[Review] Periphery - Clear

Periphery is definitely not for everyone, with 3 guitar players and a tendency to make a joke of themselves with silly song titles and some cheesy melodies/lyrics it's easy to understand why the band is so polarizing. To make it more difficult for the newcomers their records are harder to digest than a bag full of scissors, but their new EP, "Clear" takes the band in a different direction.

Their second EP (a little distraction before the release of their long awaited third LP "Juggernaut") is composed of 6 songs, each written by a different member of the band based on the general theme of the "overture" which opens the album.

The idea is nice, and it's certainly entertaining (I would love to see other bands like Mastodon do something like this), by listening to each song you can separate the elements that form Periphery's sound and find out who's behind them, and who are their influences. "The Parade Of Ashes" for example, written by vocalist Spencer Sotelo, shows a clear Nine Inch Nails influence during the first half, while the chorus on "Feed The Ground" sounds a lot like Slipknot (they recorded a cover of a Slipknot song for their second album), and with the exception of the songs created by guitarist Misha Mansoor and bassist Adam Getgood (both instrumental), the rest are much more straightforward than most of Periphery's work. The only drawback (not counting whether you can absorb some of the cheesiness or not) is that the songs don't actually feel like a continuation of the overture, but the idea still comes across. 

In short, if you are a fan of Periphery, you should check this out, and if you aren't it's a good starting place to be introduced to their sound, musician by musician.

7/10