Did someone just open up a can of worms? Periphery are on their way back with new music and they've decided to title their latest album, Periphery V: Djent Is Not a Genre, inevitably opening up a new debate in the process.
First, let's get to the basics of the new album. Periphery shared via their social media post the proposed album artwork along with the reveal that the first two singles from the album will be coming this Thursday (Jan. 12). The songs are titled "Wildfire" and "Zagreus," and you can currently pre-save the new tracks at this location ahead of their Thursday release.
In addition, the band revealed that there will be three different LP variants for the new album as well as a new line of merch items. All can be ordered individually or via bundle options. Pre-order information will also be revealed this Thursday.
So, what about that album title? Well, considering that Periphery are often considered one of the leaders of djent music, it's certainly an interesting statement to be making. To the band's credit, Djent is actually considered a "subgenre" of progressive metal rather than a genre, per Wikipedia.
While Meshuggah's Frederik Thordendal is often credited as the originator of the high-gain, distorted, palm-muted, down-tuned playing style associated with djent, other acts have certainly made their mark playing in a similar style including Periphery.
That said, Periphery have spoken on their love/hate relationship with djent in the past. Guitarist Jake Bowen broke it down in a 2015 interview with Metal Hammer, commenting, “The whole djent thing… I would have embraced it a lot more had there been a bigger diversity in the music, but the problem with that whole thing was it was born on the internet. It really started with Meshuggah, and they had no idea that they were starting anything, they were doing what they do, and they’re an incredible band, and no one can touch them, or come close to sounding like them. But the actual bulk of the scene started on the internet."
He continued, “What I’ve noticed is that these bands that try to be ‘djent’ only take one or two flavors from the sound, and don’t get the fact that it’s way more dense than that. So you’ll only hear two types of things happening in a lot of mediocre djent bands’ music, and it’s not engaging enough and it sounds like everything else. I think that’s the mistake that these djent bands are making; they’re taking the groove aspect and the low-tuned riffing aspect, then putting some sort of clean guitar passage over it, then they write ten songs like that and call it an album. There’s a lot more to it than that.”
While Periphery have drawn comparisons to djent, they've also evolved their sound over time. “That’s where our vocalist comes in, that’s where the sense of melody comes in – and we’re trying to deviate from our habits melodically too,” Bowen said at the time. “That’s another big thing; I think a lot of people… even me, actually, to use an example from recording Juggernaut. I was writing a lot of stuff in a certain tonality, and Mark [Holcomb] and Misha [Mansoor] said, ‘Jake, you should write some darker stuff. All the stuff you write is really melodic and pretty.’ They wanted to hear what my interpretation of darker stuff would sound like, and I did that, and they really liked it. So we have each other to help us not fall into the same pitfalls that other bands might, where they’re not even aware that they’re doing the same thing over and over again.”
As for what Periphery are hoping to express with the new album title, it most certainly will be a topic of discussion as promotion for the new record continues and as press materials are released. But, for now, Periphery fans can just rejoice that new music is en route, so mark your calendars for this Thursday (Jan. 12) and prepare for what's to come.
And be sure to look for Periphery's Periphery V: Djent Is Not a Genre, on track for a March 10 release through 3Dot Recordings.
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periphery, periphery v: djent is not a genre
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