The Contortionist - Flourish video free download

(Disclaimer: This description is a bit pretentious and verbose. Read at your own peril!)

Until quite recently, I had next to no awareness of Djent. As far as I knew it was just another way of saying "kind of like Meshuggah." Sure enough, the first Djent I listened to (Animals As Leaders and Periphery) confirmed that belief, but then a funny thing happened; I discovered the Contortionist.

Though I had never heard them, the Contortionist, a tech deathcore band akin to Born of Osiris and the like, is far closer to my comfort zone than either of the prior bands, but that's not what drew me in initially. What I loved more about the music was the particularly atonal quality their guitar work displays, almost akin to Deathspell Omega or Blut Aus Nord in this one way only. It just seemed so natural and consistent with their style, but still managed to be exotic. As Eliezer Yudkowsky (of Less Wrong fame) might put it, they have nonstandard but coherent cache, and violate the pattern for excellent tech death. They hit a sweet spot between innovative and familiar, technical and raw, achieving far too many kinds of excellence to be easily considered one thing alone. Exoplanet, their latest album, is easily one of the best recordings I've ever heard, my only regret is I didn't know sooner how cool Djent could be.