Djent

Browsing Bandcamp for the first time, I'm noticing quite a bit of this relatively new Djent material. I'm not sure what to make of it, wanted to see everyone's POV here.

I quite like some of what is called djent, but personally I think the genre tag is a bit unnecesary. Take prog metal, add some Meshuggah style grooves, lots of technical & melodic riffs and solos, and clean/growled vocals on top, and that's basically it.

My favorite band in the genre, Corelia. This album is up for free download on tpb, put up by the band.



Another good one is TesseracT.

And make sure to check this guy out as well;

Wurthless wrote:

I quite like some of what is called djent, but personally I think the genre tag is a bit unnecesary. Take prog metal, add some Meshuggah style grooves, lots of technical & melodic riffs and solos, and clean/growled vocals on top, and that's basically it.

So basically any given modern death metal/deathcore band? Right, got it.

Djent tends to have more wacky time signatures. It's not just technical, it's more jazz based this way. Kinda like mathcore without the core.

I have a few bands in my collection which I did not know they were djent... I only found out later from rateyourmusic..

Stuff like The Contortionist and Periphery - I thought they were kinda prog / death sounding to begin with.. with some core elements sprinkled in places

Exactly what metal needs...more Meshuggahs.

So I went through twenty pages of metal on bandcamp. Eight artists each. I would say seven on each page had the keyword "djent" on their page.

What gets me is that the Meshuggah sound is getting lost to this hyper pitch-shift that almost sounds like a keyboard, no palm-muting at all.

Not to get off topic here, but I'm starting to wonder why most prog metal has to be written with de-tuned or 7/8-string guitars. Not much of a complaint, but I would also appreciate a full album of prog metal with six-strings.

Animals As Leaders is my fave of the genre (they go beyong just Djent) and one of my overall faves. I also like Mestis, Periphery's instrumental version of the 1st album, Tesseract and Blotted Science (they aren't really Djent but they are worth looking into).

Yeah, it's like mc said. Less core influence, unorthodox time signatures, etc.

corplhicks, it does seem like it's becoming the new "flavor of the day" metal subgenre, and it'll probably stagnate really quickly. Like always though, there are some really creative bands coming out of the scene at the moment. Especially the ones AK and I listed.

Not Djrnt either but Pelican, Scale The Summit, Russian Circles and Exivious might whet your whistle as well.

I'll check these out because it seems to me that the signature sound could be a useful tool to some progressive music, rather than the other way around like with the many bandcamp bands. You all have my thanks.

In terms of progressive metal with harsh vocals, I'm a big maudlin of the Well fan...and major on Cult of Luna as well. Check these out:

Orion Crystal Ice wrote:

In terms of progressive metal with harsh vocals, I'm a big maudlin of the Well fan...and major on Cult of Luna as well.

Great stuff. I wish more people listened to maudlin of the Well (or any Toby Driver project, really. He deserves more attention).

I've heard good things about Cult of Luna, but I've never listened to any.

Never even heard the term Djent until recently...... do really need yet another genre term????

thejokeriv wrote:

Never even heard the term Djent until recently...... do really need yet another genre term????

Unless music stays just the way it is at this very moment, for ever & ever, get used to expansion. Just think of it as a descriptive term, rather than a genre.

Believe it or not, the term has been quite useful to me. Think about it; if we label it all as simply progressive metal, or prog groove metal, or even metalcore, I don't know if I would want that popping up every so often because I'm not entirely fond of it. With the Djent label added, I can do some weeding in my garden. If I choose to explore more styles with the Djent element, which is my plan at the moment, it'll be more obvious with that tag.

corplhicks wrote:

Believe it or not, the term has been quite useful to me. Think about it; if we label it all as simply progressive metal, or prog groove metal, or even metalcore, I don't know if I would want that popping up every so often because I'm not entirely fond of it. With the Djent label added, I can do some weeding in my garden. If I choose to explore more styles with the Djent element, which is my plan at the moment, it'll be more obvious with that tag.

On that note, when I type in progressive metal on Rate Your Music, the list will include djent bands too. I think you're right - it acts as a fair warning if you think you're about to listen to traditional prog metal but you end up with a band with screaming vocals, I guess especially if you're not into that style.

Too me, its really nothing more than "Meshuggah did growls, wacky time signatures, with a fairly distinguishable guitar sound. Lets do all of that".
I like some Djent artists, but like Meshuggah, I have to be in the mood for it, and usually get bored fairly quickly.
Enjoyed this band and their album for a while though.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnaClnVnj_c

I never liked the bands they were influenced by in the first place.

Okay, that Plini Wurth posted above...simply wonderful. I love it when progressive rock takes a more mellow and jazzy route. I had no idea music like that is considered Djent. Make me think of Steely Dan.