The band that are often considered one of the frontrunners of the ‘Djent’ movement finally made their way back to The Netherlands for a total of two shows. Surrounding the release of their new album ‘PERIPHERY IV: HAIL STAN’, Periphery performed in Nijmegen’s Doornroosje, as well as Amsterdam’s well-known venue Melkweg and we were present at the band’s glorious show taking place in the centre of Amsterdam!
The band’s new album has, what could be considered the bare minimum tracklist for an album with only nine songs, but if you think this album is only ‘just’ over the 25-minute mark, think again. The album, as well as the band’s live show, kicks off with the diverse and impressive track ‘Reptile’, which was a total length of 17 minutes.
This track, as well as the others from the setlist this evening, transformed exceptionally well in a live capacity, even though the length and the challenges that this fact brings. The band don’t sway away from difficult guitar solo’s or high ranged vocals live and truth be told, it looks like they manage these challenges what seems like effortless. Periphery’s entire performance continued down this path. Not much time was spent on the crowd in between of songs, and crowd participation wise, the band did the bare minimum but this is not what Periphery are about. Their technical and progressive metal speaks for itself and their set could be best described as a celebration of high-end metal music played with exceptional skill by sublime musicians.
The band’s setlist was very ‘PERIPHERY IV: HAIL STAN’ centric, with a total of five songs from the new album being played. This is more than half the songs on the album! Besides the promotion for the new album, some songs from the band’s discography could simply not be left out. Hits from previous efforts, such as ‘Scarlet’ and ‘Marigold’ were received under loud applause and adrenaline kicks. The energy was high throughout the set, but it was a tad less during the new songs. Chances are some of the attendees had not yet memorized the new album as they have the old albums. Perhaps they will next time Periphery comes to The Netherlands. We are just hoping they come back earlier than several years from now, as they have last time the band played the country!
Check out the photos from the performance by Eva van Kuik below and let us know if you have seen Periphery live before!
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