Periphery - Periphery II: This Time It's Personal (2012)
When this album had originally leaked back in 2012, man, I was at my dad's house (no internet) and I got a text from a good buddy of mine simply saying "IT LEAKED" and I knew what he was talking about. Given that I was under the legal driving age at the time, I even tried to reason with my dad into him taking me to a local coffee shop to download the album, because an album with a lead single as great as "MAKE TOTAL DESTROY" DEMANDS that you acquire it as soon as possible, especially when those Rody Walker-esque clean vocals kick in, but thankfully we didn't, because that would be hella cringeworthy for me to look back on. Regardless, I was VERY fucking hyped for this album to come out, I had been on YouTube constantly replaying the teasers for the album (does anyone still do that?) and I almost even risked my computer getting fucked up via downloading a supposed leak off of a Russian website that claimed to be willing to give it to me.. If I did a survey. Drats! What I'm trying to get across is that I was a huge fanboy and also a huge dumbass, and while I'm not a huge fanboy anymore, it's really easy for me to see, years later, exactly why I was.
On this album, they replaced ex-bassist Tom Murphy with Adam "Nolly" Getgood of Red Seas Fire, and ex-guitarist Alex Bois with Mark Holcomb of Haunted Shores, and let me tell you something straight outta the gate: I am positively convinced that there is absolutely no better choices for replacements than those two motherfuckers. Adam "Nolly" Getgood is one absolutely fucking nasty bassist, and Mark Holcomb is just as great of a guitarist as Misha "Bulb" Mansoor and Jake Bowen, effectively making Periphery a three-guitarist powerhouse, hell, maybe even FIVE when you count the fact that Spencer Sotelo made pretty much the entirety of the demo for "Facepalm Mute" by himself, and that Adam "Nolly" Getgood is a -great- guitarist, but besides that, believe it or not, unlike some bands with three guitarists (Whitechapel, for one) they actually tend to use all three at certain points, such as in the epic intro "Muramasa" with its massive three guitar work. By this point in their discography, Periphery has become an absolute unstoppable beast instrumentally, and Spencer Sotelo.. God, he sounds LEAGUES above even the "Icarus EP" that came out the year before. I honestly believe that if Spencer Sotelo isn't the top vocalist for metalcore, he's in the top three, and once you hear his amazing growls and blissful clean vocals, I think you'll be helpless but to agree.
I think this is a fucking great album that occasionally runs into a few issues, so first, before I get into those issues, I just want to say that this album is brutal, but it's also incredibly objectively beautiful. I think the outro of "Luck as a Constant" and the outro guitar solo to "Erised" (provided by Dream Theater's John Petrucci, uncle to Periphery's Jake Bowen) are both absolutely breathtaking (and I try not to use that word often) and rank as some of my absolute favorite musical moments ever, as they combine drama, theatrics, and so many emotions into guitar work that doesn't need to have words to get across its feeling, but is still complimented immensely by Spencer Sotelo's incredible vocal talent that most of us could only dream of having. This is, by all means, a great sequel to a great album.. But I'd be lying if I said it didn't have its flaws, and I knew that even back in the day when I first heard it, so if you wanna drop off now with the facts gathered that it's a great album, go on, but if you wanna stick around to hear my minor bitching.. Let's get strapped in.
I think a huge part of what made the first Periphery album amazing were the lyrics. The lyrics often portrayed such beautiful, emotional scenes that played around with the sound of the vocals more than the actual lyrical content, which could be described as intellectual but dreamlike, often dealing with Greek myths, such as Charon, Icarus (obviously) and the sort, but what also helped it stick out was that the lyrics only contained any form of swearing in "Icarus Lives!" which came across as a bit forced.. So why is there such juvenile lyrics about personal life bullshit on this album? No, I'm not talking about the emotional "Mile Zero", that's perfectly fine and I love it, but for some of this other stuff, when you go from the beautiful lyrics on the first album to the weird power-struggle between the abstract and personal in "Facepalm Mute" or "Luck as a Constant" ("SHUT THE FUCK UP AND LET US LIVE A LIFE WE CAN CALL OUR OWN!!") it starts to make you wonder what happened to the lyrical quality assurance, and when you combine that with the fact that some of the songs on here sound more like they were trying to make catchy, conventional metalcore with the technical shit kinda floating around in the background a bit more subtly than before, which heavily contrasts with the first album, and it's good, don't even slightly get me wrong, but it feels.. Different. It's like I'm really excited to hear it, but a more technical A Day to Remember is not what I came here for, dammit! YOU KNOW WHAT DADDY WANTS!!
Is it Periphery's greatest album? No, I don't think I'd be inclined to agree on that most days, but I think it's a really great album for what it is, even with its (very minor) missteps. Part of me is happy that they dropped the more epic, progressive feeling from the first album in order to not risk making the same album twice, but the other part of me can't shake the fact that they had something fucking -great- going that they really could have expanded on more. Still, incredible vocals and instrumentation leads to some amazing songs on here, and some that just cap out around "great", so I'd say this is a very worthy album to check out even if you didn't like the first album, due to it being catchier, more accessible, and having the added bonus of Spencer Sotelo's voice being fucking perfect on this album, but if you didn't like the first album.. The fuck is wrong with you? Jeez, guy. Whattamomma CurbChron tell ya?? Fuck you! FUCK YOU!! Oh oh oh and FUCK THE FUCKING FUCK OFF YOU FUCKING FUCK!! -nearly- EVERY SONG THIS BAND PUTS OUT IS INCREDIBLE FROM A TECHNICAL PERSPECTIVE YOU FUCKERS!!
8/10
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Feel free to check out the song previews/buy this album using my Amazon Associate link!
