Rockhal, Esch sur Alzette, Luxembourg29th January 2024
Periphery - “The Wildfire European Tour” 2024
On Monday, the time had finally come: PERIPHERY, the Prog Metal sensation, made a triumphant return to the Rockhal after their last performance in 2017. The anticipation was palpable and the Rockhal was pretty packed, even though the week had only just begun.
PERIPHERY is an American Progressive Metal band formed in Washington, D.C., in 2005. Their musical style has been described as Progressive Metal, Djent, and Progressive Metalcore. They are considered one of the pioneers of the Djent movement within Progressive Metal. They have also received a Grammy nomination. The band consists of vocalist Spencer Sotelo, guitarists Misha Mansoor, Mark Holcomb, Jake Bowen, and drummer Matt Halpern. Since their self-titled debut, the band has released an additional six albums: ‘Periphery II: This Time It’s Personal’, the double album ‘Juggernaut: Alpha and Omega’, ‘Periphery III: Select Difficulty’, ‘Periphery IV: Hail Stan’ and ‘Periphery V: Djent Is Not a Genre’. They have also released two EPs: ‘Icarus EP’ and ‘Clear’. All PERIPHERY material is self-produced by the members of the band.
Music & Performance
PERIPHERY don’t make the audience wait any longer than necessary, the lights go down at 9.15 pm and after a short intro the three heaviest songs of the new album are played one after the other: ‘Dracul Gras’, ‘Wildfire’ and ‘Atropos’. Frontman Spencer Sotelo announces right at the beginning that he has brought a somewhat rougher selection with him. And he doesn’t promise too little: ‘Make Total Destroy’ and ‘Letter Experiment’ are included. This demands a lot from the band in terms of playing, but their performance is flawless and they even manage the technically difficult parts - so even progressive fans should be satisfied. An acoustic version of ‘Scarlet’ gave some members of the band and the audience a short breather in the middle of the evening, followed by the two extremely anthemic singles ‘The Way The News Goes’ and ‘Marigold’ from the ‘Periphery III’ album.
For the first time they also dared to tackle ‘Satellites’ from the previous album, a particularly vocally demanding song - and yes, Sotelo goes to the limits of what is singable, but also hits the highest passages. Another highlight during the song was the fans creating the right atmosphere with their mobile phone lights. A huge cheer rightly erupts when the band starts the last song of the evening: ‘Blood Eagle’. After about 75 minutes the Americans say goodbye. A short guest appearance, one or two songs as an encore would have been nice, but a PERIPHERY concert is always worth it.
Setlist
01. Dracul Gras
02. Wildfire
03. Atropos
04. The Scourge
05. Make Total Destroy
06. Letter Experiment
07. Scarlet (Acoustic)
08. The Way the News Goes...
09. Marigold
10. Satellites
11. Blood Eagle
Rating
Music: 8
Performance: 9
Sound: 9
Light: 8
Total: 8.5 / 10
All Pictures by Elena Arens
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