Periphery - Periphery IV: HAIL STAN Review

After a somewhat long hiatus, we are back with a review that I have been waiting to do for a quite a while at this point. A band that I grow to love more and more over my career as a metal listener, Periphery have always been an interesting part of my usual rotation. While much of the music I listen to could be considered "not metal", Periphery is one of the bands that takes the most heat when it comes to this topic. Without spewing genre-tags everywhere, many would classify this band as melodic metalcore; Similarly, die-hard fans like myself may call it progressive metal or djent; Periphery is a progressive melodic metalcore band. The band takes intricate guitar and drumwork, and uses it to create an accessible, but heavy sound. Full of chugging riffs and breakdowns that are reminiscent of many modern metalcore bands, the band manages to put on their own flair that makes their music thoroughly unique. Now that this horrible argument has been resolved, we can get into the actual review.

This album is exceptional. It is unusually good. It should not be as strong as a release from this band as it actually is. After 5 albums under Sumerian Records, Periphery has decided to go independent and release their 6th album on their own 3DOT Recordings. Hot off the heels of their Grammy nomination for "The Price Is Wrong", Periphery have released one of their strongest efforts yet in Periphery IV: HAIL STAN, and one of the better albums of 2019 as well. With 9 tracks lasting just over 1 hour, the boys have taken all of their influences and past works and mixed them together in, perhaps, the best way possible.

The first track, "Reptile", starts the record off with an unexpected bang. The bands longest recorded track stands at the monolithic length of almost 17 minutes, and truly shows what you can expect on this album. With an outstanding dynamic of both destructive and beautiful riffs, Periphery really showcase their talents on this song, and in the process create an experience very similar to "Racecar" or "Omega", where even for a rather lengthy cut, it feels short. The track has mellow points, but these fill out the spaces between the rampaging heavy sections where needed. While the corny lyrics about a stoner who saves the world from a 'green-skin apocalypse' may be a turn off to some, I think it not only showcases how the band is not afraid to joke around once in a while but it also displays that now that the band is on their own label, they can take a few more creative risks when it comes to songwriting. The band’s lyrics have never tried to be very deep, and by really amping up the ridiculousness, it actually makes the listener laugh a little at the absurdity of it all. With a feature from Mikee Goodman of SikTh performing his trademark growled spoken word, and the numerous electronic bits on not only this song, but the whole album, it is apparent that Periphery are writing songs that they want to write. By taking their longest time writing an album since the first, the band is going to make the music they want to make, and there is not anything you can do about it (This is also accentuated by the South Park reference at the very end of the album).

I may not have mentioned it enough in the previous paragraphs, but this album is surprisingly heavy. The next two tracks, "Blood Eagle" and "CHVRCH BVRNER" are perhaps the hardest hitting of the nine presented on this album. The first was a shock to a many including myself, as upon first listening to it as a single we discovered the heavier side of the band once again. While Periphery III: Select Difficulty was generally well-regarded, especially by fans, it lacked the heavy edge of their former sound showcased on tracks like "The Bad Thing" and "Graveless", both off of Juggernaut: Omega. With chugging guitars and some of Spencer Sotelo's gnarliest vocal performances to date, the music reminds me of Born of Osiris or The Acacia Strain, in its deathcore/djent sound. While I am not fond of said bands, he track is easily one of the highlights on the album. "CHVRCH BVRNER" is also pretty gruesome, but in a far more groovy way. The chorus' riff is quite djenty, and overall the performances are just stellar on this song, from the punchy drums to the excellent harsh and clean vocals. The shortest on the album, the sound of "CHVRCH BVRNER" is hard to pin down to a familiar style by the band. However, one may be able to compare the overall sound of the track reminiscent to The Dillinger Escape Plan with its off-tempo and abrasive instrumentation. While embracing the classic “trve kvlt” approach with their title of the song, the mathcore influence provides a fresh take on the Periphery sound that I would like to hear more of in the future.

Next, come "Garden in the Bones" and "It's Only Smiles". Both of these songs, contrasting to the previous two, are far more in the realm of "standard Periphery". Both of these songs take more melodic and clean sections of the band's repertoire, greatly reminiscent of P3. These songs are better versions of "Remain Indoors" and "Catch Fire", respectively. GitB feels much better paced and is an overall more enjoyable listening experience. In hindsight, Periphery III: Select Difficulty seems to be an intermediate release. It is the anxiety-laden teen years of the band's career, where they didn't really know what they wanted to be, their options being melodic or heavy. While the album took more of a melodic tone, it's songwriting suffered in terms of compelling instrumentation and focused much more on hooks (listen, I understand everyone in the band is astonishingly proficient with their instrument, and always write interesting parts, but these feel much more fleshed out and discovered). This is not a bad thing and resulted in a strong (yet underwhelming) album.

