PERIPHERY — Periphery (review)

Album · 2010 · Progressive Metal

2.5/5 · 2012-07-27
Time Signature

Letter experiment...

Genre: djent/metalcore

Periphery is one of those bands that the metal purists and metal elitists absolutely hate, while metalcore fans and djent-lovers tend to praise them. I had obviously heard a lot about this band - good and bad - so I eventually decided to check them out just out of curiosity.

Musically, this album is actually not bad, and there some nice dakkuhduhdaaaw and daaawdaaawduhkkuhdaaawdaaaw djent-styled riffs as well as a couple of nicely groovy metalcore breakdowns (some of which are innovative, many of which are not [but still pretty solid]). One of the main attractions of this album is its progressive nature, and especially the mellow parts and, at times, jazzy guitar leads, are quite good. The band's use of electronica elements is not all that compelling to me, but they are more successful at implementing this feature than many other metalcore/pop bands are.

And then the the singer ruined everything.

He knows how to sing, and his clean voice is actually pretty good, I think, but his harsh vocals are so annoying that they ruin the entire listening experience for me. While the guy has a good singing voice, his overall performance also strikes me as being hysterical and over the top. I have heard a number of metalcore acts with similarly annoying singers, so maybe it's a genre feature or something - whatever it is, it just does not sit well with me.

Fortunately for me, there is an instrumental version of this album out there, so maybe I should check that one out - that might do the music itself some justice.

more than 2 years ago
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Time Signature wrote:

more than 2 years ago

I actually heard half a song from the second album in the local record store, and it sounded okay... so I'll definitely check that one out.

Kustin wrote:

more than 2 years ago

I feel the same way as Andyman just said, except that I also appreciate the changes he went through with his voice that was prepared for Periphery II. It makes me think he just improved his vocals by the time between the albums and it sounds both more vicious (which although takes away his distinction from similar (guttural) screamers) and demonstrates a higher range in the clean parts.

Time Signature wrote:

more than 2 years ago

Whatever it is, his screaming is annoying to my ears. If other people like his singing, then they're lucky because then they can actually enjoy the entire album.

UMUR wrote:

more than 2 years ago

Maybe screamo wasn´t the right word to use. I haven´t listened to the band but from Kim´s description that was my conclusion.

Andyman1125 wrote:

more than 2 years ago

This album really isn't screamo and is only vaguely like metalcore screaming. Spencer did a decent job for the amount of time he was given to learn the songs before recording (something like 2-3 weeks), and some people nitpick that he wasn't "harsh" or "heavy" enough so he took that and went all out metalcore screaming nonsense for Periphery II. Even some of the clean vocals on Periphery II are just gross.

Xaxaar wrote:

more than 2 years ago

These vocals, for me, weren't hard to get into at all. It doesn't even sound screamo to me, but I don't mind screamo vocals either.

adg211288 wrote:

more than 2 years ago

I haven't heard much of them to be fair, but I had the same problems with that I heard from them.

dtguitarfan wrote:

more than 2 years ago

I had much the same experience with the band - liked the instrumentalists, hated the "singer"...or rather "screamer".

Time Signature wrote:

more than 2 years ago

Oh, this is screamo? Then I guess I don't like screamo. Anyway, I haven't heard the second Periphery album, but I probably check it out some day. I don't mind the clean vocals on this album. It is just the hysterical screaming that really turns be off.

UMUR wrote:

more than 2 years ago

I have a hard time appreciating screamo type metalcore vocals too. I haven´t heard this album but it sounds like the vocals fall under that catagory.

Andyman1125 wrote:

more than 2 years ago

I actually thought the vocals were great on this album - contrary to my opinion on the vocals for Periphery II...

Tupan wrote:

more than 2 years ago

It's very frustrating when a good album is ruined by the bad vocals. This is the case of "Where Legend Began", by English Dogs - the vocals are not that bad, but don't fit to the music most of the times. And the music of this album is good.