Author: Primož Novak
Artist: Periphery
Label: Century Media
Release: year_month
Length: 80:46
Rating: 5/5
Periphery are now among the leading names of the so-called djent genre, which has caught a fair bit of flak from old-school metal fans, who claim that djent bands keep recycling the same riffs, all played on a single string. Periphery were around long before djent even became a bone of contention. And with Periphery, those accusations are just plain nonsense.
If we go back to the very beginning, mastermind Misha Mansoor was, before the genre took off and before Periphery’s debut, just a kid posting his demo tracks under the name Bulb on assorted forums for seven- and multi-string guitars and their gear. Mansoor had so much success with those demos that he put together a crew for a full band, and the lineup changed a few times. By the second album, Periphery II: This Time Is Personal, the lineup had settled down, with guitarist Mark Holcomb and bassist Adam Getgood (who previously played guitar in Red Seas Fire) joining the band.
While the long-promised album Juggernaut was taking shape, the band kept busy touring and writing material for it. The writing itself was so extensive that last year the band slipped in Clear (review HERE), an experimental EP on which each member contributed one track. If anything, that made it clear the band has no limits when it comes to creating music.
Juggernaut was actually promised a year after the second album, but when the band landed a tour with Dream Theater, the creative process dragged on for real, because Periphery wanted to polish everything more and simply take more time, which was the only right call. The actual production of the album took up the whole of 2014. When Periphery finally started recording, Misha Mansoor announced: »I hope you like long albums.« The first album ran a good 70 minutes, and the second was a couple of minutes shorter. Things got clearer when Periphery announced a double album.
Double albums always have the same problem: a few tracks can easily creep in that could simply have been left out. And the sheer length usually means the album drags toward the end and loses that good first impression. So Periphery took a big risk with Juggernaut. Concept albums aren’t exactly anything new these days. The progressive rock scene is teeming with them. So what makes Periphery’s concept, which sets out to turn music and lyrics into one meaningful whole, any different? The answer is pretty simple. On the predecessor, Periphery already used different tunings on every track, and every possible combination of their guitars, which come in six, seven and of course eight strings. That gave the concept a whole other dimension.
Periphery’s epic kicks off with the mellow A Black Minute, which at first, thanks to its ambient feel, recalls Tesseract, then picks up even more atmosphere with post-rock guitars and keyboards, putting melody front and center. The vocals are catchy but pretty dark. With MK Ultra the chaos begins, with the emphasis on atonal guitars that are, true to Periphery style, tuned way down low, proving the band hasn’t drifted away from djent. The ending of the track feels a bit like a joke, with a calm jazz outro that wouldn’t be out of place in an elevator. With Heavy Heart a fairly clear picture emerges that the first part of Juggernaut is the brighter album. Heavy Heart works like a feel-good hit of the kind written by modern progressive rock bands in the vein of Coheed And Cambria. After the short atmospheric track The Event we get to The Scourge, which shows the band’s knack for writing songs built around a »twist«. The Scourge starts out calm, dominated by Spencer Soltelo’s gentle vocals, followed by a more aggressive section, which then drops back into a mellow, clean passage, before Periphery explode with heavy guitars and a rhythm section that only lets up at the end with a pretty sugary finish, leading everything into Alpha, which after an »Atari« intro hits with catchy riffs and an even more standout chorus. Alpha is the most pop track on the whole record, with the simplest structure. 22 Faces has a similar foundation, only with heavier guitars and more prominent soloing. In Rainbow Gravity Periphery serve up chaos again, with the crazy sextet delivering chaotic Meshuggah-style riffs and raging vocals. But the chaos calms down toward the end, and the vocals are catchy once more. Next comes the short instrumental Four Lights, where the band shows off nothing but the power of its instruments with a variety of unconventional breakdowns. Juggernaut: Alpha closes with the epic Psychosphere, which has slow-hitting heaviness, catchy vocals, syncopated chaos, a wild rhythm section and a morbid atmosphere at the end.
The ending is promising, but definitely not enough. Luckily there’s a second part of the epic, titled Omega, which represents the darker side of the Juggernaut concept.
