TVD Live Shots: Periphery, Nothing More, and Wovenwar at the Fillmore, 1/26

Sometimes you just need to get out on a Monday night and go see some good metal. I had a choice between Periphery or Sleeping With Sirens. I choose Periphery mostly because I hate emo metal, but even more because Wovenwar and Nothing More were rounding out the bill that night at the legendary Fillmore. This show was perfectly primed to be a shredfest and that’s exactly what it was.

It was the eve of the release of two new albums from Periphery—Juggernaut: Alpha and Juggernaut: Omega. Two epic metal records that go from blistering technical metal, to free-flowing jazz, to soaring harmonies—all intertwined effortlessly with insanely heavy riffs. In an era when record sales are at an all-time low, who in the hell releases a double album? These guys do and they deliver big time.

Hailing from Maryland, Periphery is rapidly expanding its audience and, as founder and guitarist Misha Mansoor recently told Rolling Stone with a laugh, “Lately, we’ve even seen some females there who aren’t completely miserable.” I love that these guys have a sense of humor.

The recent feature in Rolling Stone went on to describe the new records, “The group’s most ambitious project yet, it features some of the band’s most accessible music; there’s plenty of the heavily syncopated Meshuggah-worshipping tech metal with which Periphery first made their name, but there’s also pulsing electronica, emo-inflected hard rock, spacey jazz-fusion and hooky acoustic pop—sometimes in the same song.” Yes, you read that correctly, Rolling f’n Stone magazine giving props to a metal band.

Somehow they seemed to squeeze in something truly “new and noteworthy” in between Katy Perry on the red carpet and a political rant. (I’m a subscriber and love to see them feature metal bands which they should be doing much more of in my opinion.)

Also on the bill that night were San Antonio native prog rockers Nothing More and ex-As I Lay Dying members showcasing their new project Wovenwar. Nothing More released one of my favorite metal records of 2014 and Wovenwar have released one of my favorites of 2015.

Both have their unique space in the metal world as Nothing More takes a more technical approach with their intricate rhythms and soaring melodies while Wovenwar go straight for the jugular with more of an old school metal sound, somewhere between a freight train ripping off your head and a fist pumping sing-along. Somehow both bands produce something remarkably catchy and worth your time.