Clear

This was overall an excellent album from a band with pretty significant chops. They don't need to prove their technical/song-writing prowess, as it's well established and this album is no exception. We all know how this album was put together: each track written by a different member of the band. Here are my personal highlights from each track:Trk 1 - Overture: It's an "overture" for the rest of the album, all instrumental, touches on the main themes from the remainder of the songs. Very heavy on piano, and exhibits the Bach/counterpoint vibe that Misha seems to dig so much lately. An epic opener to the album, and I'd like to see Periphery do more of this kind of thing.Trk 2 - The Summer Jam (by guitarist Jake Bowen): This was a pretty standard rock tune. I felt it was good by most musical/rock standards, but slightly disappointing for Periphery's standards. Just a little too vanilla for me. They weren't really any moments in the song that really stood out to me.Trk 3 - Feed The Ground (by drummer Matt Halpern): A rather catchy tune that exhibits fewer polyrhythms than usual for Periphery, but still done rather well. I dare you not to mosh at 1:15, excellent bone crushing riffage. The bridge section of this song is a theme that I desperately wish they would expound upon more. It exhibits synth sounds that sound like epic orchestral strings, actually has a more uplifting mode then is typical for metal. It moves out of this before repeating a reduced version of the chorus again. Overall an extremely well-done track with enough intra-song variability to keep it interesting. I want Periphery to write more songs like this and use the synth more.Trk 4 - Zero (by guitarist Misha "Bulb" Mansoor): Very distinctly Misha. He perfects his usual style with this song: all instrumental, djentedness, as well as a goodly amount of lead lines and harmony. He throws in some electronica towards the middle, in keeping with his DJ style. The song is slightly guilty of producing that "Periphery beat". I would've liked to of heard a little bit more real composition, as well as gut busting hooks that we could all mosh to and get the hurt on each other during a concert.Trk 5 - The Parade Of Ashes (by vocalist Spencer Sotelo): This song is very distinctly influenced by 9 inch nails. I freakin' love it! Also very catchy to sing too. The military style drumming is a very nice touch, as is the driving rhythm for the chorus. The bridge is fantastic, another moshing moment, and a nice change of pace from the rest of the song. I love the frequent percussion breaks, also typical of 9 inch nails.Trk 6 - Extraneous (by bassist Adam "Nolly" Getgood) Of all of the writers for this album, Nolly brings it the hardest. The entire tone of the album changes in this song. The rest of the album has the distinctly current, somewhat lighter Periphery. They return to their heavier roots with this song. excellent, excellent use of slap bass, and drums. The overall complexity of the rhythms and riffs is not astounding, but it's how they are done that makes them magical. I also really like the Super Mario Brothers sounding lead guitar line in the middle of the song. The breakdowns are some of the most epic breakdowns I've heard in metal music. You didn't think the guitar could go any lower, but he does, sounds like he's detuning as he plays. The song rushes from the beginning to the end and never lets up, excepting perhaps immediately before the breakdown, but not long enough to lose your interest. Thank you Nolly for my favorite track on the album!Trk 7 - Pale Aura (by guitarist Mark Holcomb). This song was somewhat vanilla for me on the album, but closer to chocolate than vanilla, if that makes sense. It sounds like a excerpt from Haunted Shores, and bears striking resemblance to the song Scarlet from Periphery II. Despite that, I think Spencer delivers some of his best vocal work to date, both lead and harmony. The blast beats are done quite effectively. Great guitar solo towards the end. The last part of the song would be an excellent ending to a concert set. It's easy to sing-along too, and has a lot of emotion. That is, of course, prior to the Icarus Lives encore. Duh.Another note: this whole album exhibit significantly more bass than previous albums. I'm loving that addition. I can actually hear what he's doing and he's definitely doing more than the standard "root of the cord" business.Why not five stars? I love this album, and it's amazing, and I think Periphery is on its way to making another 5 star album (the self-titled release is a 5 star album in my opinion, Periphery II is a 4 star), but this was just shy of five for me. I want more lead/unison type stuff, more musical surprises where they show me they are influenced by many different styles (though an internal consistency is also valuable), more extensive experimentation (or just expounding upon the experimentaion already here), and I want to hear LESS standard song structure. I think these guys have the chops to break down paradigms and do things other people can't do or wouldn't think of, and they are close, but not quite with this release. Still, you'd be remiss not to own this album, and I like it better than Periphery II, as a whole. 4/5 stars for Periphery standards, 5/5 for most rock standards. Well done guys! Can't wait to hear what else this band is going to do.

