From DJ to djent-step: Technology and the re-coding of metal music since the 1980s

This article considers the ways in which metal has interacted with the aesthetics of electronic music since the 1980s, from its earliest exchanges with hip hop through to recent developments in the djent subgenre. It highlights the persistence of metal’s practitioners in adopting new technologies (including samplers, drum machines and Digital Audio Workstations) and the challenges that this has brought to established ideas of conventional metal music practice. Underlying the discussion is the notion of the ‘code’, a familiar term in metal music studies, which has been employed to articulate ideas of metal’s core musical attributes. In these terms, electronic music’s creative practices can be seen to have facilitated both the deconstruction and re-contextualization of metal’s code, enabling the genre to be re-imagined and ultimately enriched.