Band of the Week - Vildhjarta

Djent?  Really?  What's slightly odd is that as I was deciding which band to talk about this week, I was listening to Vildhjarta and saw a friend post about "djent" (which I'll eventually get to).  Serendipitous maybe?  Probably not for a meager little blog post.  But first, I think I should explain something about this particular endeavor, or whatever, I've voluntarily submersed myself in.  "Band (song/album/whatever) of the Week" is just that, a piqued interest this week.  It may not be my favorite artist or genre or what have you, but sometimes it could merely be a "what was that?" moment and something I feel needs to be shared.  The artist may not even have much material to sample at the moment (see: Baring Teeth a few weeks ago).  That, or it may just be a slow week for me inspiration-ally speaking.  Whatever the case, I hope I didn't just down play Vildhjarta, though I did feel compelled to write the last few sentences simply because I have chosen to discuss them.

Vildhjarta is one of the latest editions to Century Media's roster.  With a name like that they're either foreign or a black metal band from Ohio.  It's the former.  Hailing (Perfect!) from Sweden, Vildhjarta plays "djent."  Don't know what that is?  Well, it's staccato mathy chugging riffs.  You know, like Meshuggah.  If you already knew that, well, that's just silly.  According to Wikipedia (what?  This isn't a research paper) "djent" is an onomatopoetic word for the sound made when palm muting a guitar.  Are you serious?  You can't name a genre after the sound you would make with your mouth to describe it.  That's reserved for joke band names like Jud Jud.  You can call something noise or noisecore, but you can't call it "crashcore" or "asdfhdsfj-core."  It's just metal.  And that's what Vildhjarta is, a metal band from Sweden that sounds a lot like Meshuggah.

Now, I've never been a fan of Meshuggah, but I have a bunch of stupid friends so I've heard Meshuggah and many of their clones before.  I don't know if they have singing and screaming done by 2 vocalists, I don't know if they have layered atmosphere under their start stop odd-timing chugging, and I don't know if they have a 3rd guitarist bringing the member total to (crowded stage) 7.  What I do know is Vildhjarta does.  The screamed vocals are similar to Meshuggah's, but also have elements of Scott Angelacos from Bloodlet, though more akin to his output with Hope and Suicide.  I'm not really sure who the clean vocals sound like, but they're done by somebody who can actually carry a tune.  They may only have 3 proper songs (demos, mind you) floating around, but they have a download page on their website that contains a lot of samples of their, ugh, "djent" style.

vildhjarta.com/downloads/ (none of the songs under the "old stuff" heading have any vocals)
www.facebook.com/pages/vildhjarta/112205392321

Where they started: Not a clue.

Where you should start: Um, pick up their debut LP (Irreversible maybe?) whenever it comes out this year?  In the meantime check out some songs.

Essential Song:  Why not 2? "Shiver" is certainly an intriguing and engaging song.  I was lured in by the gentle ominous plucking intro before the offset of a pummeling onslaught bursts through.



Essential Live Video: So it's not a whole song, but it's kinda cool to get a feel for what they're like.