Album Review: Juggernaut: Alpha by Periphery

Many didn't imagine djent to be more than a passing fad in the world of progressive metal beyond its recent growth in popularity. A term coined by Swedish palm-muting progenitors Meshuggah for the distinctive electric guitar sound that bands of the style employ, a new era of acts brought the technique to wider prominence in the late 2000s. Recognized as one of the first groups from this new school to move from bedroom recording to releasing records commercially, Periphery have always been a step ahead of their competition in writing, recording and self-producing their music.

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Review Summary: A melodic refocus results in Periphery's best album to date.Let me be blunt: I like Juggernaut: Alpha. I like it for probably many of the reasons fans of the group's first forays seem to dislike it: for emphasizing musical structure and painting with a wider swath of colors than the monochromatic schemes we were fed on their eponymous debut.While Periphery (the one that wasn't personal) focused on experimenting with rhythm, it mostly neglected to shade that rhythm with any particular color. Don't get me wrong - forgoing melody to achieve dissonance or pounding rawness can be an effective technique, but we invented color television for a reason, and Periphery never quite had the cinematic effect of a Schindler's List.

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