Invasion of the "Diga Duns"

If you have gotten this far on this blog you most likely are wondering what in the fucking world I am talking about? What the fuck is a "Diga Dun" A little bit of back story should clear up this seemingly moronic made up word. Actually its not really a word at all but really a phonetic representation or onomatopoeia of an overused musical tool which is ubiquitous in the local music scene; the dreaded "breakdown". If you are reading this and don't know what a "breakdown" is in the context of metalcore music then I shall explain. Breakdowns usually involve repeated, heavily palm muted open notes on a drop tuned guitar in which the bass drum in synchronized with the open notes. Often there is a complete tempo change to accommodate the breakdown riff as well as a jarring, abrupt transitions from a verse or bridge riff with cymbal count offs and barky metalcore vocal introduction. The repetitions of open notes can be be triplets or quads or even single open notes depending upon the tempo or what have you. Breakdowns are placed anywhere in a song, but often times at the end of the song after some long, rung out open chord.

See this YouTube video for generic, boring metalcore breakdowns.

But moving on, I can't say I coined the term "Diga Dun" or anything but I do remember when I first conceptualized the term. I believe it was junior year of high school and I had a study hall in the cafeteria with a bunch of friends/acquaintances. One particular individual (I will keep all involved nameless) would often mimic the sound of the guitars in a breakdown. "Diga Dun Diga Dun Diga Dun Diga Dun Diga....". I will pause now so that you the reader can now out loud repeat the previous sentence and that will shed some enlightenment on what I am talking about..................
Finished? You probably did not do it anyways. After hearing said person often mimic the sound I simply spelled out the phonetic representation of the sound, "Diga Dun".

I don't remember when I first started referring to any breakdown in a song as "The Diga Duns" but that terminology stuck in my brain and several other people. Junior year of high school was the time when metalcore, hardcore or whatevercore was riding its peak of popularity in the metal scene. It definitely seized a perfect moment to capture the metal scene after a decade of near stagnant creation of a popular metal genre. The process was similar to the way thrash took over everything in the 80s and eventually became a identifier of the metal scene in America and Europe.

Like any surging trend in music, the archetypal tools and schema found in the bands of the time, (Killswitch, Unearth, Bury Your Dead, blah blah insert whatever core band here) filtered down into the local bands. Breakdowns became a staple of the music like cheesy tapping solos in 80's hair metal bands used for the quick, cheap mosh effect. As time wore on, more and more bands coming up in the local metal scene had more and more breakdowns and less and less songwriting. I don't know where people came up with the idea that slapping a bunch of incoherent riffs in some random order with a couple of already used breakdowns counts as some mighty progressive songwriting because that is just a load of bullshit. Combine this with bad vocalists, and half rate music gear (5150s, Sorry if that is what you roll with) and that is how shitty the metal scene is around here nowadays. Don't get me wrong, there is/was a few local bands who avoided this type of crap but by far and large this is and has been the plague of the local metal scene. I recently went to a show at the Webster in Hartford, and this is a problem with a lot of the bands who played that night. It is entirely possible that my friends who played in metalcore bands back in that day or play in one right now are reading this (and yes I also briefly had a metalcore band back then too). No need to be personally offended by my particular opinion on this matter just that in retrospec this is the opinion I have garnered.

If you have gotten this far without getting into some kind of tizzy then either you are an extremely patient person, haven't the faintest clue what I am talking about, or you share similar musical taste as I do. I don't mean to say that any breakdown is a shitty piece of shit that should not be used at all in a song but that breakdowns have come to be the failure of metal. It is time to move beyond having a breakdown in every song, comprising of the same open notes or dissonant chords with slightly modified tempos and beats with barky, psuedo-threatning vocals. Breakdowns get old and have little staying value in the long run. Yea you can get those shitty fanboys to dance or whatever every time you play at some half rate fuckin' club but as times goes on we all get bored. There is nothing special or memorable about a breakdown because they are all primarily rooted in the same sound, and same beat.

Breakdowns do not need to be abandoned or rejected by definition but need to be reworked, rethought and less used. For example, check this YouTube video of a Superjoint Ritual song, "Personal Insult". (Warning, quite a coarse video, coarse topic which I do not personally endorse. It is just a brutal, heavy song.) Around the 2:30 mark, they transition into a breakdown. If you take the time to listen to the entire record, or catalog from the band you will notice sparing use of breakdowns, maybe a handful across 2 great albums. A good combination of punk, Sabbath, sludge, metal, and of course Phil Anselmo.

There are definitely other types of problems in the local scene besides the abuse of breakdowns and I am not attempting to forget those issues and distract from them by only mentioning one issue in this blog post. As a last note, just remember this is my opinion on the matter which I have attempted to elucidate. You are entitled to simply say, fuck off you dick to what I just wrote but I believe it would be nonconstructive to do so.