Review by Saxy S for Periphery - Periphery V: Djent Is Not a Genre (2023)

This Is Not an Album Review

We are now five albums into Periphery's career and this band is finally starting to figure out how to write strong pieces of progressive metal. This band used to be all about the technical wankery and it routinely found itself getting in its own way. Periphery V: Djent Is Not a Genre is the first record that seems to understand that the technical songwriting compliments the melodies, not overpower them.

I was genuinely impressed by the first promotional single "Wildfire" as well as "Dying Star" by how complete they felt. It is progressive metal of course, so you can expect plenty of technical prowess, and plenty of down tuned guitars for some chunky breakdown grooves. But you'll be surprised by just how much detail has been put into Spencer's vocal mixing.

Djent might be the name of the album, but that might be only scratching the surface. Whether it be the jazz interlude on "Wildfire", the plunderphonics of "Everything Is Fine", the ambient interlude of "Dying Star" or the full on late era Linkin Park song "Silhouette". The last of those tracks deserving special mention because it comes at an opportune time on the record as a much needed breather following four fairly aggressive tracks, before the album calms down considerably until the end.

This record has a lot of things going on throughout a runtime that exceeds an hour, and I must admit, it does get a little bit overwhelming at times. Perhaps in that regard, this record has the exact opposite problem of Morgan Wallen's One Thing at a Time. But Djent Is Not a Genre is far from boring. I think the overall progressive/djent sound of the record is consistent enough that I don't think people will be as quick to dismiss this as "just another Periphery album". This is a fine place for progressive djent to go and the most enjoyment I've had with a Periphery album since Juggernaut.

Best Songs: Wildfire, Wax Wings, Dying Star, Thanks Nobuo