Wolfgang Van Halen Says He’d Love to Tour With Periphery

The Mammoth WVH frontman cited a shared sense of melody as the reason the pairing would work.

Wolfgang Van Halen, frontman of Mammoth WVH and son of Van Halen legend Eddie Van Halen, named Periphery as the band he most wants to tour with during an interview with Rock Sound’s James Wilson-Taylor at Download Festival at Donington Park in Castle Donington, England. Speaking at last weekend’s event, the 35-year-old called Periphery’s new album his favorite record of the year so far and said the two acts share a sense of melody that would make the pairing work.

Wolfgang on Periphery: ‘I Would Love to Play With Them’

Asked to name a band he hasn’t toured with that he’d like to share the stage with one day, Wolfgang Van Halen didn’t hesitate. “Oh, PERIPHERY. I love PERIPHERY. Their new album is my favorite album of the year so far. I know we’re a bit different, but I think we both share a sense of melody. So, I would love to play with them. Yeah, it’d be fun.”

The comment came during a sit-down with Rock Sound at Download Festival, one of the UK’s premier hard rock and metal events. Periphery, the Washington D.C.-based progressive metal outfit, occupies a lane adjacent to but distinct from Mammoth WVH’s melodic hard rock sound, making the pairing an intriguing hypothetical. Wolfgang’s instinct to point to melody as the connective tissue is telling: Periphery has long been praised in progressive metal circles for balancing crushing polyrhythmic riffs with clean, hook-driven vocal passages.

A Consistent Appetite for Heavy Music

The Periphery shoutout fits a well-established pattern in Wolfgang’s public musical tastes. He has spoken at length and on multiple occasions about his deep affection for Meshuggah, the Swedish extreme metal band widely credited with pioneering the djent subgenre that Periphery itself grew out of.

In a January 2024 interview with Amoeba Music, Wolfgang addressed a widely circulated misquote, clarifying that saying Meshuggah “puts him to sleep” was a compliment. “I said I can fall asleep listening to MESHUGGAH, which is a compliment, because it relaxes me. It brings me peace. It brings me zen,” he explained. He also identified himself as “a drummer first” who intakes music rhythmically, describing Meshuggah as “rhythm” and likening the experience to “dinosaurs fighting.”

His affection for the band runs deep enough that Meshuggah appeared on the playlist at his October 2023 wedding to Andraia Allsop at their Los Angeles home. Wolfgang acknowledged the unconventional choice at the time: “They’re very progressive metal, I think to anybody, to the non-informed crowd though, it would probably just sound like death metal. Anyone over 40 will be terrified. But you know what? It’s my wedding and I’ll do whatever I want.”

Among Meshuggah’s catalog, Wolfgang singled out the 2002 album “Nothing” as probably his favorite, praising its “groovy and sludgy” qualities, and also highlighted the 2012 LP “Koloss” as “just another great album.”

A Heavy Side Project? Maybe Someday

Last October, Wolfgang was asked by Australia’s Everblack podcast whether he would consider launching a heavy side project. He left the door open while making clear his current focus remains Mammoth WVH. “I feel like I haven’t proven myself enough as my own sort of musician yet. So I think that’s why I’m still sort of drilling with MAMMOTH and just enjoying that. But I could definitely see myself down the line being, like, ‘Hey, let’s take a break and do something crazy.'”

He also revealed that on tour, he and live guitarist Jonathan Jourdan have been making “MESHUGGAH-y demos just for fun,” working on what he described as “djenty rhythms where we were counting numbers out.” The demos were characterized as informal time-fillers rather than a formal project, but they underscore how naturally that heavier sonic territory comes to him.

What we know

• Wolfgang Van Halen named Periphery as the band he would most like to tour with during an interview at Download Festival at Donington Park.
• Wolfgang called Periphery’s new album his favorite album of the year so far.
• The interview was conducted by Rock Sound’s James Wilson-Taylor at last weekend’s Download Festival.
• Wolfgang Van Halen is 35 years old and is the son of Van Halen legend Eddie Van Halen.
• Wolfgang married Andraia Allsop in October 2023 at their home in Los Angeles, and the wedding playlist included Meshuggah.
• Wolfgang identified Meshuggah’s 2002 album ‘Nothing’ as probably his favorite Meshuggah record.
• Wolfgang and live guitarist Jonathan Jourdan have been making Meshuggah-influenced demos on tour for fun.

The take

Wolfgang Van Halen has spent much of Mammoth WVH’s existence working to establish an identity separate from his father’s towering legacy, and his musical references are a consistent part of that effort. Pointing to Periphery rather than a classic rock touchstone is a deliberate signal about where he sees himself in the current heavy music landscape. Periphery occupies a respected but commercially niche corner of progressive metal, and endorsing them at a festival as high-profile as Download carries real weight among the genre’s fanbase. The djent and progressive metal world has historically been receptive to crossover moments: acts like Animals as Leaders and Tesseract have shared stages with more mainstream hard rock bills without losing credibility. A Mammoth WVH and Periphery co-headline or support run would follow that same logic, potentially exposing each band to the other’s audience. Wolfgang’s repeated, unprompted references to Meshuggah across multiple interviews and contexts also suggest these aren’t casual name-drops for credibility. His description of himself as a drummer first who processes music rhythmically aligns naturally with the polyrhythmic complexity that defines both Meshuggah and Periphery. Whether a tour materializes or not, the affinity is clearly genuine.

Why it matters

For Mammoth WVH, aligning publicly with a band like Periphery helps define the act’s identity within the broader heavy music spectrum rather than solely within the Van Halen legacy. For Classic Rock and hard rock fans tracking where the next generation of the genre is heading, Wolfgang’s tastes point toward a more technically demanding, progressive direction. A potential Mammoth WVH and Periphery pairing would bridge the melodic hard rock audience and the progressive metal community, two camps that rarely share a bill despite significant overlap in their listener bases.

What’s next

Wolfgang Van Halen made the comments at Download Festival, which took place last weekend at Donington Park. No formal tour announcement involving Periphery has been made. Wolfgang has indicated his focus remains on Mammoth WVH, with no timeline given for any side projects or collaborative ventures.

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