Djent

Djent is (arguably) a modern sub-genre of music within Rock, particularly heavy metal (and even more particularly metal-core). What sets it apart from other types of Rock are its focus on syncopated rhythms, embrace of progressive or experimental elements, down-tuned or extended-range guitars, and contrasting ambient clean and distorted rhythm sections. Vocals are often a mixture of clean vocals (sometimes melodic and sometimes sustained chants) and rhythmic screams/growls, although many Djent bands do not feature vocals at all. While the sub-genre of Djent takes its name from the "djent" sound of multi-note distorted palm-muted "chugs", not all artists use these prominently, while others rely heavily upon them (usually to feature a syncopated rhythm), sometimes using them almost exclusively for entire songs.

Popular bands include Meshuggah, Periphery, Tessseract, and Monuments.

Riffing in Extended Ranges

Djent very often features 7 or 8 string guitars, often tuned lower than the standard B (B E A D G B E) of a 7 string. This creates some issues with distorted guitars, preventing Thrash-style riffing from working effectively in the lower register(s). The most obvious issue is that intervals and chords can sound quite dissonant or muddy. Instead, the Djent style often prefers to use single notes. Where richer tones are wanted, Djent typically substitutes quick alternation between the notes - thus riffs are structured around this.

E---------------------------------
B---------------------------------
G---------------------------------
D---------------------------------
A---------------------------------
E---------------------5-----5-----
B---3-----5-----1-----------------
F#----1-0---3-0---3-0---4-3---3-0-

Also, since riffs this low can lead to issues with clearly hearing what notes are being played, Djent often uses larger intervals between notes, with plenty of octave-wide jumps.

E----------------------------------------------------
B----------------------------------------------------
G----------------------------------------------------
D----------------------------------------------------
A--------------------------------10/14---------------
E---14----------13-----------------------------------
B---------------------------7/8----------------------
F#------12--0-------12--0---------------13-p0--0--0--
                                               p

The low register can also make repetitive palm mutes on lower notes unclear. So where thrash might play 16th note palm mutes on the open E string, Djent will turn this into a more rhythmic groove.

F#--0-----0-0----0-0----0---(x)---0----0-0----0-----
          p      p                     p

Guitar Tones

Extended-range guitars or tunings can get quite muddy with distortion, even with modern amplifiers that feature relatively "tight" distortion. Djent relies on very bright boost pedals, or sometimes even cocked wahs to really focus the brunt of the distortion away from lower frequencies. This leads to a metallic, clanky, "quack"-type sound on unmuted notes, while ensuring that muted chugs really have that djent sound (it literally sounds like you are saying "djent").

Some artists use less distortion to add clarity to the notes, but simultaneously use a compressor to retain the thick, saturated feel of heavy distortion.

Clean tones are usually bright and pristinely clean, laden with reverb. Djent often uses cleans to give compositions more harmonic content than the rhythmic distorted riffs; however, it often avoids playing chords, instead playing single notes, allowing the reverb to allow each note to overlap, creating intervals or even chords if the decay time is long enough. The reverb also helps the single notes fill more space in the mix rather than getting buried.