Djent, 8 Strings and an old Metal Guitarist

Djent and an old Metal Guitarist

It's been just under twenty years since I stood on a stage and played metal to a crowd. The last mosh-pit I entered was around early 2000's when the Deftones came to visit the University Roundhouse here in Sydney. I would have been in my late 20's with all these 18 year old Uni students - and let me tell you, I felt old then! Sure I was in there going hard, but you could see the look on all their faces - "the old dude". And the Deftones, shit - they ain't spring chickens either right, but hey there was a glimmer of hope for me yet.

Slow Learner

About five years ago, a work colleague of mine, who helped get me obsessed with Nine Inch Nails (oh yeah, we saw them live too), introduced me to Meshuggah and Mastodon. Strangely enough, at the time I didn't quite get them. There was something about the sound that didn't sit with me. And this isn't the first time I've had this happen. It took me over twenty years to get "into" Black Sabbath! Twenty fricken years to work out I really loved Black Sabbath (at least the old stuff anyway). So I'm a slow learner, I get that.

Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath (1970)

WTF is "Djent"?

So what the hell is Djent? Well, after watching many, many YouTube videos on the latest metal guitarist riffs and techniques, I started saying to myself "What is that sound they have? How do they make the guitars sound like that? And why can't I for the life of me get my guitar to sound like that!" I had forgotten all about my introduction to Meshuggah at this stage. But eventually, I figured out that this sound, the sound I couldn't get, was what the youth of today called "Djent".

If I wanted to get technical about it, there were quite a few reasons why I couldn't get that sound. In no particular order, this is why.

Detune or go for 7/8 Strings

I only had a six string guitars. I have never detuned my guitars and therefore never experienced playing on anything lower than the standard E tuning. It was always a bridge too far (pun?) for my thinking. These guys were playing chords whose root notes started way lower than what my guitar could get too.

Extended Power Chords

From what I can tell, Djent uses extended power chords. A power chord is just root-fifth-octave. They say Black Sabbath's Tony Iommi invented the power chord when he lost the tips of the middle and ring finger of his right hand in a factory accident. He also went on to detune his guitar (all the way to C#) to ease the tension on his fingers. And that there is the birth of metal. And it took me twenty years to figure that out - OMFG... Anyway, Djent due to additional bass strings and potential detuning may add a lower octave and fifth below what would normally be the root, giving a much thicker richer sound which you will read below causes it's own issues.

The Mid-Range

Well, back when I was a lad, I was Mr Anti-Mid-Range! The tone knobs on my Marshall JCM800 had the Mid at zero! I wanted no mid-range at all! My distortion pedal, the 90's infamous Boss Metal Zone MT-2 also had the mid down at zero.

So twenty years later, playing with my usual setup - there was no way in the world I was going to get that Djent sound - because it's all mids! You see, without mids, playing an extended power chord sounds fucking terrible. It's muddy, its a mess, there's no clarity, no crispness, no nothing. So once again, YouTube to the rescue, I had to watch a couple of people setup their amps for Djent to work out what I was doing wrong. And mid-range is a significant piece missing from the puzzle.

The 8 String

So once I worked it out - I go out and find myself a "cost-effective" 8 string guitar. I found a second-hand Ibanez RG8, with the old style (non-EMG) pickups. It was a great start as I entered the modern metal arena.

My Ibanez RG8

And so began my Djent journey.