Spencer Sotelo sings with such confidence, skill and emotion. For the first time since I know Periphery, I got this feeling while listening to “Juggernaut”. Some singers touch my heart extremely profoundly, as if they could actually feel what I feel. Only very few people are able to relate to the way I get attached to a vocalist’s voice. This time, the vocals also act as a guide through the story. A versatile vocalist like him who gives such utterance to the music just needs room to express himself in my opinion. I highly approve that the albums concentrate a lot on vocals, as well as I’m very happy to hear even more clean (often aggressive or distorted, but not growling or screaming) vocals from Spencer Sotelo. You can hear everything from heavy djent songs ("Hell Below"), complex riffing and drumming ("MK Ultra") and atmospheric and slightly darker songs ("The Scourge", "Psychosphere") to almost happy sounding electronic melodies (title track "Alpha"), catchy vocals (chorus of "22 Faces", title track "Alpha") and overall acoustic tracks ("Priestess") to name some examples. They achieved a massive djent sound and still had enough space left for acoustic guitars or piano and, most importantly, building up climaxes and certain moods depending on the song (title track "Omega" or "A Black Minute"). I've always admired the way Periphery manage to experiment around with ideas and different sounds while keeping up their unique style. In general, I've always had the feeling that concept albums make bands restrict their sound spectrum in order to make it fit into the story - instead, Periphery's "Juggernaut" displays a very wide spectrum of sounds and arouses different emotions. You will need some time to digest them, but it's more than worth to take your time. The tracks aren't arranged as typical "songs" so to speak, but as parts of an overall experience you have while listening to the two albums "Alpha" and "Omega". Known as a band whose members are willing to constantly grow as musicians and songwriters, it's still nearly incredible how these guys pushed themselves in terms of songwriting this time: "Juggernaut" indeed turned out to be an overly mature record and a great leap forward compared to "Periphery II" - not only because of the increasing average song length. The first part called “Alpha” focuses on the character’s development, whereby “Omega” reveals some gut-wrenching events in his life. Being given a detailed self-written story that revolves around a character, his feelings and his intense experiences, Periphery were given the opportunity to include as many different musical elements into “Juggernaut” as possible in order to illustrate the different moods and events in the character’s life. “Juggernaut” however is the first album the whole band worked together towards a distinct goal: To tell a story through music by creating a conceptual album. With the first two albums, Periphery basically presented a row of more or less isolated songs. As many know, the songwriting and recording process for the two albums "Juggernaut: Alpha" and "Juggernaut: Omega" has been delayed due to several events - Misha Mansoor had the idea of a concept album called "Juggernaut" already seven years ago - but this month, "Juggernaut" is finally here and I think I'm speaking for every fan when I'm telling you that we are all losing our minds about that. Founded as a solo project by Misha Mansoor, the US progressive metal band Periphery made it to one of the most important acts worldwide with only two albums and two EPs.
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