Meshuggah Guitarist Jokes: ‘We’re Very Sorry’ for Creating Djent
We already know that the word "djent" is one of the worst descriptors ever coined to describe a musical sub-genre. Now, according to the supposed creators of the style, Meshuggah, they claim it was all a drunken misunderstanding that the term ever came to be.
Meshuggah guitarist Mårten Hagström jokingly apologized for the word coming into existence in a new interview. “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 ‘djent,’ ‘djent,’ ‘djent,’ ‘djent,’" Hagström tells the Finnish YouTube channel Rauta. "And that guy was, like, ‘What’s he saying? Is that a Swedish word? Must be. Sounds like... maybe ‘djent’? Maybe something like that.’ And that’s where it comes from. A drunk misunderstanding, as always with Meshuggah.”
When pressed further as to what he would call the sound of what Meshuggah have been doing for over three decades now, Hagström says it's "Heavy, experimental music."
"I don’t care if it’s progressive or not - it’s heavy," he says. "We play aggressive, experimental music, and that’s basically it. It's not mainstream music. It's music not made for everyone, it's not something you hum along to. It's not something that sticks in your head straight away. It takes adjustment. It's not music for casual listeners.”
Meshuggah's most recent album, The Violent Sleep of Reason, came out in 2016 and topped out at No. 17 on the Billboard charts. They recently wrapped a European tour in support of the record.
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