Sweden’s Meshuggah may be the most important metal band of the new millennium. Their use of polyrhythms, 8-string guitars, extremely low tunings and nontraditional song structures have pushed heavy metal into new and uncharted territories. The entire genre known as Djent (so named for the song that the muted strings and chugging rhythms produce) owes its existence to Meshuggah’s sonic exploration and experimentation.

If one can judge a band’s influence by the sheer amount of imitators, then we need look no further than this song lyric by metal legend Devin Townsend in his song “Planet of the Apes”: