Periphery

Periphery II: This Time its Personal

BY Bradley Zorgdrager Published Jul 5, 2012

Periphery and guitarist Misha Mansoor's alter ego, Bulb, brought to prominence the djent sound and in their wake a genre revolving around that sound formed, encouraging countless bands to release albums similar to their self-titled debut. Now the kings (or rather princes, given their debt to pioneers Meshuggah) are back with Periphery II: This Time it's Personal, but is it enough to reclaim the throne? Well, sort of. Considering the imposters have made little progress, it's hard for Periphery to fall behind. Although there's a noticeable improvement in the previously airy, empty screams, the soaring singing is equally as annoying as previously, taking away from songs such as "Luck as a Constant" and "The Gods Must Be Crazy!" However, the impressive musicianship present throughout the album manages to override the annoyance factor on standout tracks "Have a Blast" and "MAKE TOTAL DESTROY," the latter of which adds some "oomph" to the normally soft singing. As with their first album, we can only hope for an instrumental release of Periphery II: This Time its Personal, or at least one with no singing.
(Distort)

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