Fredrik Thordendal, lead guitarist of Swedish band Meshuggah, is considered the originator of the djent technique.[6] However, the band did not coin the term itself. In a 2018 interview by Rauta, Meshuggah guitarist Mårten Hagström apologised for the band's role in creating the "djent" style of guitar playing, calling it "a drunk misunderstanding".[7][8]
Djent as a style is characterized by progressive, rhythmic, and technical complexity accompanied by a use of polymetric groove. An example is the song "Cafo" by Animals as Leaders.[11] It typically features heavily distorted, palm-muted guitar chords, syncopated riffs,[6] and poly-meters alongside virtuosicsoloing.[4] Another common feature is the use of extended range guitars that are seven-string, eight-string, and nine-string, or even more strings.[23]
Some members of the metal community have criticized the term "djent", either treating it as a short-lived fad, openly condemning it, or questioning its validity as a genre. However, bands such as Tesseract and Animals as Leaders have received positive critical reception and multiple awards. Post-metal band Rosetta is noted as saying, "Maybe we should start calling doom metal 'DUNNN'".[24] In response to a question about "djent", Lamb of God vocalist Randy Blythe stated in 2011, "There is no such thing as 'djent'; it's not a genre."[25]Deftones guitarist Stephen Carpenter similarly opined in 2016 that "I thoroughly can get djent, I even have great appreciation for the bands, and I mean Meshuggah is one of my favorite bands. But it's just not a genre. It's just metal."[26] In an interview with Guitar Messenger, Periphery guitarist Misha Mansoor said:
I was looking for gear that was djenty. I was like: 'Are these pickups djenty?' For some reason it caught on, but completely in the wrong way, because people think it's a style of music and they think it's a style of music I play.[27]
In a later interview with Freethinkers Blog, Mansoor stated that he felt djent had become "this big umbrella term for any sort of progressive band, and also any band that will [use] off-time chugs [...] You also get bands like Scale the Summit [who are referred to as] a djent band [when] 80% of their stuff sounds like clean channel, and it's all beautiful and pretty, you know [...] In that way, I think it's cool because it groups really cool bands together [...] We are surrounded by a lot of bands that I respect, but at the same time, I don't think people know what djent is either [...] It's very unclear." Later in the interview, he stated, "If you call us djent, that's fine. I mean, I would never self-apply the term, but at the same time, it's just so vague that I don't know what to make of it."[28] In 2023, Periphery directly referenced the term's controversy with the subtitle of their seventh studio album, Periphery V: Djent Is Not a Genre.
Tosin Abasi of Animals as Leaders takes a more lenient view of the term, stating that there are specific characteristics that are common to djent bands, and as a result the term can be legitimately used as a genre. While stating that he personally strives not to subscribe exclusively to any one genre, he makes the point that a genre is defined by the ability to associate common features between different artists. He says that in this way, it is possible to view djent as a genre describing a particular niche of modern progressive metal.[29]
