MESHUGGAH Guitarist Apologizes For Creating Djent: "Our Bad!"

It seems as though the djent trend is on a downswing at this moment. While bands like Periphery, Animals As Leaders and Veil of Maya rose to prominence on the sound, if I hear a new band trying to mimic the djent sound, it almost comes off as a little dated.

Without question, Meshuggah is credited as being the band that started djent, even though the band themselves don't identify with the genre. In a recent interview with Rauta, guitarist Mårten Hagström was asked how it felt to pioneer the genre:

"First of all, we're very sorry for creating that genre; we didn't intend to — our bad. No, but it's actually… I think it's a misconception, that djent thing. I think it's kind of hilarious.

"It's our lead guitar player, Fredrik [Thordendal], being drunk back in the day, talking to one of our old-school fans, trying to explain what type of guitar tone we were always trying to get, and he was desperately trying to say, 'We want that 'dj_,' 'dj_ ,' 'dj_,' 'dj_.' And that guy was, like, 'What's he saying? Is that a Swedish word? Must be. Sounds like dj_, maybe 'djent'? Maybe something like that.' And that's where it comes from. A drunk misunderstanding, as always with Meshuggah."

Asked how he would describe Meshuggah's sound, Marten responded:

"Heavy, experimental music… I don't care if it's progressive or not — it's heavy. And that's the most… But the thing is, trying to define things… Either it gets into that math-metal, djent subgenre type of thing, that's for other people to decide. We play aggressive, experimental music, and that's basically it."

It's very brave that the band is claiming responsibility and apologizing after all these years.

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