Album Review. Periphery — Periphery IV: Hail Stan (2019)

I was lucky to hear this band about four years ago. Since then, these guys have become for me one of those musicians to whose music I began to return more and more often. Actually, thanks to them, I could endure a djent and extremely loved progressive genre.

Periphery has long established itself as a group that loves and knows how to experiment with music. The American quintet was repeatedly awarded the most worthy accolades in modern metal. The love of experimentation, continuous improvement and unique style distinguish Periphery against the rest of the leading figures in progressive metal.

The last released album by Periphery "III: Select Difficulty", which was even nominated for Grammy 2016, differed from its early works by its unpredictable melodiousness and a large number of hits. This work received many laudatory responses, and most of the tracks took their honorable places on the air of rock radio stations.

A new record by American metallers "Periphery IV: Hail Stan" was released early April. After their last album, it was possible to expect that the musicians would go into even more melodic metal and eventually turn into an average group with electronic inserts and other pop-things. But on the contrary Periphery decided to return to its classic heavy sound. And it is encouraging.

The album opens with a nearly seventeen minute track called "Reptile". Honestly, this choice of starting composition surprised me. I expected to hear the standard intro for a maximum - two minutes.

It is a multi-layered, diverse, extremely experimental and interesting track with various rhythmic patterns, unusual arrangements and incredible flow. But seventeen minutes is a bust, especially for the first track. In principle, for many untrained musical inhabitants, on this composition, the entire new album Periphery may end. If you don’t look in the playlist, you might think that you’ve already listened to it completely. However, I confess this composition in my opinion is the best in the tracklist.

The following composition "Blood Eagle" continues the previously established bar of the “metal” attack. This is probably one of the most difficult and aggressive work on the disc. Like "CHVRCH BVRNER", which comes immediately after it, "Blood Eagle" is filled with a furious drumming and unreal energy, which is sometimes lacking in modern alternative bands.

Of course, there were some more melodic tracks: "Garden in the Bones", which came out earlier as a single, "It’s Only Smiles" and "Crush".

The most, I think, interesting composition on the album is "Satellites", which completes this work. Firstly, it is radically different in its sound from the rest of the tracks present on "Periphery IV: Hail Stan". And secondly, the unconditional hit of this album.

"Periphery IV: Hail Stan" turned out to be quite solid and canonical, even though the musicians were addicted to experiments. The new studio work is a collection of long-playing, epic tracks that immerse us in the atmosphere and musical world of Periphery. Knowing the usual practice of the group to get good grades for each work done, I am sure that this disc will be commended as well.