“It’s one of the first songs that we demoed and wrote. It goes through all of these movements, recurring themes and motifs, and it takes you on a journey. The reason why we thought it would be cool to put out was that it showed a bit of what the album has to offer. It’s very different from anything else on the record, and it’s also very different for us in general. Misha: “This is the song that we put out first, and I think it threw people for a loop. (Image credit: Alex Wohleber) The Scourge I’m excited to be jamming it, for sure.” Prev of 14 Next Prev of 14 Next I think we’re going to use it as an interlude between songs in our set. It’s supposed to represent a vibe, a feel, a theme for the record rather than being considered a full-on song. It’s short and simple in its repetitive nature. “It’s like a palette cleanser, if you will. Personally, I wish that we could have developed it further maybe there’s some themes in it that we’ll explore in the future. Matt: “The other guys would have different perspectives on this song. A lot of collaboration went into recording it.” The Event I don’t think it’s a contender for radio play, because it’s long and it does have the proggy stuff. “It’s very melodic and catchy, because everyone in the band loves catchy parts. Then it goes into 'adventureland' with a lot of cool guitar work. Most of Heavy heart is actually very proggy – the intro and verses are in this odd-time, and then it’s straight-ahead in the chorus. We don’t really think about our music in those terms, though. Misha: “This song came together and sounded pretty accessible. (Image credit: Alex Wohleber) Heavy Heart On the following pages, Misha Mansoor and Matt Halpern go through both albums track-by-track. Digital copies can be pre-ordered via iTunes for Juggernaut: Alpha and Juggernaut: Omega. You can pre-order physical copies at Summerian Records. Periphery's Juggernaut: Alpha and Juggernaut: Omega will be released on January 27. I don't think anybody's gonna feel shortchanged in that department." For something as epic as Juggernaut, I tried not to overcrowd the songs with so many notes.” He pauses, then adds with a laugh, "But there's still a lot of intense playing on the records. I’ve been challenging myself with creating a whole world of sound. "For us, writing riffy, notey stuff comes easily – it’s not very hard. “If I pushed myself in any way, it was toward restraint," says Mansoor.
If there were parts that required technical challenges, so be it, but that wasn’t the goal." Story, songs, overall feel – those were the big concerns. "On these albums, we went in the opposite direction. “In the past, we probably tried to push the boundaries of musicianship and were really into the super-technical side of things," Halpern observes. Both Halpern and Mansoor stress that technical flash took a back seat to textures and moods on the Juggernaut albums. People contributed a lot of ideas, not just those specific to their own instruments and parts."Īlthough Periphery is still a young band, its members have already been hailed for their highly evolved instrumental skills. "It was only now that we had a lineup that could work like that. "This time, we really worked as a band, which is what we’ve wanted all along," he says. Mansoor describes the writing and recording of the Juggernaut albums as "a hugely collaborative process," as opposed to the group's first two releases on which he did most of the writing, arranging and producing. And there were a lot of surprises, too songs you didn't think would make the cut became some of our favorites." It became apparent that we were going to have a long piece of work, and at a certain point the best songs started to rise up and make themselves known. There were so many demos floating around. Says lead guitarist Misha Mansoor, "We actually cut things down. Surprisingly, there could have been more.
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Spacing things out will hopefully give everybody the full picture.” We want our fans to really experience the songs fully, and if we gave them too much on one record, it could become a blur. Releasing them as two albums made sense to us from a music-digestive standpoint. "There’s a story that spans both albums, so they are connected in that way. “We’ve always had grand plans and ideas, but I think we outdid ourselves this time around," says drummer Matt Haplern. None of the members of the six-man, DC-based progressive-metal band Periphery knew where they were headed when they went into the studio to record their third album - or make that third and fourth albums, as the fruit of their labors, 17 songs in all, will be released as two separate discs titled Juggernaut: Alpha and Juggernaut: Omega. Misha Mansoor and Matt Halpern on Periphery's bold new concept albums