Djenty Djenty Djent

Djent?

 So for this post, I will be discussing the metal sub genre, Djent. To kick off this argument, I will give my own personal view on what I think Djent is and I will discuss why some people think Djent is purely a matter if guitar tone.

My view

Okay before I start I want to say that this is my OPINION, an OPINION can't be wrong because they are completely subjective so I don't want any rubbish in the comments "you're wrong merrrrhhhh". You can disagree with me and if you do post why but don't say I'm wrong but no one is wrong... unless you don't like metal xD I joke! So, in my opinion Djent is a genre which is influenced and dependent on many different factors. I think I will get the main one explained which is where the term "Djent" comes from. The term is meant to be onomatopoeic (pwoarh big word) which means it was meant to be used to describe the sound. The Djent sound comes from the guitars, which is made by a combination of heavy palm muting but the style of palm muting give the guitars a more unique, sharp and metallic sound which resembles "Djent".  The term was first used by the band Meshuggah. Meshuggah are to Djent what Brian Cox is to Physics! So that is the first factor of Djent, a distinctive palm muted style of playing.

 Right the next factor isn't as straight forward so bare with me! The second factor is Djent is the use of poly rhythms and technical song structures. Now for musicians such as myself or for people with a good music theory understanding this one is easy to explain. Most songs are usually written 4/4 time signature, which is 4 crotchet beats to a bar, which is known as a simple time signature. 2/2, 2/4, or 3/4 as also simple time signatures. Easy peasy! Djent unfortunately is not easy to play (damn) as it uses complex and compound time signatures such as 5/8, 5/4 or even 15/16. An example of the 15/16 time signature is the song The Demon's Name Is Surveillance by Meshuggah. Poly Rhythms are much easier to explain and well easy to break down. Poly meaning "many" and rhythm meaning, well rhythm so it is just many syncopated rhythms, such as having the bass drum playing a 3/4 and the hands playing a 4/4 pattern!

  The third factor of Djent is the technical side of it, which refers to the song structure. Djent songs are usually written with a very odd structure, they are usually through composed, which means they don't have a chorus it is a list of verses. They can have a verse and chorus but it is hard to explain, The Dillinger Escape Plan use a lot of technical song structures to if you want more clarity I highly recommend them.

 The final factor is the vocal style. This is where a lot of the arguments lie in the Djent genre so I'll explain that in a min! So, for Djent, as it is a heavy genre of music and metal, screaming is kind of needed. Bands like, I'll use them again, Meshuggah and FellSilent  have this vocal still, FellSilent vocal can be compared to some Death metal bands like Thy Art is Murder but it still counts as Djent vocals.

 So that is my view on Djent, many different factors that can be linked to other metal genres all mashed together to create a truly unique sound and it is an amazing listen. Think I made my point xD I will now get into the nitty gritty and say why people may have some arguments about my ideas!


Arguments

Right let's get this done, one way people may argue is by the vocal style as some Djent style band use melodic style of singing. This is usually also followed with light or clean guitar parts, is this is the case, such as with the band Monuments or Periphery, this is then in my opinion Progressive Metalcore. At times FellSilent do this but in my opinion not as often as Monuments so they are still Djent.

 People may also say if a band has all of the factors but not the Djent sound then are they Djent? In my opinion no again they may be Progressive Metalcore or even Technical Death Metal. It is picky I know but that is the world of music.

I could do more but idk what else to say so I'm sure the comments will give me something to think about xD thanks for reading and thank you for the patience yet more technical problems (haha metal puns) over here but all good now! See you in the next post and thanks again!

                                                                          Sean :')