Album Review: Periphery III – Select Difficulty (Century Media Records)

Arriving with little fanfare from major rock & metal media, Periphery III: Select Difficulty has the uphill task of following the beast of a double album that was Juggernaut: Alpha & Juggernaut: Omega.

Considered at the forefront of the prog metal scene, Periphery have become the name associated with the modern ‘djent’ movement.

That’s why it comes as a bit of surprise just how metal orientated Select Difficulty is (something that is likely to upset the prog fans). This is one of the top metal releases of the year mixing progressive elements with a simpler yet exciting metal sound.

Opening track, The Price is Wrong shows that off with some twisting guitar work that will leave your brain in knots backed up by crushingly heavy vocals. It’s a statement, right off the bat & one that is littered throughout the entire album.

Songs like Motormouth, Marigold & Remain Indoors all have different direction & many different elements but are equally brilliant. The latter of those three in particular has some stunning guitar work & soaring clean vocals. One of the strongest songs on the album that buries its way into your brain keeping you humming along for hours afterwards.

The rest of the album is as rip-roaringly exciting as what came before. The disjointed beat of Habitual Line-Stepper that gets under your skin lighting your senses on fire, the straight up metal quality of Flatline and immensely huge sounding Lune. This is one of the best albums of 2016 & doesn’t deserve to just be forgotten about.

Overall Track List:

1. The Price is Wrong
2. Motormouth
3. Marigold
4. The Way the News Goes…
5. Remain Indoors
6. Habitual Line-Stepper
7. Flatline
8. Absolomb
9. Catch Fire
10. Prayer Position
11. Lune