Well, if that's the case, then here you go. This would be my top pick for a djent band.
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Haters Gonna Hate: The Official Djent Thread
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Well, if that's the case, then here you go. This would be my top pick for a djent band.
Mardoch
Defender of the Universe
Well, if that's a nice spread of what comprises the djent category, then I should say that I enjoy djent quite a good bit. I love Meshuggah's instrumental bits, but I don't care for the extremely monotone vocals. So hearing that kind of heavy arrhythmia with some different vocal styles is really cool. A lot of these vocalists aren't my favorite, but there were a few in there that I really liked. That Being was really badass. I think that's the one that stuck out to me the most.
One thing I noticed is that a lot of these guys have a tonal and rhythmic feel that's like a much heavier Protest the Hero. I like them a lot, in spite of Rody's vocals, so seeing that kind of thing applied more broadly is really cool. I shall endeavor to check out more of what you guys posted.
One thing I noticed is that a lot of these guys have a tonal and rhythmic feel that's like a much heavier Protest the Hero. I like them a lot, in spite of Rody's vocals, so seeing that kind of thing applied more broadly is really cool. I shall endeavor to check out more of what you guys posted.
Mardoch
Defender of the Universe
It's possible that I'm just being bad at the internet today...but it seems like it's hard to track down purchaseables for a number of these guys. Any tips on where some of these albums are for sale?
BenMech
student of the d'eh
Mardoch - That's because most of these bands release free albums on Bandcamp or Soundcloud or Last.fm
Mardoch
Defender of the Universe
Corsair
Member
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Count me in the "Love the music, vocals grind my gears" category. They always get into that sort of bro-macho kind of screaming that really gets on my nerves.
Not that my opinion on vocalists should matter, I enjoy Cirith Ungol.
Also...
Am I the only one that hears a lot of Strapping Young Lad in a lot of these acts? Esp. the drumming. I mean, they're great, but it really just makes me want to listen to SYL.
Not that my opinion on vocalists should matter, I enjoy Cirith Ungol.
Also...
Am I the only one that hears a lot of Strapping Young Lad in a lot of these acts? Esp. the drumming. I mean, they're great, but it really just makes me want to listen to SYL.
BenMech
student of the d'eh
I first heard of djent a few weeks ago on this board. These bands aren't bad, but identifying yourself with a genre based on a style of picking a chord seems just stupid to me. I guess it's no worse than "d-beat" though, and I do like me some d-beat.
Oh and yeah, half the time these bands just sound like they're simply ripping off Meshuggah. I hope they're not embracing a "style" of music to justify being copycats.
Oh and yeah, half the time these bands just sound like they're simply ripping off Meshuggah. I hope they're not embracing a "style" of music to justify being copycats.
Mardoch
Defender of the Universe
Thanks to all the people posting in this thread. A few of the bands/individuals mentioned here have already gotten some fresh cash from me.
- Aug 14, 2008
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Yeah, I wouldn't say SYL specifically, but the entire canon of his releases for sure influenced alot of these bands. Especially his production methods, etcs.
Kaosaur
Member
I'm surprised by how little Textures seems to be known in this thread.
They seem to be one of the major influences on most of the new Djent bands of the last two years or so.
I'd also peg them near the cream of the crop overall. There seems to be a hundred new Djent artists every day who have some good riffs but Textures has the catchy songs and good songwriting. They don't masturbate unnecessarily to the detriment of the song like some others do. Really hope their new singer is better than the old one though. Vocals were their only serious flaw on those albums.
I'm eagerly awaiting the Monuments album though. TesseracT and Circles don't do it for me.
Other things to check out are: Kevin Suter, RXYZYXR, Chimp Spanner/Paul Ortiz. And the Stealing Axion EP is pimp. The track "47 Days Later" has the best breakdown I've ever heard in my life.
BenMech & I have been pushing Djent down peoples' throats a while now. I find it really interesting how it's seemed to reconcile a bunch of heavier styles of music that had gone their separate ways for a long while (prog, tech death and hardcore). Wildly different influences seem to have brought people to writing similar music (though everyone in djent seems to really dig on Dubstep..
)
As for some of the comments about lack of emotion, if you look at the lyrical content of some of the songs (ESPECIALLY MESHUGGAH!!!), that's kind of the point. The music fits this very well thematically in these cases as well. Textures is pretty much the perfect example to shatter this argument. I don't know how this is any less emotive than than the prog&power bands who are singing about the same 3 emotions in the same style decade after decade... talk about going through the motions.
Musically none of this is even new territory really; track it in parallel to Post-WWII Concert Music. Plenty of composers went here and far beyond (I'll eat my hat when the first microtonal, polyrhythmic, tone-cluster or spectral djent song comes out) . Lyrically, however, a lot of djent is new and wonderful. As for the slight comments of people emphasizing musicianship over songwriting in djent, I find that incredibly hypocritical on this board when the most guilty party of uninspired wankery is prog. I don't really think anyone is trying to write the craziest, hardest to play song...in fact, most of the rhythms are incredibly simple and much less complex than anything on an album from say Dream Theater or Planet X (Quantum, I'm looking at you...). Most people are just playing brutal riffs that come pretty naturally (Try nodding your head in time to Meshuggah's Catch-33 to see how blatantly obvious this is).
