ALTHOUGH MESHUGGAH ARE the first name people think of when they hear the term ‘djent’, the genre would not have proliferated the way it did without Misha Mansoor. The Periphery guitarist describes his younger self as “just an idiot making music in his bedroom”, but his riffs gaining notice through the growing landscape of MySpace helped establish his band as leaders for anew school of progressive metal brilliance.
Misha has maintained his status as one of metal’s most ingenious guitarists ever since, Periphery flourishing beyond their initial Meshuggah worship into a distinct brand of tongue-in-cheek intensity. With the band’s 20th anniversary looming, Hammer caught up with Misha to find out what makes him tick, and what words of wisdom have helped him along the way.
GROWING UP SOMEWHERE DOESN’T MAKE IT HOME
“I grew up in Washington DC but, when I was eight, we moved to Belgium for three years. It was
