Daniel Berry 310274656

Dissecting Groove: Polyrhythms,

Syncopation and Other Rhythmic Devices in
Djent Music
In recent years, there has been a trend in modern progressive metal
bands to incorporate complex rhythmic ideas into their compositions. The
main proponent of this sudden popularity can be found in a sub-genre
known as Djent, although other metal bands manage to incorporate
complex rhythms while avoiding this genre. The essay will briefly explore
Djents lineage back to the progressive bands of the 70s. An analysis of
the rhythms found in modern djent music will follow, which attempts to
show how such rhythmic devices are typically employed.
Djent, in recent times, has been the word used to represent the style of
progressive metal that can be described as intelligent metal, one that
incorporates highly technical playing of syncopated guitar riffs, often on
the lowest strings of a detuned distorted guitar, frequently adding lush,
extended harmonies played by clean guitars. Complex rhythms are most
likely used by Djent bands to correspond to the intelligent image this type
of music represents. This extends even to the bands name, their album
and song names. For instance, bands often choose names that are
blatantly pretentious (Surreal State of Enlightenment) or terms relating to
geometry (Structures, Volumes, Circles, TesseracT).
The term Djent itself has been quite controversial as the name for a
genre (Djent, 2012). Originally Djent was coined as an onomatopoeic
term for the sound made by a distorted detuned guitar played palm
muted on the lowest string, or as a chord using the lowest 2 or 3 strings. It
was coined by Frederick Thordendal a decade ago, lead guitarist of
Meshuggah (Thomson, 2011). The Swedish band Meshuggah are often
cited as the forefathers of the Djent scene, beginning with their album
Nothing, released in 2002, which was the first release to feature the
rhythmic ideas featured in Djent music.1 Since then, bands such as
1 In the progressive and metal genres, Meshuggah are certainly not the very first
band to use varying meters and changing time signatures. Bands from the 70s
and 80s who preceded Meshuggah such as Dream Theater, Rush, King Crimson
and Frank Zappa, among others, utilised such techniques in their compositions.
These compositions have surely influenced the highly unique rhythmic ideas
found in Nothing. Also, complex syncopation can be found in many other genres

Textures have incorporated similar concepts (in their own unique style).
However, the scene did not really start to become more popular until
2010. The American band Periphery and the British band TesseracT are
generally seen to be the pioneers of the modern movement, with bands
such as Australias Circles following soon after.
A few rhythmic concepts will now be defined, as definitions and
understandings of these concepts and the words used to define them vary.
Pulse, known as the tactus, or colloquially as beat, is defined as the
series of identical beats which recur at a certain tempo to create the
underlying rhythmic basis of a passage of music (Pulse (music), 2012).
Meter is therefore defined as a pulse group, that is, the number of
pulses between accents, or new bars, most commonly 4 crotchet beats in
4/4 (Meter (music), 2012). Syncopation is defined as the placement of
rhythmic stresses or accents where they wouldn't normally occur
(Hoffman, 1997). Metric Modulation is defined as a change in pulse rate
(tempo) and/or pulse grouping (subdivision) (Metric Modulation, 2012) 2.
Polyrhythm is defined as two unrelated meters being played
simultaneously such that they take up the same amount of time, eg. 4
beats played against 3 beats (Polyrhythm, 2012).
The first rhythmic example The Design, a song by the Australian band
Circles from their EP The Compass - demonstrates the typical usage of
heavily syncopated guitar/bass riffs against a relatively stable meter. In
the riff beginning at 0:17, a number of rhythmic devices are used which
are characteristic of Djent music. The rhythmic transcription shows the
syncopated guitar line being played simultaneously with the cymbal/snare
line, the latter mostly keeping the pulse.3 In this riff we have a different
including jazz, funk and drumnbass.
2 In Djent, the pulse will often shift between dotted and straight groupings (eg.
crotchet pulse and dotted quaver pulse).
3Refer to Example 1 at the bottom of the essay, in the Rhythmic Transcriptions
section. All transcriptions by the author. It is recommended that the reader
listens to the excerpt on YouTube and looks at the transcription before reading
the text. In this essay pitch and harmony will be ignored. The guitar line has
been notated here, and is represented by the notes with the stem facing up (36).
This guitar line is mostly doubled by the kick (bass) drum; there are slight
discrepancies (eg. in bar 1 the kick drum doesnt play most of the semiquavers),
but only the guitar line is shown to avoid confusion. The china cymbal/crash
cymbal has been combined into one line, represented by the stems facing up
with an x (42), and the snare is represented by the normal notes with the stem
facing up (40). It is archetypal of Djent music for the guitar/bass line to be very

