Djon’t be sorry
Meshuggah rhythm guitarist Mårten Hagström has provided a tongue in cheek apology for the band’s “accidental” creation of the polarising djent genre of progressive metal.
Heavy music is perhaps the most subdivided of all music, a safe haven for subcultures of bizarre subtleties including but not limited to: pirate metal, unblack metal and sadly, ska metal. One of its more recent genre diversions, djent, revered and renowned for its distinctive low onomatopoeic “dj-dj” sound, has now been apologised for by Meshuggah, whose guitarist Fredrik Thordendal has long been credited with its creation.
“We’re very sorry for creating that genre; we didn’t intend to — our bad,” Hagström says. “No, but it’s actually – I think it’s a misconception, that djent thing. I think it’s kind of hilarious.”
Hagström told Finnish metal site Rauta at Tuska Festival that Thordendal’s creation was a drunken mistake.
“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_,” Hagström explained.
Meshuggah’s dry apology for the genre’s “accidental” conception will provide plenty of fuel for the genre’s detractors who claim it does not exist. Rage Against the Machine bassist Tom Commerford made a similar apology for inspiring the rap-metal of Limp Bizkit in 2015 to Rolling Stone, albeit slightly more mean spirited.
“I do apologize for Limp Bizkit,” Commerford says. “I really do. I feel really bad that we inspired such bullshit.”
Check out Meshuggah’s ‘Demiurge’ below to test the djent association for yourself.