With P4 though, the band has truly realized what they want to be. This is perfectly exemplified in "It's Only Smiles", which proves itself to be what "Catch Fire" wanted to. "Catch Fire" stumbles in its overwhelming "pop" sound and rather "laughable” lyrics. The fifth track on HAIL STAN is a triumph in both of these aspects. It succeeds where “Catch Fire” failed. Its lyrics are powerful in terms of not only lyrical poetry, but also backstory, as it immortalizes Spencer's late sister. It also triumphs in keeping the groovy "Periphery sound" that we all know and love. This song makes me emotional on just about every listen, and every time I sing along because those lyrics are so damn catchy. This is the correct way to pay tribute to a loved one, and in the context of a poppier Periphery sound, they made an exceptional tune.

Unfortunately, I do feel a lull whenever I listen to this album. This begins and ends with "Follow Your Ghost". This track is fairly heavy but strongly reminds me of "Hell Below" from Juggernaut: Omega. Much like its father track, it is a good track but comes at a point in the album where it just feels out of place. The one aspect of this track that stands out is its intense climax. Going from a rather clean section, the bass comes in suddenly and makes the track return to its heavy origin.

The final part of this downtime in the album is "Crush". This electronically driven track is very groovy and has not only guitarists Misha Mansoor and Jake Bowen's Four Seconds Ago project splattered all over it, but also Periphery’s Clear EP, particularly “The Parade of Ashes”. Spencer is not stranger to electronic music, as his two side projects Endur and Nik Mystery are both heavily influenced by electronic music. While yet another strong track, there is not much buildup present, and the sound stays fairly consistent throughout. The bridge is a break from this, adding some symphonic elements that the band has messed around with before, as well as the drum mastery of Matt Halpern using an electronic filter. While this is refreshing to see this sound still permeating the Periphery sound, it is not enough to make this track a highlight within the strong strong.

The final two tracks are again seeming callbacks to previous efforts. "Sentient Glow" is not a cover, but more a revamp of a demo single by Haunted Shores, guitarists Mark Holcomb and Misha Mansoor's side project. This song sounds almost identical to a lot of Periphery II: This Time It's Personal, which for a dedicated fan (and one who favors their older material) is a welcomed breath of fresh air. This song has so much Bulb (Misha's first project, the band of which many demos became early Periphery songs) influence and Halcomb brand riffery, that paired with Spencer's vocals, it could be mistaken as a B-side from their second album. "Froggin' Bullfish" is almost put to shame with this, and when the writer's favorite album is P2, I assure you, this is a good thing.

After this amazing track comes closer "Satellites". Now, this is a song that surprised me. I apologize for this next statement, but I must say it to truly talk about this next song. "Lune", P3's closer, is not good. It is far too cliche and does not fit the album at all, as the grand and emotional climax with a plethora of symphonics is something that had not been built towards on the majority of the album before. Additionally, the lyrics about ‘feeling the love’ don’t really float my boat. I usually skip the song when I listen to P3 completely, which I almost never do. When I heard the beginning of "Satellites", I let out an audible sigh of disappointment, for it had happened again. However, there was one thing that your humble writer did not notice initially; This was the runtime of the track. At just over nine minutes, this track is one of the best closing tracks to a Periphery album yet. For me, it is tied for third with "Stranger Things" off of Juggernaut: Omega (with "Racecar" from P1 in first, of course). The track grows and grows until about the halfway mark, where it pulls back to almost silence. The full band then erupts into a cacophony of riffage, groove, and harsh vocals as the song switches dynamics from clean to harsh seamlessly in some of the gang's best songwriting yet. The song also winds down to a lull and then returns with an epic climax that gets me actually every time I listen to this track. This song is phenomenal, and truly showcases Spencer's vocal prowess. The rest of the band is tight, but the now seasoned vocalist provides one of his best performance ever.

With the tracks now covered, there are a few points that need to be addressed. First off, this album sounds great. Veteran producer and ex-bassist of the band Adam “Nolly” Getgood once again makes every snare, guitar solo, and vocal harmony sound phenomenal through and through. Periphery fans have come to expect this, as the last few albums have yielded similar results in this field. Another aspect of the album that has been more apparent on this album than ever before are the orchestral instrumentation, and the edition choir vocals. These were introduced on P3, and backing vocals can be heard as early as P1 but they are more present on this album as well. Their inclusion here seems more mature and they serve the songs more so than previous efforts. They also add some more depth to the music, and generally give the songs a “grander” feel.  

We do not deserve this album. Periphery could have gone in whatever direction they wanted; Melodic metalcore, dream pop, jazz fusion; it would not matter. I would listen to it and probably love it. But when a band that I have been committed to for such a long time now decides to do their own thing and ends up releasing one of if not their strongest effort yet with a style that is uniquely theirs, with room still to grow, I can say that Periphery IV: HAIL STAN is not only one of Periphery's best albums, but also one of the best albums of 2019.

Final score: Bulb's got nothin' on you, kid.

Favorite Tracks: "Sentient Glow", "Blood Eagle"