Periphery (album)

Untitled

Periphery is the debut studio album by American progressive metal band Periphery, signed by Sumerian Records and released on April 20, 2010. Many songs on the track list had been written long before the release date but due to vocalist complications the debut album had been postponed on several occasions. Former vocalist Chris Barretto had nearly finished recording the album before he and the band parted ways months before its release. Rather than release the songs with Barretto's vocals, the band decided to rerecord Barretto's songs with Spencer Sotelo. This is the only Periphery album which features Alex Bois.

Track listing

No.	Title	Length
1.	"totla who gets ragged by lishi"	4:49
2.	"The Walk"	5:06
3.	"Letter Experiment"	6:51
4.	"Jetpacks Was Yes!"	3:57
5.	"Light"	5:50
6.	"All New Materials"	5:20
7.	"Buttersnips"	5:54
8.	"Icarus Lives!"	3:11
9.	"Totla Mad"	4:00
10.	"Ow My Feelings"	6:06
11.	"Zyglrox"	5:06
12.	"Racecar"	15:23

iTunes Bonus Tracks

No.	Title	Length
13.	"Captain On"	3:13
14.	"Ragtime Dandies"	1:12

UK Bonus Track

No.	Title	Length
13.	"Eureka"	4:51

• As well as releasing two exclusive bonus tracks, instrumental versions of the original twelve songs of the album are also available in the iTunes store
• The iTunes bonus track "Ragtime Dandies" can also be found at the end of "Icarus Lives!" on the CD version of the album

Trivia

• There are two references to Greek mythology in the album. "Icarus Lives!" references the story of Daedalus and Icarus and "Letter Experiment" describes a journey to the underworld. The lyrics to both of these songs were written by Casey Sabol, who shows a prominent interest in mythology and mysticism.

• The album's track "Jetpacks Was Yes!" refers to the television show Arrested Development. In Episode 45, "Mr. F", George Bluth Sr. decides to purchase his jet-pack from the Japanese website entitled "Jetpacks Was Yes".

• The album's track "Light" was named after the main character in the Anime series Death Note who is named "Raito (Light) Yagami". The track "Eureka" is also named after an anime character.

• "The Walk" and "Letter Experiment" are the two oldest songs on the album having been originally written about 5 years earlier. They were even played at Periphery's first show ever on March 11, 2006, but are still regularly played in their sets on recent tours. The original versions of these two songs have completely different vocal lines, as well as having some minor differences in instrumentation due to the frequent line-up changes in the intervening period.

• "Totla Mad" was inspired by a post that Misha Mansoor found on an internet forum in responsse to an argument or disagreement, which exclaimed "U R TOTLA MAD!".

• The album was recorded instrumentally in the summer of 2009 in the attempt for a 2009 fall release. In the time that vocalist Chris Barretto was fired from the band and current vocalist Spencer Sotelo was hired, Misha Mansoor had come across some new recording and mixing techniques and decided to re-record the instruments on the album to ensure it would sound as good and up to date as possible.

Personnel

• Spencer Sotelo — lead vocals
• Misha "Bulb" Mansoor — guitar, programming, producer
• Tom Murphy — bass, backing vocals
• Alex Bois — guitar, backing vocals
• Matt Halpern — drums, percussion
• Jake Bowen — guitar, programming

All instruments produced, mixed and mastered by Misha Mansoor

All vocals recorded and produced by Matt Murphy at Illuminate Studios

All lyrics by Chris Barretto and Periphery except:

• "Icarus Lives!" Written by Periphery and Casey Sabol
• "Insomnia" Written by Periphery, Chris Barretto, and Casey Sabol
• "Letter Experiment" Written by Periphery, Chris Barretto, and Casey Sabol
• "Jetpacks Was Yes!" Written by Periphery and Matt Murphy

Guest Appearances:

• Adam 'Nolly' Getgood of Red Seas Fire — Guest guitar solo on Totla Mad
• Jeff Loomis of Nevermore — Guest guitar solo on Racecar
• Elliot Coleman of Sky Eats Airplane — Guest vocals on Racecar
• Casey Sabol formerly of Periphery — Guest vocals on Racecar (although Sabol has repeatedly denied this: Jake Bowen later explained to a fan via his formspring account that the part was a one-off take done by Sabol that the band decided to keep on the final recording. This means that Sabol possibly had no idea that his vocals had been used.)

Charts

Album

Year	Chart	Peak
2010	The Billboard 200	128
2010	Top Hard Rock Albums	12
2010	Top Heatseekers	2
2010	Top Independent Albums	18
2010	Top Rock Albums	39

External links

• Official Periphery MySpace Page
• Periphery Label