PERIPHERY

Another summer, another slew of articles in the metal community decrying the paucity of juggernaut headline acts. “We need a new Metallica,” we’re told. Corporate bludgeoneers Avenged Sevenfold and Five Finger

Death Punch are the great white hopes, of course, but may Prog opine that the answer to the problem could yet come from left of field?

Like thrash before it, djent has now outgrown its subculture, awaiting the first of its originators to take it to the biggest stages. Periphery, with linchpin guitarist Misha Mansoor, are the closest thing the scene has to a band ready for a major step up, and they’ve always been a class apart – able to tweak the formula they helped create into something accessible, without undermining the polyrhythmic purists.

There’s something in the air here, beyond the errant plastic cups.

Tonight’s gig is announced early on as the “biggest headline show we’ve played in the history of Periphery”, and the fans respond, from balcony to bar, with a roar of approval.

Anticipation resolved, there’s a no-nonsense confidence from the band’s opening salvo A Black Minute. The mix is surprisingly spacious for a group who have essentially built their reputation on speaker-blowing low-end, and the likes of Stranger

Things and The Way The news Goes… sound at once monstrous and dextrous. Accomplished tech metal types so often seem canned, but these songs are made of flesh and bone.

onstage, strobe lighting freezes scenes of dynamism, as hair flails, cables whip and guitars cut paths through the grey, all momentarily captured in comic book frames. Frontman Spencer Sotelo is in his element, and embraces every opportunity to make use of the full-throated crowd.

Arms outstretched, Sotelo gives it the full messiah complex, channelling Manchester’s own swaggering icons. For his part, Mansoor is a more subdued, calculated presence, keeping the flair on the fretboard, yet sparing only the occasional look at what he’s doing.

Mansoor can stake a significant claim as the most influential player in this region of progressive metal – he wrote a large chunk of the rule book and he plays like it, too.

Tellingly, the newest material receives a warm welcome, and as the set gathers momentum, Sotelo’s elation becomes infectious. “This is one of the greatest nights of my life,” he states. “Thank you for being a part of it.”

Appropriately, it’s 2016’s Lune that closes proceedings. “Do you feel the love?” pleads Sotelo in the song’s closing sections.

“Yes, we feel the love!” comes the unprompted reply.

it’s clear that both parties mean it.