Periphery, unfortunately, have been one of the most disappointing bands I've heard in a long while. They are immensely talented and creative dudes (especially Misha Mansoor, the driving force behind the band), and have so much potential it is beyond words. Any fan of Meshuggah and the resulting "Sumeriancore" and "djent" movements has undoubtedly heard of and (probably) loves this band. I, on the other hand, am very, very torn.
I discovered these guys a little over a year ago, before they ever released an "official" album. I came upon a collection of demos and mixtapes that had somehow leaked to the public, and immediately fell in love with their brutal and polyrhythmic tunes. It was down-tuned, heavy as fuck, and oddly catchy. Now I don't mean catchy in the way most people would perceive the term; the music is off-kilter, oddly timed, and (most of the time) anything but straight forward. But they're like Meshuggah in the way that they can make the most bizarre polyrhythmic riffs sound contagiously groovy.
Everyone seemed to be at a crossroads as far as their vocalist went, and while I admit it wasn't really my cup if tea, I grew to really enjoy Chris Baretto's deep growls and clean singing. He also seemed to have a pretty good sense of humor and injected a hefty dose of irony into his lyrics and singing style, which I enjoyed. Then something horrible happened: they fired Chris and replaced him with Spencer Sotelo. At first I figured "What the hell, the guy must be awesome if he's replacing Chris, right?". Sadly, I was wrong.
Periphery released their first official album last year (entitled, simply Periphery) and that's where I began to fall off the bandwagon. The music, for the most part, retained the brutality and catchiness that originally drew me in, but then Spencer started singing, and my jaw dropped to the floor. It was awful. Emo/Screamo, gutless and awful. Somehow they had managed to find a singer who could take the awesome music they created and make it unlistenable. I discarded the album right there. I just couldn't take it.
However, I never stopped giving up on them, knowing that they are really talented and really heavy, and I always hoped that in the future they would realize this potential and come into their own. So I thought I'd give them another chance with their new EP Icarus.
I have to say I am not nearly as disappointed with this album (at least the new material) as I was with the old. The opener, "New Groove", is exactly why I got into these guys in the first place; balls out, down-tuned, heavy and off-kilter as all hell. And there's NO VOCALS on it! So that made it exponentially better. The second song, "Frak The Gods", continues in the tradition of heaviness, except it's a more structured song and the vocals return. I have to say that Sotelo's growls/screams are executed much better on this album. It's as if he actually acknowledged that he's singing in a death(ish) metal band and wanted to make the vocals equally as brutal as the music. Bravo. Still not a huge fan of his clean singing style, it's just too whiny for my tastes, but I'm trying really hard to look past it and just listen to the music, 'cause the music is pretty great.
One serious downfall of this EP is the three, count 'em three, remixes of their trademark song "Icarus Lives!". I have to be honest, I only listened to one of them all the way through and I kind of wanted to punch a wall just to feel something else. It's generic poppy drum n' bass and it's not even done very well. Repetitive and kind of annoying.
Aside from my issues with the vocals, the new material on here (4 of the 9 songs) is actually pretty good. It's a nice little teaser to hold the fans over until the next full length, which I'm hoping will be even better. The biggest plus is that it gives me a bit more hope that there might indeed be a bright future for this band. If only they would find a better and more adequate singer.
6.5/10
Track Listing:
1. New Groove
2. Frak The Gods
3. Jetpacks Was Yes! (v2.0)
4. Icarus Lives!
5. Icarus Lives! (Bulbous Remix)
6. Icarus Lives! (Zedo Remix)
7. Icarus Lives! (Peteyg Remix)
8. Captain On
9. Eureka
Favorite Song: New Groove
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