Periphery

ride-the-spiral

Basically known as the band that Bulb (Misha Mansoor) plays in and as one of the pioneers (as well as coining the term) of the "Djent" movement which is heavily influenced by Meshuggah, Periphery/Bulb songs have been floating around the web for a few years and finally, their debut has been released.

Here's one of my favourites from it.

Anybody who's been following them for a while may be disappointed because well, they're the same songs you've been hearing for a good while, but I still find the album to be a great listen, even if their present vocalist isn't as good as Casey or Chris.

So has anybody else heard it?

Mataguri

Not a fan of Spencers vocals at all. I wish they would get Jake Veredika back in the band, you can hear his far superior (imo) version of Icarus Lives here if you havnt heard it before: http://www.myspace.com/jakeveredika

Rockettmeister

My lord the new album is awesome

Moojuice

Aye. New album is awesome (or so I have heard). Might be disapointing as the music has been floating around the web for years but still a fantastic album (or so I hear). The Animals as Leaders is damn good too.

Rockettmeister

Hell yeah man Tosin Abasi is the shizz

Zombienosh

only listened to them briefly before, listening to this track though, not liking the vocals at all.

Zombienosh

Mataguri wrote: »

Not a fan of Spencers vocals at all. I wish they would get Jake Veredika back in the band, you can hear his far superior (imo) version of Icarus Lives here if you havnt heard it before: http://www.myspace.com/jakeveredika

this version is waaaaaaay better.

ride-the-spiral

Never knew that Jake used to be in the band, although I still prefer the version with Chris. It's a shame that they were in such a bind with vocalists and had to go with Spencer.

Mataguri

ride-the-spiral wrote: »

Never knew that Jake used to be in the band, although I still prefer the version with Chris. It's a shame that they were in such a bind with vocalists and had to go with Spencer.

Chris's version was great, as was Casey Sabols. Regardless, I've always felt most Periphery songs work better as instrumentals so I've pre-ordered the deluxe album with the instrumental cd. Cant wait!

ride-the-spiral

Mataguri wrote: »

Chris's version was great, as was Casey Sabols. Regardless, I've always felt most Periphery songs work better as instrumentals so I've pre-ordered the deluxe album with the instrumental cd. Cant wait!

I don't think they all work better, some do though, like All new Materials.
I think they should give the vocals a bit more leeway, some parts of songs seem a bit awkward because they were written instrumentally and then vocals were added.

Having heard some of his other stuff, vocals would probably ruin it. Like the song Breeze just works so well instrumentally.

fortuneg

Have to say i'm really disappointed with the vocals, they sound like another boring Linkin Park-a-like.
Every word & note is dragged out to death, the screams/growls are monotone...
Sure you don't want to overshadow the music with a vocalist that's too out there, but at least try find one with a bit of originality, this guy sounds like every other American 'screamo' vocalist that has emerged in the last 5 years.

On the plus side the music is fantastic, thoroughly looking forward to the instrumental CD.
The new (15min) version of Racecar is excellent with a nice little Jeff Loomis solo (I presume that's him anyway) for good measure.

Karl Hungus

Yep, count me as another who doesn't like Spencer, but thank feck they finally got the album recorded. That's been a long time coming. I'll probably get the 2 disc with the instrumental CD myself too, then never listen to the CD with vocals.

Cousin it

This album is insanely good and I'm so happy Periphery are finally on their way to some widespread recognition. I have to disagree with those who dislike Spencer and completely 100% disagree with those in favour of a Jake Veredika return.

When your recording engineer is literally embarrassed by how much vocal production is required to get your voice (in JV's case, JUST distorted vox (growls and screams) almost no cleans) sounding decent then you know you're on to a loser with regards even a recording vocalist let alone a live one.

Contrast that with Casey, many people's favourite to this day and the guy responsible for IMO the best sounding clean vox I've heard on a metal record (periph's album). If Casey, who is incredibly talented, humbles himself to Spencer and recommends him wholeheartedly as a superior singer, I dunno, I might just take that advice lol.

With regards every other singer they've had, regardless of anyone's personal favourites, Spencer is the only one who can consistently hit the notes put on record night after night. Gig reviews abound on places like sevenstring.org with people being astounded by Spencer's live performances despite malfunctioning in-ears or just crap live sound in general.

Also, I have to say I think Periphery's entire marketing strategy has been a bit of a flawless victory. Garnering decent pre-order sales through the consistent updates on internet fora (? forums maybe, dunno?), staying in fans houses while on tour, you'd swear it was some grassrotts political campaign but it's actually an incredibly cool band with a phenomenal sound showing aspiring bands around the world how the modern DIY approach can be used to full effect.

This is most definitely my favourite album and I've had it for... two, maybe three days now. Ridiculousness!:):):):):)

Zombienosh

I've listened to the whole album a few times now, and the vocals are actually grand, I just don't like them on Icarus lives! the rest of the album they work, he is a good singer no doubt, but on Icarus lives i prefer the original demo version.

OctavarIan

The new vocalist isn't a patch on Casey. He sounds like he's constantly straining his voice while Casey was much smoother, more effortless and he injected a bit of personality. It's a shame Casey wanted to do his own thing because he was definitely their most talented vocalist.

I also think they tried to cram far too much vocals onto this album. Maybe they thought it'd be cheap of them to release songs that were more instrumental considering the amounts of versions they've put out? Either way, there are so many vocal parts that just don't work, and I feel like shouting at Spencer to just **** off for a second. All New Materials comes to mind, the vocals just ruin the first part of the song. Also listen to when they first come in on The Walk, so so strained, it makes me cringe.

Once I get the instrumental CD I'll probably end up creating a mashup between the two albums, majority being the instrumental versions.

Snake Pliisken

Have to say, first time I heard them about a year and a half ago I thought they where pretty nifty, but since then there's been an explosion of Djent bands. Periphery just have better production, a busy guitarist and a whiny singer.