Album Review: Periphery - Periphery II
Periphery are back and this time it’s personal….Yes the Sumerian Records signees Periphery titled their new album Periphery II: This Time It’s Personal, and rightly so, they bring back their progressive metal skills to this new full length produced by both Misha Mansoor & Adam ‘Nolly’ Getgood with Taylor Larson at Oceanic Recording, the sophomore release has a lot to live up to from their debut album, it surely delivers on all fronts.
Periphery have proven many people wrong with this album, it’s always hard to beat your last album, but in almost every way Periphery succeeds and topples over their first album, this album pushes everything that Periphery has and does it well.
Periphery II is 1st of 2 album being released by the band, II comes with 14 tracks, majority of them over 4 minutes long, which isn’t a bad thing, but with constant repeating of the album, it can get tedious to listen to these songs over and over again.
The band has also grown and mature with their instruments and become much more skilled, Spencer’s vocals have improved so greatly and he’s tried brand new things in the this album such as his demonic growls/screams in Froggin’ Bullfish or his clean vocals in Erised sound incredibly better and smoother.
Misha & Jake’s guitar prowess have really been pushed and with the addition of 3rd guitarist Mark Holcomb also adds more beef to some of the album’s hard hitting solo’s and combined synchronized guitar playing, Jake also adds his electronic experience and creates some of the most unique parts on the album, Matt Halpern’s drum style is some of his best material, he also adds some drum solos during some of the complex guitar solo’s on the album, which can be easily overlooked if not paying close enough attention.
Periphery II also offers guest appearances in this record, but no vocal appearances more in the form of amazing structured guitar solo’s from Guthrie Govan of The Aristocrats, Wes Hauch of The Faceless and John Petrucci of Dream Theater, which blew my mind to hear, very well done.
This album is more of a collaboration than previous release which was mostly written by Misha, this time around being recorded by the full band with much more preparation going into this album, all worth it in the end, it’s a long album but it’ll give you more bang for your buck, catchy tunes, heavy as fuck songs and those soft songs where you can just chill out and relax. Periphery has created something memorable for their genre and will continue to release amazing material until the day they die.
Tagged: #Periphery #Periphery II #Album Review #Sumerian Records #Roadrunner Records
1:50:09 @ 7/5/2012
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