A proper intro

[Connor]

Hey guys, I'm Connor. I followed you lot in the first great migration many years ago and you couldn't shake me this time either, so I figure it's about time for an actual intro.

I'll get this out of the way: I dig "djent" (though I don't really like that name as a genre), and I think the hate is overblown, but I won't press the issue. I didn't always have awful taste - I first got into guitar playing because of Hendrix and Led Zeppelin, then my friends got me into Metallica and Pantera. I quickly got into the nerdy shit like power and prog (DT, Symphony X, etc), then into harsh vocals and heavier stuff thanks to Opeth. Back in high school I was in a thrash band and melodic death metal band for a while too. I never really wanted to be a rockstar but playing live was a ton of fun. Miss that shit. Now I'm into most metal genres and even the ones I don't regularly listen to are usually still cool to me (black metal, grindcore mainly).

Speaking of nerdy, I'm an aerospace engineer and I'm currently trying to complete a PhD as well. I work on/research the entry, descent, and landing for Mars vehicles like the recently landing Perseverance rover.

I don't tend to go through a lot of gear; my first nice guitar was a Carvin I ordered in 2007. Some of you actually help me spec it out so it wouldn't be plagued by the brightness they were known for at the time. I still have that guitar, and still love it. I also have a few Ibanezes, an RG7261 that I got circa 2012 and one of their newer entry level multi-scale 7s with Elysian pickups. But that's about it, only 4 guitars in the last 14 years. Most of that time I've lived in dorms or small apartments and I always liked recording so I've mostly stuck with modelers like the Pod series, and more recently plugins, which I find very convenient.

Anyway, I've always liked the tight-knit sense of community this group has had, and even though I'm not the most active poster, I'm glad to be here.

Finally, hails to the Adminishredder for the new site

[playstopause]

Hey, welcome!

[Naren]

I also really dig "djent" and also don't like that name. In most places, I just call it "progressive metal," but progressive metal is a huge sub-genre and a lot of people need it to be specified as different from, say, Haken, Symphony X, Dream Theater, and other prog metal bands that can fall into other prog sub-genres such as Opeth and Between the Buried and Me (progressive death metal) or Ihsahn and Enslaved (progressive black metal) and so on and so forth. I've heard some people call it "polyrhythmic progressive metal," but not all djent bands use polyrhythms. Anyway, I've never gotten the hate that it got on mg.org and still gets here.

[Randy]

I mean, djent is like 15+ years old now.

I don't like the spinoffs that it brought on (especially the gear influencer culture BS) but at this point the hate of all things djent is less "get off my lawn" and more just a genre some people don't mesh with just like grindcore or goth metal or any other niche thing that just isn't some people's cup of tea.

The anti-djent thing around here is more tied to the split from SSO when it got oversaturated with new people all doing the same thing, posting the same stuff and necessitated the move in the first place. Unless you're intimately involved with the nightmare that was the revolving door of "mix tests", I think it's common and even normal to have some things people would categorize as djent that you like or at least don't hate. Most of the hate is personal with good reason.

[Naren]

I definitely get the hate of "mix tests," but I don't really think that's specific to djent. You just got a lot more of it from djent than you did from any other one sub-genre. There are some "djent" bands that I dislike, but it's not because they're djent. It's the same reason why there are bands in genres that I tend to love that I dislike. There are a lot of bands whose music I love but the vocals I don't like (such as King Diamond, Anthrax, Nevermore, and so on), while there are also bands whose vocals I like but whose music I somewhat dislike.

I was super active on ss.org when that "nightmare of mix tests" started, but I just mostly ignored them. I think the people who bothered to listened to them are the ones who got the most irritated.

[playstopause]

I mean, djent is like 15+ years old now.

I don't like the spinoffs that it brought on (especially the gear influencer culture BS) but at this point the hate of all things djent is less "get off my lawn" and more just a genre some people don't mesh with just like grindcore or goth metal or any other niche thing that just isn't some people's cup of tea.

The anti-djent thing around here is more tied to the split from SSO when it got oversaturated with new people all doing the same thing, posting the same stuff and necessitated the move in the first place. Unless you're intimately involved with the nightmare that was the revolving door of "mix tests", I think it's common and even normal to have some things people would categorize as djent that you like or at least don't hate. Most of the hate is personal with good reason.

Very well said.