The clear EP bridges the gap between Periphery II and the next full length. Unlike the Icarus EP - which contained mostly variations on previous material - Clear is all original material. The idea to have each band member write and produce their own song is one I wish more bands would explore, although it takes a talented group of musicians to pull this off. Not only is there a great diversity in this approach, but we get some insight into the styles and preferences the individual members bring to the songwriting whole. "Overture" features the piano and as expected foreshadows what is to come with a sampling of each of the 6 individual tracks that follow. Misha's instrumental "Zero" and Nolly's instrumental "Extraneous" are worth the price of this EP because the rhythmic maneuvers emphasize everything I love about Periphery. The other 4 tracks have vocals and are not so vastly different from what we have heard on past releases. "The Summer Jam" is the most melodic tune here, exhibiting that catchiness that keeps Periphery's more obtuse metal more accessible. Both the punkish "Feed The Ground" and "The Parade of Ashes" feature some heavy riffing and pretty scathing lyrics. "Pale Aura" has a bit more of the screaming that predominated on the debut, but is nicely balanced by clean vocals. I love the ebb and flow in intensity on this song - Halpern's double bass drum rolls really a highlight during the solo section. The flow of the songs is perfect as well. Not only does each song have a distinct sound but a distinct beginning and end as well. This wasn't always the situation with II where sampling at the end of a song seem to serve more as a transition between songs. Here, you can basically take any of these tracks and play it outside the context of the other songs and it still sounds great or you can listen to it as one 29 minute song and so it works well both ways. If this exercise in dissecting the individual parts in order to better the whole enhances the song writing process then we are all in for a big treat with Juggernaut.

I got into this band about three years when the release their first album. The got their second album in 2012 which was light years away from their first but both are mind blowing metal albums. Their sound is way better than anything out there and highly original but you can still hear their influences in the music. Sounding like a whole a ray of band ranging from dent style metal to linking park, incubus, metallica, dream theater, messuggah, mixing all these style bands into a crock pot of mind blowing metal goodness.The new album or ep clear is them moving into a more mature sound or their sound not really sounding like anyone but have catchy melodies and bone crunching riffs and a little of electronic music blended in making something very awesome and original. Very catchy but extremely heavy at the same time. Any kind of metal head or fans of hard rock should check this band and album out!

Like most people, I was weirded out at first by the juxtaposition of very different styles, but after 2-3 listens the shock wore off. I like every single track on the album and I absolutely love "Zero" and "Extraneous." It was about time the Periphery did some legitimate instrumentals. There's something about having a vocalist on every single track that makes the energy too high to last the duration of an album. "Parade of Ashes" is definitely the most out-of-place-sounding song but I've grown even to appreciate that one.It may help my opinion that I'm a very diverse listener—I listen to everything from technical death metal to mainstream rock to jazz. But if you're not, this album may help you out in that regard! The fact that Periphery had the balls to do an experiment like this impresses me even more than the music, as good as it is.

One of the best EP's I've ever listened to. Would have preferred the artwork to be on the case than on a plastic sleeve and a lyric booklet would have been nice, but either way the music's great.

bought as a gift

Este es el 2do EP, de periphery y el único EP que ha sido grabado en un disco (vinilo), esta es la 3ra edición, en disco transparente limitada a 1500 copias internacionalmente. Suena muy bien. Ahora, hablando de la desventaja, es que la funda que cubre al disco esta fabricada de PVC y eso a la larga es totalmente dañino para el disco (estoy hablando de años), por eso lo dejo en 4 estrellas, lo que recomiendo hacer es comprar fundas internas (inner sleeves) de hecho esto lo recomiendo para absolutamente todos los discos que adquieran,especialmente si las fundas son de papél ,hay distintos materiales de fundas internas, les recomiendo de HDPE (polietileno de alta densidad) o de polipapel, solo es de meter el disco dentro e introducirlo en esta funda de PVC y listo, también recomiendo una funda externa para evitar contacto con otros discos.

