# How to Play Meshuggah Djent-Chord?



## LadyKiller (Oct 8, 2010)

The Guy from Monuments told MetalSucks: "I learnt Meshuggahs famous djent chord on their forum which is basically a normal power chord with an added 5th which gives that iconic djenty Meshuggah sound."

Could you guys explain this chord please? I have no idea what this guy is talkin' about
Thanks


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## Esp Griffyn (Oct 8, 2010)

How do you add a 5th to a power chord? Unless it's a top 5th making the chord; root, 5th, octave and an octave of the 5th?

I can't see how that would nail the Meshuggah sound tbh, and on Obzen they deliberately avoided using chords in favour of single note riffs, because the chords were not working so well with the 8 strings.


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## Prydogga (Oct 8, 2010)

^ My thoughts exactly. Maybe he was trolling... My thinking for iconic Meshuggah would be like, 'djenting' the open F and perhaps the 5th and Octave. Or the Bb and Eb if you will.

I've never played an 8 so I don't know how the open powerchord would ring out.


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## Esp Griffyn (Oct 8, 2010)

Prydogga said:


> ^ My thoughts exactly. Maybe he was trolling... My thinking for iconic Meshuggah would be like, 'djenting' the open F and perhaps the 5th and Octave. Or the Bb and Eb if you will.
> 
> I've never played an 8 so I don't know how the open powerchord would ring out.



Even with a long scale / multiscale or whatever, I doubt it would sound amazing. Sounded ok on my RG2228 alone, but in a band situation, not sharp enough, and it would probably be difficult to mix in a recording scenario. Far easier with 2 or at a push 3 note chords low down.

4 or more note chords are just not ideal, unless you are playing with a clean tone, and even then it sounds a bit more like one really rich note than a real chord (see Josh Martin's "Pillow fort" video on youtube). It's the limitations of the construction really. If anything (and the only thing, I think) could get big chords low on the neck on an 8 string sounding good, it would be a multiscale guitar made from carbon fibre, which is imo a far superior building material to wood. The Oni 8 string that Bulb bought off Matt recently would be ideal.


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## Prydogga (Oct 8, 2010)

What a coincidence, I am currently watching a video of him playing it, and it's not an 8 by the way. It's a 7.


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## Esp Griffyn (Oct 8, 2010)

Prydogga said:


> What a coincidence, I am currently watching a video of him playing it, and it's not an 8 by the way. It's a 7.



Oh crap. Oh well, that's the kind of construction I think could do it. Status realised the potential of carbon fibre in the 80s (and so did many others) but obviously it has not and will not catch on, because it's so expensive to make and not traditional enough for most. Lamborghini are developing a bonded carbon material for making new lightweight cars that is supposed to be a lot cheaper and quicker to make than woven carbon fibre, but it will take forever to filter down to instrument level, the same way carbon fibre did. It's a shame more companies do not use woven carbon fibre, because it's just incredible stuff.


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## Triple7 (Oct 8, 2010)

It was actually Acle from Tesseract that stated that in the interview. And this "djent" chord was coined long before Obzen came out and they started droning on single note riffs. If you go on Metal Sucks and look through Misha's (Periphery) articles, he explains it quite clearly. 

People seem to have the term "djent" confused with single note off-time riffs, when in actuallity it is the sound that your guitar makes when you play a barr chord in the afformentioned way. People now even consider it a genre, which is ridiculous considering that the characteristics of the "genre" are not the characteristics of "djent".

Man I hate that word


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## davemeistro (Oct 8, 2010)

Guitar Messenger  Periphery: Misha Mansoor Masterclass (Part 1)
First video called 'djent'. Misha does a great job of explaining.


2:12

I'm not sure if the 4 note powerchord is how Meshuggah got their sound, but I know for me it's just easier to do a 3 note powerchord, choke up the palm muting a little bit and pick a little harder.


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## Triple7 (Oct 8, 2010)

^^


Awesome, I couldn't find that masterclass. But the above post pretty much explains it to a tee.


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## Bruiser (Oct 8, 2010)

4
2
2
0

Is that what you mean by adding a 5th? Seems simple enough to me.


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## Holy Katana (Oct 8, 2010)

I remember reading years ago that Meshuggah were famous for that style of power chord. This was long before I'd ever heard anything by them.


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## Double A (Oct 8, 2010)

It is pretty funny that all of Meshuggah's "djenty" material is mostly on their older non 8 string albums. Vanished is a perfect example of Djent.

I guess Djent has taken on a larger definition as now I see people refer to a heavy open pick at attack with a certain percussive sound as Djent. To me it sounds more like "Booooooooong", so maybe Meshuggah created "Boooooong" Metal too.


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## sk3ks1s (Oct 8, 2010)

Double A said:


> so maybe Meshuggah created "Boooooong" Metal too.


 
I think it's more like... "durp"
durp da durp da da durp da durrrrrrrrrrrrrr...


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## Holy Katana (Oct 8, 2010)

Their non-palm-muted sounds are like "dow" or sometimes "now" when fretted (the "O" is very nasal), and the open strings are more like the words "dough" and "no" with a bit of an "oo" sound at the end.

Their palm-muted sounds aren't "djent" to me. They're more like "djung" or "djunk."


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