Why has Periphery had more commercial success than Monuments/Tesseract/Etc?

[Taylord]

It seems like they have way more gear endorsements and headlining tours. Do you think living in the US makes an impact, having more social media/forum presence, just the fact that they were the first to officially release an album? Just a thought I had...

 

[wankerness]

Their music has much catchier choruses.

 

[Necky379]

The kids like them

 

[Albake21]

I was just thinking about this the other day. The thing with Periphery is just how much of a power house they were and still are. Every member brings something that is so unique to the band that no other band in the genre has done. Misha obviously pioneered a lot with the genre in general and all of his bulb demos which blew up at the time. Jake brought not only his really well guitar playing, but he's the one responsible for all of the ambient/electronic music and transitions you hear on their records. Then you have Mark which.... well I don't think I need to explain Mark. The dude is unreal and brought a very specific writing style that no one was doing at the time. His riffs can be pointed out very easily. Then you have Nolly (obviously not in the band anymore, but still does their mixing/mastering and records bass) but he's an absolute tone genius. That dude has so much knowledge on modern metal tone, it's insane. Add in Matt's very unique drumming and play style which is attractive to both drummers and guitar players. Then you have Spencer's very unique, yet hit or miss for many, vocals and you get basically a super band that no other band in the genre can compete with. I'm not saying Periphery is the best sounding band in the genre, but damn if that's not a powerhouse of a team, then I don't know what it.

Oh and I'll throw in Jeff Holcomb for making amazing video content of the band throughout the years.

 

[nickgray]

Periphery's music leans more towards the more "traditional" prog metal. Could be in part due to that. Their music has a decent amount of variety in it as well, they don't overdo that stereotypical djent sound. I would also add that Periphery has some seriously good riffs and melodies, and just plain good songwriting in general. I don't even view them as a djent band, they're a prog metal band to me, and are closer to bands like Dream Theater and Pain of Salvation than to Tesseract or Vildhjarta or whatever.

 

[slan]

Similar to what Albake21 said, I think they did (and continue to do) a great job of creating a strong brand from the get-go, both as a band as a whole and as individuals. Not only are they monster musicians, but they're extremely business savvy, and they have been since their early days.

 

[KnightBrolaire]

Vildjharta hasn't put out a record in 5 years and they were blatant meshuggah clones.

After The Burial was at the forefront of the djent scene but losing Justin completely derailed them.

Tesseract basically lost all momentum after their first album imo and their subsequent ones really didn't diversify their sound at all. Still, if endorsements are the metric we're using then they did well.

Monuments did blow up and both Olly/ John had/have a bunch of endorsements. So by that metric they've succeeded as well.

Periphery was both in the right place at the right time, and they consistently delivered musically diverse kickass songs. And I say that as a very fairweather fan of their music.

 

[InfinityCollision]

Marketing/social media presence, got in early and built a solid base to expand on.

I don't listen to Periphery, but I could instantly name at least three people associated with the band. I have no idea who's in Tesseract or Monuments.

 

[Wucan]

Similar to what Albake21 said, I think they did (and continue to do) a great job of creating a strong brand from the get-go, both as a band as a whole and as individuals. Not only are they monster musicians, but they're extremely business savvy, and they have been since their early days.

Yep. Misha's face is everywhere and most of the others have prominent products attached to them (like Mark's PRS or Nolly's amp sims). They're hard to miss if you have even the slightest inclination towards metal, whether as a fan or musician.

 

[mastapimp]

I wouldn't say I'm a big periphery fan and listen to djent in small doses, but I've never even heard anything from those other bands you mentioned.

 

[HeHasTheJazzHands]

Similar to what Albake21 said, I think they did (and continue to do) a great job of creating a strong brand from the get-go, both as a band as a whole and as individuals. Not only are they monster musicians, but they're extremely business savvy, and they have been since their early days.

Misha's dad is apparently a business type, so I'm not surprised to see that rubbed off on him.

But yeah, the band did everything right. Didn't come off as a ripoff of any band, and spearheaded a movement. Kept that momentum going. Kept a strong online presence. And as someone said before; each member brought in their own style to make their music sound pretty expansive. They even released an EP to show this.

 

[iamaom]

I'm not exactly sure why, but I've also notice A LOT more women and minorities at their concerts compared to other metal bands, which increases media reach and marketability exponentially.

I'd also like to add that Periphery has a strong connection with AAL, if you like one you've 100% heard of the other. They tour a lot together, helping pool any fans that don't like both into a single concert which boosts ticket and merch sales.

 

[coreysMonster]

Vildjharta hasn't put out a record in 5 years and they were blatant meshuggah clones.

I think you're thinking of Uneven Structure, their first EP was a straight Meshuggah clone. Vildhjarta has a completely different sound from Meshuggah (among "djent" bands, I mean).