time signature every bar4, but a common crotchet pulse is maintained

through most of the riff by the cymbals. In the first half the snare is
playing every second crotchet in line with the cymbals. In a 4/4 beat it is
common to have the snare on the 3rd beat reinforcing this feel, as can be
seen in later examples. The guitar line often uses dotted quaver rhythms
against the crotchets for a heavily syncopated effect. At bars 5 and 6 the
cymbals, normally keeping the crotchet pulse, occasionally follow the
syncopated dotted quavers of the guitar line, hinting at metric
modulation. Also in bars 5 and 6 the snare cant seem to decide between
playing on even or odd numbers of the pulse at the given time, however it
is important to note that every note that is hit is either in time with the
cymbal pulse or the syncopated guitar groove (except the last two
semiquavers, which merely fill the space between repetitions of the riff).
In all its complexity, there are really only two main rhythmic lines
interacting here (taking the snare and cymbals as one reinforced line).
The large scale bimeter compositional technique popularised by
Meshuggah has had great influence on other bands5. A relatively
straightforward and fitting example can be found in the first 34 seconds of
Surreal State of Enlightenment, a song by the Dutch band Textures from
their album Drawing Circles6. Here the kick drum (later to be doubled by
rhythm guitar) plays a pattern in 13/16 comprised of 3 semiquavers
followed by 5 quavers. While this is happening, an open hi hat is being
played on every crotchet in 4/4, with a snare on the third beat, typical for
many djent bands. The 4/4 beat can be divided into 16 semiquavers, and
the 13/16 beat into 13 semiquavers. It therefore follows that for both
rhythms to match up, the lowest common multiple of 16 and 13 must be
found. This number is 208, meaning that the two meters cycle in sync
closely followed by the kick drum, if not exactly, so each of these rhythmic
transcriptions essentially show what the drummer is playing.
4 The first bar could arguably interpreted as two bars of 7/8, however one bar of
7/4 was selected as this is the overriding pulse, or feel. Unorthodox time
signatures are common in this type of music.
5 Here the term bimeter refers to two different meters being repeated
simultaneously at different rates such that at each repetition of one meter it
corresponds with a different part of the other meter until the two eventually line
up. Essentially a large scale polyrhythm eg. a 23/16 against 4/4 bimeter.
6 The stems facing up with an x represent the open hi hat (42), the normal notes
with the stem facing up represent the snare (40), and the notes with the stem
facing down represent the kick drum (36).

