah’s Nothing album) or faster paced syncopated chugs and technical riffing more reminiscent of metalcore (Erra and Northlane fit this bill).

As well as the audio processing side of things, a LOT of the tone of a guitar is said to come from the hands of the player. To this end, a lot of djent guitarists have spent a lot of time honing their picking hand (some to insane levels of precision, see John Browne).

Gear Nerds

It should come as no surprise that the majority of djent band members have a massive interest in recording gear and technology.

The rise of digital amplifier and cabinet simulations and physical pedals has been pushed forwards by the djent scene immensely, with a huge range of options now available to choose from to tinker with your guitar tone for eternity.

There are a few major brands that will consistently pop up if you plan to start your own djent project: Line 6, Axe FX, Neural DSP. Enough to make a whole article by itself!

As I mentioned before, quite a few of these djent projects began in someone’s bedroom, which can wholly be attributed to this digital recording surge.

Since a lot of the free plugins you can download are now actually quite good, there’s scope for anybody to jump into the scene and start recording, which is great!

Some people will complain that everything’s already been done and there’s no point in newer people trying to write new music, but I think that this level of accessibility is exactly what a genre needs in order to push it forward.

Summary

Hopefully by now you have a good idea of what this (still relatively new) genre sounds like and you’re raring to get stuck into all the bands it has to offer!

It would be impossible to list every band in the genre here but there will be an article that gets close very soon on this site so stay tuned!