And as for "it hurts my brain"... Music aptitude is genetic (Liisa T. Ukkola, Päivi Onkamo, Pirre Raijas, Kai Karma, Irma Järvelä. Musical Aptitude Is Associated with AVPR1A-Haplotypes. PLoS ONE, 2009; 4 (5): e5534 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0005534) and "new" music will always sound alien to some percentage of the population. Simple chord structures and changes of today sounded dissonant to those of a few hundred years ago... Sorry but some people might just have better ears than you (no offense). (While I'm on this subject, this book: http://books.google.com/books?id=u_g_uPZO-tkC is a fairly good but simple read).
They seem to be one of the major influences on most of the new Djent bands of the last two years or so.
I'd also peg them near the cream of the crop overall. There seems to be a hundred new Djent artists every day who have some good riffs but Textures has the catchy songs and good songwriting. They don't masturbate unnecessarily to the detriment of the song like some others do. Really hope their new singer is better than the old one though. Vocals were their only serious flaw on those albums.
I'm eagerly awaiting the Monuments album though. TesseracT and Circles don't do it for me.
Other things to check out are: Kevin Suter, RXYZYXR, Chimp Spanner/Paul Ortiz. And the Stealing Axion EP is pimp. The track "47 Days Later" has the best breakdown I've ever heard in my life.
BenMech & I have been pushing Djent down peoples' throats a while now. I find it really interesting how it's seemed to reconcile a bunch of heavier styles of music that had gone their separate ways for a long while (prog, tech death and hardcore). Wildly different influences seem to have brought people to writing similar music (though everyone in djent seems to really dig on Dubstep..
)As for some of the comments about lack of emotion, if you look at the lyrical content of some of the songs (ESPECIALLY MESHUGGAH!!!), that's kind of the point. The music fits this very well thematically in these cases as well. Textures is pretty much the perfect example to shatter this argument. I don't know how this is any less emotive than than the prog&power bands who are singing about the same 3 emotions in the same style decade after decade... talk about going through the motions.
Musically none of this is even new territory really; track it in parallel to Post-WWII Concert Music. Plenty of composers went here and far beyond (I'll eat my hat when the first microtonal, polyrhythmic, tone-cluster or spectral djent song comes out) . Lyrically, however, a lot of djent is new and wonderful. As for the slight comments of people emphasizing musicianship over songwriting in djent, I find that incredibly hypocritical on this board when the most guilty party of uninspired wankery is prog. I don't really think anyone is trying to write the craziest, hardest to play song...in fact, most of the rhythms are incredibly simple and much less complex than anything on an album from say Dream Theater or Planet X (Quantum, I'm looking at you...). Most people are just playing brutal riffs that come pretty naturally (Try nodding your head in time to Meshuggah's Catch-33 to see how blatantly obvious this is).
And as for "it hurts my brain"... Music aptitude is genetic (Liisa T. Ukkola, Päivi Onkamo, Pirre Raijas, Kai Karma, Irma Järvelä. Musical Aptitude Is Associated with AVPR1A-Haplotypes. PLoS ONE, 2009; 4 (5): e5534 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0005534) and "new" music will always sound alien to some percentage of the population. Simple chord structures and changes of today sounded dissonant to those of a few hundred years ago... Sorry but some people might just have better ears than you (no offense). (While I'm on this subject, this book: http://books.google.com/books?id=u_g_uPZO-tkC is a fairly good but simple read).
Kaosaur
Member
eaeolian
Division Guitarist
As with any movement that's gaining popularity, there's a lot of trendies involved. We'll see who lasts after the trend shifts.
BenMech
student of the d'eh
:zombie:
Have I? I've been saying the "genre" is the new generation's Grunge. I'm waiting for its Nevermind moment.
And Like Grunge, it's got a good sound going and good ideas wrapped in a horrible nametag . . . but we hven't seen the maturation point
eaeolian
Division Guitarist
eaeolian
Division Guitarist
There's a difference between emotive and cliched, just so you know.
I don't find much in the djent genre to be very emotional in general, but the best stuff is usually the most mechanical, IMO - when you get some of these singers trying to be emotive, for example, the results are cringe-worthy, at best.
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The difference is, djent is SUPPOSED to be mechanical. The scene makes it a standard that you program your drums with superior 2.0 and run an axe-fx right through pro tools. There's NOTHING organic about it. It's going to sound cold and robotic.
However, alot of other metal bands these days try to sound real and end up sounding like robots. I don't want to hear a thrash band quantizing drums and guitars so it fits perfectly on the grid in pro tools. I want the mistakes to be there so it sounds like real people playing. It all boils down to aesthetic. So all the people whining in this thread about how fake Periphery or Tesseract sounds but listen to some power metal band that sounds even WORSE because it was recorded as a "lie" with the intent to sound real but ends up sounding fake as hell... I don't get it.
However, alot of other metal bands these days try to sound real and end up sounding like robots. I don't want to hear a thrash band quantizing drums and guitars so it fits perfectly on the grid in pro tools. I want the mistakes to be there so it sounds like real people playing. It all boils down to aesthetic. So all the people whining in this thread about how fake Periphery or Tesseract sounds but listen to some power metal band that sounds even WORSE because it was recorded as a "lie" with the intent to sound real but ends up sounding fake as hell... I don't get it.
eaeolian
Division Guitarist
I've heard that exact combo be VERY organic sounding. It's a style, not a result of the techniques/technologies used.
Hell, Meshuggah's DEI is too mechanistic for some people, even though they're not using any of the things you mentioned.
I don't disagree.
Which people are those, exactly? Most of the complaints I see in this thread are about lack of writing hooks and vocals, both of which are legitimate criticisms of the genre.
Seems to me you need to unchip your shoulder. There's been plenty of positive in this thread, and you just seem to want to fight about it.
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