The word “djent” in and of itself is enough to bring any meaningful discourse to a grinding halt, as you can see above. Like it or not, it’s a thriving and lively force in metal culture and it’s best to come to terms with it now, because it’s unlikely to fade for another year or so, and even then you’re going to have the same sort of second and third gen revivals and knockoffs that metalcore has been seeing. Then again, everyone has their opinions and is entitled to them, but it’s always hilarious when someone gets a little too excited over something as trivial as this, especially if they’re in a position of celebrity. Enter one Randy Blythe, vocalist of seminal metalcore band Lamb of God.
The PRP has ran a colorful news piece this past weekend that highlights Blythe’s twitter tirade, where he touches on lack of innovation and the always controversial djent (and apparently a knock at crabcore as well):
“THE STUPIDEST name yet for ANOTHER “genre” of metal. If you call yerself “djent”- cap yerself NOW”
“THERE IS NO SUCH FUCKING THING AS “DJENT”. ITS NOT A GENRE. I’m sorry, it’s STUPID AS FUCK. Metal already WAY over classified.”
“…all this BULLSHIT “Deathcore” & “Djentcore” & fucking “Cantplayinreallifebutcanonacomputer-core” it’s just a NAME”
“People can call themselves WHATEVER THEY WANT- it’s fucking heavy metal- this sub-classifying shit is a pathetic attempt to say that you are re-inventing the wheel. YOU ARE NOT. ITS FUCKING HEAVY METAL. Get over it. “Djent”? ARE YOU KIDDING ME?”
“I can say that I am a fruit bat, copy fruit bat movements, & soon all my friends will too. Then we will have fruitbatcore. Can we fly? NO.”
“No, Meshuggah is NOT “djent”. Meshuggah is MESHUGGAH. FUCK.”
Opeth
Impiety
Ozzy Osbourne is no doubt a heavy metal legend. Would metal have gotten where it is today without him and Black Sabbath? It’s hard to say, but without his influence, we might be looking at an entirely different landscape. Not many people can hold down a career of a magnitude of Ozzy’s after over 40 years, and the fact that he’s still out there touring is commendable. Regardless of what you think of Ozzy’s later material, the fact that the dude’s still performing heavy metal/hard rock and touring even into his 60s really shows his dedication. Surely, he could have retired by now if he didn’t care.
Ghost
We love to turn people on to good music at any chance we get, but sometimes the awesome bands we want to talk about don’t have any sort of news going on at the moment. We want to talk about them anyway. Looking for music recommendations? “Hey, Listen To This!” is the column to watch out for. – JR
