With the Annandale Hotel sold out ahead of the big night, there was more than a little anticipation for this most ‘djenty’ of gigs. Headlined by two of the current forerunners of this new style people are calling ‘djent’, USA’s Periphery and the UK’s TesseracT (no, that’s not a typo) are both hot ticket items amongst the technical/progressive metal crowds. You can tell just by looking at the crowd streaming in through the doors that there’s something different going on.

For the uninitiated, djent (you pronounce it like you would the word gent, as in gentleman) combines the chugging down tuned riffage and technicality of Sweden’s Meshuggah with other elements like atmospheric interludes, clean vocals and other ingredients to create something entirely new. A slew of great new bands have popped up around the genre/scene since its inception and tonight’s show will showcase two of the best.

Sydney’s own As Silence Breaks opens up proceedings tonight, although sadly (or happily, depending on how you look at it) their style is a little more straight forward modern metal than the two bands following them. They play an admirable set of tunes to a decent response, although they’re not as tight as some of their riffs demand. Strong performances by both the singer and bassist prove an enjoyable watch.
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