Meshuggah apologise for Djent - say it was a “drunk misunderstanding”

Meshuggah guitarist Mårten Hagström has apologised for creating the Djent genre.

Hagström was speaking with Rauta at the recent Tuska Open Air festival in Finland and explains that the genre was born out of a “drunk misunderstanding.”

He says: “First of all, we’re very sorry for creating that genre – we didn’t intend to. Our bad. 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.

“He was desperately trying to say, ‘We want that ‘dj…,’ ‘dj…,’ ‘dj…,’ ‘dj…,’ sound and the guy was like, ‘What’s he saying? Is that a Swedish word? Sounds like maybe djent.’ That’s where it comes from. A drunk misunderstanding, as always with Meshuggah.”

Asked how he would describe their sound, Hagström replies: “Heavy experimental music. I don’t care if it’s progressive or not, it’s heavy. Either it gets into that math-metal, djent subgenre – that’s for other people to decide. We play aggressive, experimental music, and that’s basically it.”

Watch the full interview below.

Meshuggah recently wrapped up a run of tour dates in support of their 2016 album The Violent Sleep Of Reason.

Scott Munro
Louder e-commerce editor

Scott has spent more than 30 years in newspapers, magazines and online as an editor, production editor, sub-editor, designer, writer and reviewer. Scott joined our news desk in the summer of 2014 before moving to the e-commerce team in 2020. Scott maintains Louder’s buyer’s guides, scouts out the best deals for music fans and reviews headphones, speakers, books and more. He's written more than 11,000 articles across Louder, Classic Rock, Metal Hammer and Prog and has previous written for publications including IGN, the Sunday Mirror, Daily Record and The Herald, covering everything from daily news and weekly features, to video games, travel and whisky. Scott's favourite bands are Fields Of The Nephilim, The Cure, New Model Army, All About Eve, The Mission, Cocteau Twins, Drab Majesty, Marillion and Rush.