every 208 semiquavers. This equates to 13 bars of 4/4, and 16 repetitions

of the rhythm in 13/16. This influenced how Textures chose to structure
the song; it is comprised of blocks of 13 bars of 4/4, with each block
adding or changing a layer to the mix. Each change is signalled by an
additional snare hit on beat 4 of every 13th bar.
The final rhythmic example cleverly manipulates polyrhythms in order to
alter the listeners perception of pulse and in general create a sense of
confusion appropriate to the style of music.7 It demonstrates how
important the snare is in defining pulse. In the introduction of
Meshuggahs song Bleed from their album obZen, the 4/4 tempo is
established as the main pulse for the first minute and 24 seconds of
music, with the cymbal hitting crotchets with the snare coming in on the
third beat of the bar.8 The double kick pattern (doubled by rhythm guitar)
is comprised of 4 notes: 2 demisemiquavers followed by 2 semiquavers,
which is played simultaneously over the 4/4 beat. The 4 note values of the
double kick pattern add up to a dotted quaver note, which is the note
value which creates a 4 over 3 polyrhythm when played against a crotchet
note value. However, in the introduction, the listener does not really hear
it as such if anything the listener hears the double kick pattern as
straight semiquavers reinforcing the 4/4 pulse with the demisemiquavers
adding bumps to the groove and adding rhythmic interest.
There is an 8 bar instrumental break beginning at 1:25, but the rhythmic
pattern displayed here actually begins on the 3rd beat of the previous bar,
which adds to the confusion of the upcoming section of music. Here the
snare abruptly changes to hitting the semiquaver of the double kick
pattern, making the 4 over 3 polyrhythm explicit, that is, 4 snare hits over
3 crotchet beats of the original 4/4 pulse. However, the way this section is
played causes a change in perception of pulse in the listener. The 4/4
pulse of the introduction (the underlying pulse of the song) is almost lost
completely to all but the most perceptive listener at this point, for two
reasons. Firstly, the polyrhythm starting halfway through the bar before
throws the listener off guard. Secondly, the cymbals arent accented and
7 The transcriptions show what is described, however one must listen to the two
contrasting sections in the recording to experience the pulse shifting effect. The
stems facing up with an x represent the china cymbal (42), the normal notes with
the stem facing up represent the snare (40) and the notes with the stem facing
down represent the kick drum/guitar line (36). The 40s of the snare can be found
on the same line as the kick drum in the 2 nd part of the excerpt.
8 The cymbal is actually being played every quaver, but the crotchet beats are
accented the transcription is slightly simplified for clarity.

are played softly, while the snare pounds relentlessly away9. This
eventually makes it seem like the snare is creating a new 4/4 pulse at 4/3
times the speed of the original tempo (that is, 153.33 beats per minute as
opposed to the original tempo of 115 beats per minute). It creates an
interesting composite effect. One could almost call it an implied
polyrhythm. The instrumental break was most likely composed as 8 bars
of the original 4/4 pulse, but because the polyrhythm begins halfway
through the bar before, the section ends mid-polyrhythm, which comes as
a real shock to the listener, in whose mind had defined the snare hits as
the new underlying pulse. While the original 4/4 pulse had been
maintained/implied all along, it seems like the next section comes in midbeat, which is all a very confusing experience for the listener, which was
possibly Meshuggahs desired effect.
The use of concepts such as polyrhythms, bimeters, syncopation, metric
modulations and alternating time signatures is not groundbreaking in
music. As previously mentioned, they all appear in other genres of music
in some form or other. However, these devices have not been used in
music to such an extent, and in forms this complex, that they become the
main source of musical interest in a work, as they often are in Djent
music.

Reference List
Hoffman, M. (1997). Syncopation. Retrieved November 18 2012 from
http://www.kennedycenter.org/nso/classicalmusiccompanion/syncopation.html
Thomson, J. (3 March 2011). Djent, the metal geeks microgenre.
Retrieved November 18 2012 from
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/mar/03/djent-metal-geeks
Djent. (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved November 18 2012 from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Djent
Pulse (music). (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved November 18 2012 from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulse_(music)
Meter (music). (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved November 18 2012 from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meter_(music)

9 Also, the fact that the small rhythmic cell is repeated exactly over and over for
approximately 16 seconds does not help the listener to define a pulse.

Metric Modulation. (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved November 18 2012 from

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metric_modulation
Polyrhythm. (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved November 18 2012 from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyrhythm

Rhythmic Transcriptions
Example 1: The Design (from The Compass) by Circles. Riff starting at
0:17.
Example 2: Surreal State of Enlightenment (from Drawing Circles) by
Textures. First 34 seconds.
Examples 3 and 4: Bleed (from obZen) by Meshuggah. Intro, then
instrumental break starting at 1:25.