Periphery – ‘Periphery III: Select Difficulty’ [Review]
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They say that when you hit the top, it’s all downhill from there. Holding on to peak position rarely lasts forever. Sooner or later, a new challenger appears, and overtakes you.
That may be the case for most bands, but Periphery are not your average metalhead collective. From the first note of their eponymous debut, released back in 2010, Periphery have established themselves as one of a kind. You can compete with technique, production value, and marketing, but you cannot compete with originality.
Their unique voice aside, Periphery remain one of the metal world’s most respected bands because they’re fucking ambitious. Whether focussing on a more organic sound for Periphery II, showcasing each member’s individual songwriting skills on the gorgeous Clear EP, or diving into full-on prog territory with Juggernaut Alpha and Juggernaut Omega (both released only last year)…man alive. These guys just don’t know how to slack off – and thank God for that.
For Periphery III: Select Difficulty, Periphery have cranked up the dial marked INTENSITY – and the results are frequently more brutal than ever before. As has been the case since Periphery II, though, we’re not talking about stiff, robotic performances. Aggression and catharsis are key elements, but so is heart and soul.
The Price Is Wrong wastes no time in unleashing a torrent of frantic blastbeats, and we’re officially off. Motormouth goes for the throat of a loose-lipped acquaintance, proving simultaneously primitive and sophisticated. The seven-minute Marigold, meanwhile, offers brief shades of Between The Buried And Me as well as an anthemic chorus. Three tracks in, and a quarter of an hour has passed – but you wouldn’t know it. Select Difficulty is just that immersive.
The intro to The Way The News Goes reminds me of Guthrie Govan’s classic Erotic Cakes album, spectacular cleans giving way to an overwhelming barrage reminiscent of the end of Pale Aura from Clear…and an accessible hook…and all the choppy rhythmic derring-do that is and remains Periphery’s key trademark. It’s an utter beast. Remain Indoors gets gritty while Nobuo Uematsu-esque synth lines flitter in the background, eventually threatening to collapse into distorted dissolution. For Habitual Line-Stepper, Matt Halpen puts his legs to work with a terrifying extended double-kick rampage at the fucking start of another seven-minute epic. That one is nothing short of a prog-metal marathon, requiring dedicated stamina just to take it all in.
Just imagine how much work went into Select Difficulty. It’s a little more than a year since Juggernaut saw the light of day. Again – ambition. All of the vision, motivation, and focus.
Save some for the rest of us, Periphery.
Time for a breather in the form of Flatline – at least for about fifteen seconds. Beyond that point, Spencer Sotelo summons an absolutely demonic vocal before shifting into slick cleans and perfect harmonies. Proof, if any were honestly needed by this point, that Periphery are not going soft.
Absolomb spun my head around, in a good way. This may be my favourite track on Select Difficulty, fat and bass-driven, spacy guitar arpeggios glistening in the background while Sotelo’s vocal fills up the space with winning reverb and soaring melodies. Add in some elegant strings and piano at the end, and the loud-soft dynamic balance is pure and perfect. Yes. A definite highlight.
More funkiness for Catch Fire, punchy and slightly SikTh-like at one point. The mark of a truly great band is their ability to experiment with unusual influences without losing their personalities in the process – and Catch Fire reveals a poppy side of Periphery that just fits perfectly. I’d be interested to hear more songs like this; making commercial elements more prominent would likely lead to the usual boring accusations of selling out and so forth, but Periphery plainly have what it takes to make it work. So why not?
Nearing the home stretch now with Prayer Position, and it’s tough to say something fresh as the second-to-last track of any album tends to be the point at which a band’s comfort zone has been established and we hear more of what’s come before. That’s no bad thing in the case of Prayer Position, though – it’s a great track, but it also doesn’t break as far from Periphery tradition as the pair of songs that came before it. It feels most like something to placate listeners who found Catch Fire hard to stomach, which is fair enough.
Select Difficulty’s longest song by three seconds, closing tune Lune returns to commercially accessible territory, thick layers of synths taking position over a spacious groove and more winning Sotelo lines. Gradually, Lune builds, falls, and drifts off into the distance as one final strings-only section brings Select Difficulty to a close. Frankly, it’s fucking perfect.
Overall, listening to Periphery III: Select Difficulty when you’re out and about may mean that your phone ends up with less battery life to power Pokémon Go, but it’s worth the sacrifice. Unless there’s a Mewtwo nearby. In that case, postpone this album until you catch it.
Prioritizing is a valuable life skill. Get it right.
TMMP RATING: 100% (Essential Listening!)
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