Jedem Käufer sollte bewusst sein, dass es sich bei dieser EP um ein Experiment der Band handelt, bei dem jedes Bandmitglied einen Song geschrieben und zu verantworten hat, die sich aber alle lose am eingangs stehenden Stück Overture orientieren. Daher empfehle ich sehr, vor dem Kauf einmal auf eine legale Streamingquelle wie YouTube oder Spotify zurückzugreifen, um sich einen Eindruck zu verschaffen. Es gibt definitiv viel zu entdecken in den vielschichtigen und rhythmisch anfordernden Arrangements. Mal brachial, mal melodisch und verspielt bekommt man ein breites Spektrum an Songs mit etwa einer halben Stunde Gesamtlaufzeit geboten.Die Vinyledition ist erstmals in Europa erhältlich und wirklich toll gestaltet. Statt eines Pappcovers bekommt man eine PVC-Hülle, die mit einem Aufkleber versiegelt ist und mit Periphery-Kreisen vorne und Produktionsinfos/Lyrics hinten bedruckt ist. Die Schallplatte ist in 12" clear und 180g aufgelegt und sieht wirklich toll aus. Etwas genauer hinschauen muss man, um A- und B-Seite ausfindig zu machen, Tipp: Ringprägung neben dem Label. Cool dabei sind auch die ebenfalls dort eingeprägten Zeilen aus den Lyrics.Insgesamt macht diese Auflage optisch sehr viel her und wirkt eben durchsichtig, wie das bei dem Namen und Konzept gut passt und auch bei der früheren CD-Version schon durchgezogen wurde.Mindestens genauso wichtig ist aber das - sorry - geile! Mixing, die Songs klingen sehr, sehr gut. Wenn man aufdreht, lässt sich Periphery hier in vollen Zügen genießen.Sehr interessante und hübsch gemachte Platte, die für lange Zeit interessant bleiben wird.

Kriegt von mir 5 Sterne, obwohl ich's nicht durchgehend so gut finde. Aber das Konzept find ich super, dass alle Mitglieder von Periphery Musiker sind und selber was schreiben sollten.Vor allem findet man da jetzt mal die unterschiedlichen Stile der Mitglieder, und da waren für mich einige Überraschungen dabei. Die Overtüre find ich sehr gelungen, dann beim Summer Jam hab ich für mich begriffen, dass ich Jake Bowen bisher stark unterschätzt habe. Das ist ein Song der gute Laune macht.Feed the Ground von Matt Halpern find ich persönlich das Highlight, da es von schön melodisch bis ins Härtere geht, einen wunderbaren Drive hat, einen wunderbaren Spannungsbogen mit Überraschungeselement nach dem zweiten Refrain und daher recht frisch und spritzig rüberkommt.Zero ist von Mischa und kommt auch ganz typisch als von ihm. Obwohl ich zwischendurch ein paar Ausflüge in Dream Theater Gefilde wahrnehme (wahrscheinlich von der gemeinsamen Tour inspiriert), ist das doch wohl der Periphery Hauptstil.Parade of Ashes von Spender zeigt ziemlich deutlich, dass er ein Nine Inch Nails Fan ist. Von der Struktur her, von der Elektronik (vor allem wie sie verwendet wird) und von den kleinen Piano Parts her ist das sehr eindeutig. Ich finds sogar irgendwie besser als NIN, mit denen ich mit den letzten Alben nicht mehr so viel anfangen konnte. Also quasi so wo NIN jetzt (aus meiner Sicht) sein sollte.Mit Extraneous von Nolly hab ich am Längsten gebraucht um mich anzufreunden. Find ich aber auch recht cool, wenn auch anstrengender zu hören. Auch klingt das ein wenig nach 8-saitiger Gitarre (bin mir aber nicht ganz sicher).Pale Aura hat eindeutig den Mark Holcomb Touch, der Einstieg erinnert an den Einstieg von Scarlett von Periphery II, der ja von ihm stammt. Auch sehr nett mit dem finalen Schluss dann, den man noch ein wenig ausführlicher hätte machen können (wenn man eine Overtüre hat, wär eine Coda das Tüpfelchen auf dem i). So ähnlich wie das Darkest Hour auf der Undoing Ruin gemacht haben, was das Album zu einem tadellosem Kreis gemacht hat.Grundsätzlich ist es das Konzept, dass jeder seinen Song hat, dass diesem Album die enorme Breite gibt. Das ist auch eines der Kennzeichen, das Queen ihren breiten Erfolg bescherte (die Einzelprojekte der Queen Mitglieder waren bei weitem nicht so erfolgreich wie Queen). Ich sehe hier enorme Resourcen, die noch genutzt werden könnten, wenn erlaubt wird dass das in die Hauptrichtung von Periphery einfliesst. Ich für meinen Teil hoffe, dass das passiert, obwohl Spencer Sotelo in einem Interview gesagt hat, dass wahrscheinlich nur Pale Aura live gespielt werden wird, da das der Song ist, der am besten zum Periphery Stil passt. Liebe Periphery, ich hoffe, dass ihr alle Songs spielt und wirklich diese Diversität in eure Hauptlinie aufnehmt!