Periphery guitarist Misha Mansoor says his love of concept albums by Dream Theater and Devin Townsend helped inspire his band’s Juggernaut: Alpha and Juggernaut: Omega twin releases.
Launched last week via Century Media, the project follows 2012’s Periphery II: This Time It’s Personal and 2014’s Clear EP.
Mansoor – who received the Dimebag Darrell Shredder Award at the 2014 Metal Hammer Golden Gods – tells Ultimate Guitar: “Some of my favorite albums are concept records. Like Dream Theater’s Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes From A Memory, for example. That’s just such an awesome record. It’s one of my favorite albums ever and I love the use of themes. And a lot of the stuff Devin Townsend does also has a lot of really cool use of themes.
“It’s a way to look at an album differently in my opinion. It’s a way to look at it rather than a collection of really cool songs, now it’s one entity and the songs representing that entity and working within that.”
He believes Periphery found a chance to reinvent their creative process through the Juggernaut concept. “It gave us a chance to be more theatrical and adventurous,” he says. “I think it was a way to shake up our process, which I didn’t want to become routine.
“I wanted something different and everyone else in the band wanted something different – this was a good way to do it.”
And Mansoor reveals the inspiration has been circulating for years: “We knew after _Periphery II _we wanted to do a concept album. We didn’t even know what the concept was initially, but we all started writing darker, more epic, and I’d say just more cinematic and theatrical kind of music.
“Lucky for us, everyone ended up on the same page and that’s what everyone ended up writing.”
Periphery play three UK dates in March with Townsend before a London headline show in April:
Mar 29: Bristol O2 Academy (with Devin Townsend)
Mar 30: Glasgow O2 ABC (with Devin Townsend)
Mar 31: Manchester Academy (with Devin Townsend)
Apr 01: London O2 Academy Islington (headline show)
