Periphery – Periphery
There are words, surely, that I can use to describe the dichotomy that Periphery present to their listeners with their new self-titled album. Words like “confusing” and “unsettling” and “conflicting” and “contrasting.” Instead, I’m going to use “awesome.” Yeah, awesome just about covers it.
The first song explodes on you with its mellowness and emoish singing and slightly off-time Animals as Leaders and/or Between the Buried and Me type riffing. Choruses, powerchord pads, and wussy singing! While most metal fans would be about to utter “Meh” and switch to the next great thing, I stuck with it. The second song has none of that. It’s instead an ode to the great stutter-riffers Meshuggah and how cool those oddly-scaled solos can be.
And then you get more of the aforementioned emo-y Meshuggah. It’s a solid line dividing the distinct sounds Periphery brings to the table. On one side, you’ve got the melodic singing and fills very reminiscent of the more melodic side of Underoath, and on the other side you’ve got an extremely competent technical mathy downtuned metal. It’s very unique.
The best part about this is you’re never, ever bored. There’s almost always something new, something cool waiting for you around the aural corner; that’s just in one song, by the way. Variety is the spice of life and Periphery provide in spades. There’s also a touch of humor. The last minute or so of “Icarus Lives!” should give you a good guffaw.
Periphery does eschew to the lighter side of things a bit too much, the bulk of songs akin to a vocalized subset of Animals as Leaders ditties. It works and it’s great, but I’d love to hear them do a few more songs like “The Walk,” which is the most Meshuggah-like song of the bunch. It’s also the catchiest of the bunch and I’m currently listening to it for the umpteenth time.
Simply put, if you’re in a withdrawal from melodic Meshuggah type music, this is the album for you. It’s fresh, never boring, and will last long after you’ve spun it the first time. It’s unique in a time when “unique” is a premium. Pick it up and love it.
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14 Comments
April 18th, 2010 at 4:49 am
The Walk is the catchiest song on the album? Are you serious? The catchiest song is easily Icarus Lives! I love the Walk but it is far from catchy.
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Luke Amos replied:
August 14th, 2010 at 3:11 am
I thought The Walk was more catchy. But Icarus Lives is still darn good.
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April 18th, 2010 at 7:22 am
Cam, don’t you believe that saying which song is catchiest is really relative? Its like me saying Planet Caravan is the catchiest Pantera song ever (Which I DO NOT think this, Ha Ha!). To me it may be, but to someone else it may not. That's the cool thing about music, everyone can hear things differently. We both can agree on this though, this cd is freaking sweet!
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April 18th, 2010 at 8:45 pm
Have you the heard the original version of The Walk with Chris Baretto singing? It's about a trillion times better. Same goes for Icarus Lives – Casey Sabols version kicks its ass.
But the rest of the album is pretty damn amazing. Jetpacks Was Yes! and the Racecar… oh yeah.
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MrDcore replied:
March 14th, 2011 at 11:05 pm
I can't listen to Spencer's Icarus ever since I heard casey's.
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Gabriel Pio replied:
March 14th, 2011 at 11:38 pm
They're both good, Casey and Chris – but Spencer Sotelo really brings something unique to the band's sound. I think he was the best choice, ultimately. He's young, and has a lot to grow on. If you don't believe me, check out his contribution to Haunted Shores' track Passenger. His vocals will rock your world! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBUXvM_KfHc
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May 2nd, 2010 at 6:07 pm
you used Meshuggah a little too much
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August 14th, 2010 at 3:06 am
Anyone else think the spoken interlude at the end of "Icarus Lives" is the funniest thing ever? I laugh every time I hear it!
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February 5th, 2011 at 12:53 pm
Ragtime Dandies is the interlude by itself lol. Icarus Lives! is really overrated in my opinion it's not the best on the album in anyway (even though it's good). Racecar believe it or not actually bores me, and 15 minute epics usually dont do that. The best are
Letter Experiment (The better of the "lengthy style epics")
Jetpacks was Yes! (ESPECIALLY the new radio edit)
Light (the real catchiest)
All new materials (Beautiful and a little brutal)
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August 16th, 2011 at 5:03 pm
I know this is an old thread, but why do these guys have such a horrid vocalist. The music is so good!!! I can only listen to the instrumental version. Somebody get rid of that guy!!!
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Gabriel Pio replied:
August 16th, 2011 at 5:18 pm
Are you kidding me? Spencer Sotelo may not be as “good” as other vocalists, but he’s different. Of course instrumental Periphery is good but Spencer really brings their game up. Letter Experiment is my favorite example of Spencer’s awesome vocals. Not sure if you’ve checked out Haunted Shores’ song with him? Try it on and you’ll see just how “horrid” he is.
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Lee Rochester replied:
August 16th, 2011 at 5:43 pm
I completely agree Zach. Periphery would be much better with somebody who could actually bring it. This dude is way too whiny for me.
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Achantion replied:
October 23rd, 2011 at 2:16 pm
Even tough I like Spencer replacing him can only lead to real good things!
Just look at Corelia, Spencer leaves for periphery > Corelia finds awesome vocalist.
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October 25th, 2011 at 10:26 pm
As I expected, the vocalist debate is still going on. Can´t believe there are so many Spencer haters, and only because of his screams, as is screaming was all abput metal. True, the ones in the recording are not really good, but I think that he makes it up pretty well with his vocal range. Damn, he hits some friggin´high notes. Plus, from what I can see in Youtube, he only keeps getting better as he plays more shows, both at throwing out better screams and hitting the ultra.high notes clearer every time (those high ones in Jetpaxks are just mindblowing).
These guys have to be my favourite discovery of the year, together with Tesseract.
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