After the short, gentle Reprise, Omega takes the listener into The Bad Thing, which hits with a groovy riff and calms down with the chorus, but The Bad Thing has quite a few surprises, thanks to its unusual structure. The ballad-tinged Priestess is probably the sweetest track on the whole record, helped along by an intro with acoustic guitar. Periphery show their sense for melody here, while the electronics break up the monotony of a conventional ballad. A total about-face follows with the fast Graveless, which is brutal and technical, and as a bonus Periphery throw in a jazzy solo that comes off a bit comical. On the other hand, it’s just one more proof that Periphery like to work »outside the box«. With the next track, Hell Below, the band finally confirms that Omega really is the dark side of Juggernaut. Hell Below, with its sludgy slowness built on an eight-string guitar, gives the concept its morbid, dark feel. But Periphery don’t wrap up their epic there, because next comes the most complex and sprawling track, Omega, which runs almost 12 minutes. In that time Periphery prove they’re at the peak of their powers. The track is full of wild twists and turns, with riffs by the ton. After a short piano intro Periphery strike uncompromisingly, which shows in its sheer complexity and brutality. The vocals are angry too, followed by more melodic sections, and then the vocals turn catchy again. Toward the end, after a pleasant, calm, ambient section with a »feelsy« solo, the chorus of Alpha shows up, set to a different vocal and guitar line, and it feels even more emotional. Omega finishes everything off with a mighty breakdown that carries it all into the last track, Stranger Things. Periphery could have simply ended the album with Omega. The album’s culmination had been reached. The diversity of Omega, with its sheer grandeur, rivals Racecar from the debut, which until now was known as Periphery’s most special track because of its length (15 minutes) and progressiveness. But Omega is even sweeter in its own way. As mentioned earlier, Periphery close out with Stranger Things, which is emotional, at times complex, and atmospheric. It ends the same way the album begins, creating a meaningful link between the first and second parts that ties together the whole of Juggernaut.
On this third full-length, too, it turns out that Periphery put the biggest emphasis on guitars. With three or four guitarists, that’s nothing unusual. But the vocals and drums are by no means in the background. All of that is thanks to the excellent production, handled this time by Adam Getgood, the band’s bassist. The vocal production was done by singer Spencer Soltelo himself, and you can definitely feel that the vocals are the most polished of the band’s career. Soltelo’s ideas show in the carefully crafted lines and interesting switches between aggressive and melodic vocals, which sometimes climb pretty high. His melodic tone could be pinned on some punk-rock or metalcore band, but in the meantime his voice has become a trademark of Periphery themselves.
Drummer Matt Halpern is still in great form, having expanded his kit with a few extra toms for this album. His complex style hasn’t changed. Halpern’s sense of rhythm is outstanding. He’s full of the kind of tricks typical of drumming giants like Tomas Haake (Meshuggah) and Gavin Harrison (Porcupine Tree). His imagination peaks toward the end on Omega and Stranger Things, when he gets a bit more freedom.
As mentioned earlier, guitars are the main players in the band. Entirely logical, considering how many posts on their Facebook page are about new guitars and gear they’ve been sent to try out. Periphery, especially Misha Mansoor, are true »gear geeks«, but it has to be admitted that Misha Mansoor, Jake Bowen and Mark Holcomb really know their instruments inside out. Mansoor is known as the main riff writer, but this time Bowen and Holcomb had a big hand in it too, and also contributed solos. When it comes to soloing, Holcomb stands out as the band’s main »shredder«. Despite the standout guitars, this time the bass also got its place, and thanks to the excellent production it’s clearly audible. Adam Getgood, who among other things also contributed guitar riffs, offers a few lines of his own that fill out the calmer sections. Whatever the accusations, in 80 minutes Periphery don’t offer just one riff played on one string. Sure, syncopated riffs aren’t lacking this time either, but with all the melodies, complex groove, breakdowns, clean passages and solos, Periphery give the much-hated djent a very broad meaning.
Juggernaut is Periphery’s most polished and most inventive album. Alpha and Omega, representing yin and yang, connect in a way that makes sense; the lyrics are superbly woven into the music, which takes the listener on a long journey full of unexpected twists.
Juggernaut could be the end of it all. Or the start of something new. Periphery have shown just how much is possible when it comes to giving djent some real meaning. By bringing in other genres, such as metalcore, progressive rock, jazz, post-rock and more, they’ve delivered an exceptional scope that not every genre can muster. This may represent everything that can be achieved in djent. Or, through sheer experimentation, it may be possible to add yet another dimension. Either way, the hope is that this album will be a model for all the remaining djent bands that approached the whole thing the wrong way.
Line-up
Misha Mansoor – guitar
Jake Bowen – guitar
Marc Holcomb – guitar
Spencer Soltelo – vocals
Matt Halpern – drums
Adam “Nolly” Getgood – bass guitar
Production
Adam “Nolly” Getgood
Track list
Juggernaut: Alpha
A Black Minute (4:16)
MK Ultra (2:50)
Heavy Heart (4:22)
The Event (1:45)
The Scourge (5:36)
Alpha (5:31)
22 Faces (3:52)
Rainbow Gravity (4:39)
Four Lights (2:18)
Psychosphere (6:16)
Juggernaut:Omega
Reprise (1:25)
The Bad Thing (5:54)
Priestess (5:04)
Graveless (3:56)
Hell Below (3:43)
Omega (11:44)
Stranger Things (7:35)
