Thirteen years since the release of their debut self-titled album, Periphery have made a name for themselves as one of the leading forces in the progressive metal world. Utilising a vast array of influences and genres into their own sound to create something unique with each release.
With work starting on Periphery V starting back in 2020, this is the longest the band have taken in writing and recording an album. Partially due to the pandemic, but according to the band due to their own high expectations set due to their past material. With these higher stakes going into the release, will V reach the heights set by Periphery’s previous achievements?
Unlike their previous work in Hail Stan, Periphery decide to set off the album with a bang from the start with ‘Wildfire’ proggy-styled guitars chugging away. As Spencer Sotelo chimes in with his iconic vocals, it’s reminiscent of the works of the prior album to Hail Stan, Select Difficulty. Abrasive & chaotic guitars are the main vibe for the majority of the song. Brief lapses of heaviness appear briefly in what is almost a chorus but only lasts for one or two lines, before relapsing into the tumultuous main verses.
It’s in this frenzy, that most bands wouldn’t be able to stop it from just becoming a wall of noise. Not Periphery, the sound acts as a controlled storm. All of the different elements of the instruments to Sotelo’s ferocious vocals work in sync with each other. It’s at just past the halfway mark that things take a leftfield detour from their known style into a minute-long jazzy piano & saxophone intermission, before once again returning to the chaos for one final verse. It’s these bizarre choices that in theory should never work and then making it do, that make the prog band one of the most renowned in their scene.
Featuring some of their most heavy and brutal work to date, is the oxymoronic track, ‘Everything is Fine’. It’s loud, it’s angry & it’s in your face. Sotelo barking down the microphone insults towards an unknown figure. “Fucking Coward”, “Guilty Faker.” While the tone and style of the music doesn’t consist of anything different to their usual mayhem, it’s in Sotelo’s delivery, venom almost spitting out at every word.
When this all comes to a head with the breakdown, creates an atmosphere, with very similar vibes as in The Dillinger Escape Plan’s ‘Symptom of Terminal Illness’. As the musicians slow down gradually around, forming this loud crescendo, Sotelo repeats, screaming almost as a mantra. “THIS BODY IS NOT A SANCTUARY.” While the band have certainly had breakdowns in their discography prior, it’s in this song that they reach the pinnacle of visceral and raw brutality of their career.
It’s in this album that the band pulls off the incredible feat of featuring so many different sounds from across the board of music. In the following track, ‘Silhouette’, the heavy, filthy atmosphere is washed away anew with ebbing synths filling the floor. This accompanied by the drumbeat sound and clean vocals form into what is the poppiest song of the band’s career. ‘Silhouette’ almost acts as the aftermath of the disaster caused by ‘Everything is Fine’. Once again, these things should not go together well. Periphery has made it happen, the heaviest song on the album transitions beautifully into the softest, creating such a substantial contrast that really highlights what the band are able to achieve so effortlessly.
The final two tracks ‘Dracul Gras’ & ‘Thanks Nobuo’ equally act as a pair of chapters together. Featuring soaring vocal melodies accompanied by these transcendent guitar tones that will be undoubtedly magnificent to witness live in concert. The final pieces to this album feel invigorating. In the last moments of ‘Thanks Nobuo’ presents some of the most beautiful lyrics
“Rest the soul, shine like gold, You’re shining and it shows” before dissipating into a sea of orchestral music for the final five minutes, the song almost giving you a moment to breathe, to bask in the final beauty of the album before it’s over.
If you take any element of the album: the instrumental prowess; the audacity to dive head first into numerous leftfield styles; the raw brutality or even just the lyricism. Any of these features by themselves would have been enough to make a good album on their own. Periphery have been able to juggle all of these and hone them together to make what could be the best album of their career to date.
While the song and album titles give off the impression of a band having a laugh, there is such sincerity and almost vulnerability in the music of Periphery V, that truly brings the release to a whole new level.
Buy the album here:
https://lnk.to/djentisnotagenre
9 / 10
CHARLIE HILL