 

[SamSam]

Better songwriting makes them an easier product to sell.

 

[soul_lip_mike]

Then you have Mark which.... well I don't think I need to explain Mark. The dude is unreal and brought a very specific writing style that no one was doing at the time.

Yep, Mark riff is always the sliding and dissonant open strings a semitone off from the note you slid to. It's pretty cool how you can identify which riff is a Mark riff in any Peripheral song.

 

[KnightBrolaire]

I think you're thinking of Uneven Structure, their first EP was a straight Meshuggah clone. Vildhjarta has a completely different sound from Meshuggah (among "djent" bands, I mean).

No I was definitely thinking of Vildhjarta. Their early stuff was blatantly Meshuggah esque, moreso than anyone else in the djent scene at that time.

 

[Masoo2]

Periphery's music leans more towards the more "traditional" prog metal. Could be in part due to that. Their music has a decent amount of variety in it as well, they don't overdo that stereotypical djent sound. I would also add that Periphery has some seriously good riffs and melodies, and just plain good songwriting in general. I don't even view them as a djent band, they're a prog metal band to me, and are closer to bands like Dream Theater and Pain of Salvation than to Tesseract or Vildhjarta or whatever.

I think I'd actually disagree with this. Part of what attracted me to Periphery in the first place was how accessible their earlier sound (P1 going right into P2) was to someone coming from a metalcore and heavy metal background. It was fairly straight forward, heavy, had great production, had really interesting riffs, but most importantly sounded "fresh" to someone who wasn't incredibly deep in the metal genre at the time. Conversely, I also tried listening to a lot of the prog standards at the time (notably Dream Theater) and couldn't stand them at all, their sound was just too dated and "forced" for my tastes.

TesseracT, Monuments, Vildhjarta, Uneven Structure, etc who all came up around the same time did not share the same metalcore/simpler elements found in Periphery's music, and as such were less accessible to a wider audience imo. Of course, to someone like myself, stumbling upon videos of Concealing Fate Pt.1 in the studio, Doxa full band playthrough, or "VILDHjARTA - Thall 1" completely blew me away, but that's because I was in the exploratory phase where my tastes were actively changing.

Echoing the business-minded and member comments, you see Periphery dudes EVERYWHERE with their different business ventures and YouTube happenings. Even back before Juggernaut when they started to really get big, new stuff was coming out from them weekly in the form of videos, guest columns, NGDs on forums like this, etc.

Every member brought their own unique sound. For example, Jake's electronic/clean interludes and Mark's general awesomeness is what made me stay interested in Periphery with the release of P2 and Clear, alongside diving deep into their side projects (Haunted Shores and Isometric <3). With Monuments, TesseracT, Vildhjarta, US, etc you don't really find that to be the case until very recently with Olly's ventures. That being said, the past few years have proven really well for these bands, they've pushed far larger numbers than they ever did before. TesseracT especially has a very wide audience, and Uneven Structure with Aure's production is just fantastic stuff.

edit: also tbh I never saw any of these bands as Meshuggah clones, even after getting acquainted with Meshuggah and becoming a pretty big band. They all did stuff differently with their own spin on the same core sound. Periphery added core elements and vocal hooks, Uneven Structure doubled down on the ambient elements, TesseracT went ambient/groovy, Vildhjarta spawned the whole thall movement which has been taken up by a few bands since, while Monuments sort of combined vocal hooks of Periphery with the same Milton Cleans and groovy Browne/Acle developed in Fellsilent.

 

[coreysMonster]

No I was definitely thinking of Vildhjarta. Their early stuff was blatantly Meshuggah esque, moreso than anyone else in the djent scene at that time.

Ah that's fair, I only really know their post-Masstaden stuff, but yeah with Uneven Structure I also thought "man this is a blatant Meshuggah ripoff" when I heard their very first "8" EP. Guess most bands started out blatantly ripping off until they found their own sound.
Misha's stuff sounded very unique at a time when a lot of the other guys were still figuring it out.

 

[Lorcan Ward]

Better songwriting and adapting so well to the modern music world. The first album carved them a niche in the music scene but it was the second album where they exploded and developed a big audience which they’ve kept. IMO the majority of Djent/prog really lacks in songwriting, more so than almost any other metal sub genre which doesn’t pull audiences back to check out newer albums. With 3 songwriters pooling their ideas together with the intent of writing vocal driven songs rather than solely guitar driven compositions it’s no wonder Periphery are way ahead of all their peers.

it doesn’t help that the genre became oversaturated quickly with so many Periphery clones and went from being a fresh sound to a fatigued and repetitive one quickly. That happens with every genre but because of the internet it was accelerated.

 

[budda]

Getting started on SSO.