Meshuggah Clarify Official Stance on Djent

There are only a few things that are certain in life: Death, taxes, and Meshuggah‘s hatred of the entire subgenre of djent. Or at least, we thought we were certain about that last one.

A reason that many of us thought Meshuggah hated djent is because in 2018, guitarist Mårten Hagström apologized for creating it on record, saying, “We’re very sorry for creating that genre.” However, Hagström recently told Loudwire they don’t actually hate it all that much.

“Some bands have popped up that are getting bigger, that are into us. That’s really cool and that’s really gratifying. We really love the fact that people cite us as inspiration. I know I’ve gotten the question, ‘You guys hate the djent movement and you guys hate this and that.’ It’s like, ‘No, dude. That’s not true at all. The simple fact is that we’re old, lazy Swedish dudes who’ve been doing this stuff for a very long time. So when we do a new album, I don’t listen to new music at all.”

“Whoever you are and whatever you want to do that has any creative nerve or any creative side to it… don’t you want to be a person who inspires others the way you were inspired by something? That’s the greatest compliment, regardless of what they sound like.”

So who knows. It’s hard for a band not to appreciate how far their influence stretches and how many other acts their music has inspired. But it’s also possible to be disappointed that your influence ended up inspiring shit that sounds like an ESP guitar fucking a space whale mid-seizure. If I had to guess, I’d say the truth is somewhere between the two for Meshuggah. And at the end of the day, it’s all just good fun for them, so does it really matter? No. But as far as this particular writer is concerned, djent can go spoon a lathe.

Meshuggah’s new album Immutable drops tomorrow, April 1, via Atomic Fire. You can preorder here and listen to “I Am That Thirst” below.