u/ComprehensiveAd1632

Quick preface: this is all coming from a sense of love for the band. Any criticism I may have is more of a reflection of where I am and what I like currently, as well as my own personal thoughts of what I would like to hear from them in the future. I specify that because what I like tends to change every once in a while, so younger/older me (or you, or the band) may agree/disagree with my current thoughts, and that's totally okay. If the band were to ever read this, I also wouldn't want them to get the impression that I would pick apart their art for the sake of tearing it down. I'm just someone who loves music, loves talking about music, and one of my character flaws is that I tend to deeply criticize things that I really like or love lol.

Here's some general thoughts in no particular order:

• Love the vocal variety. I noted that Spencer is exploring more vocal range/tonality in this album than any others I've heard, and I personally thought it worked and enjoyed the experimentation/expression. In fact, I actually like the "different" vocals a lot of times more than the "normal" vocals that one would expect from him. This applies to screams, but in particular I think the lower range and different tonality singing really resonates with me.
• I want them to continue to experiment more with what Periphery's sound is, but sometimes I think they don't know how to bridge the gap between what they've already established and the "new" sounds. I will get into specifics in the individual songs, but between P5 and APWD, there will be songs that completely deviate from what most people associate Periphery with. On paper, I'm not against that, however I think the reason it doesn't work for me is the songwriting/structure/execution of said experimentation. To be clear though, I want them to continue experimenting beyond what most people think Periphery is. I might even have a hot take and say I hope that they start to abandon the idea of even doing another "P" album and instead do something else like APWD. If this seems confusing, I'll try to clear it up in the individual songs themselves.
• Regarding song structure - they've never been a band that I think has had traditionally great songwriting and structure. I specify "traditional songwriting" because, other than a few exceptions (and those exceptions are arguably loose interpretations of traditional), they don't write traditional songs in a traditional format. Sometimes the result is incredible, and sometimes I think this really hurts their songs. To be clear, I'm not saying that "traditional songs = good songs, non-traditional = bad". What I am saying is that I do tend to think it's easier to write better songs in a traditional format. Conversely, I think it's usually more difficult to write good songs in a non-traditional format. I should also clarify that when I say traditional, I'm referencing the general pop formula of: intro, verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, chorus, outro (or some resemblance of this). If you're questioning why I bring up a pop formula and Periphery in the same paragraph, it's because a lot of the songs I really like from them often loosely follow this structure - and their deviations from this either stand out in a really positive or negative way for me. To summarize what this thought is really getting at: lately I like more traditional structure as opposed to the "no rules approach" that I used to hold above all else, so that will naturally cause some bias when listening to a band like Periphery. I'll want them to either sit more in the camp of "traditional", or fully deviate from traditional and go "no-rules".
• This might as well be a part 2 to the above point, but it is kind of a separate thing. Regarding song length: I love that they're shooting for shorter songs. Not because I'm Tik-Tok brained or have excessive ADHD, but because I'm finding that I prefer short/sweet to overdone lately. When I revisited their discography before this album, I was finding that some songs really just went on for too long in a way that detracted from the overall experience as opposed to enhancing it. I recognize this is a really delicate balance that's difficult to manage when you stray from traditional song formatting, and I love celebrating it when it works, but I also want to be honest when it doesn't. Ultimately the reason I like that the songs are shorter is because, to some extent, it forces you to focus on the best things about the song (both as the songwriter and the audience), and if something doesn't work particularly well, the song doesn't overstay it's welcome. I'd rather re-listen to a great, short song over and over, than have long songs that have really amazing parts in them surrounded by a lot of "meh" that I'm tempted to sift through just to listen to the part I really like.
• I haven't looked too deeply into what the album is about from the band's perspective or lyrically, but I have heard that to some extent it is about loneliness. I haven't done a deep dive lyrically or anything like that - I just know the lyrics of songs that I was able to pick out as I heard them. 95% of the thoughts I have are about the melody/harmony/rhythm, not necessarily what the "message" of the song is from a lyrical perspective (there's at least one exception to this).
• Something I realized after typing all this is that I didn't make much comment about the instrumentals for the songs. I've seen other people say this album isn't super riff-oriented, which is true, but I think it's not just that. The instrumentals seem to take a bit more of a back-seat on this album and the focus seems to be more on the songwriting than guitar driven djent/metalcore. Ultimately, I actually think that's a good thing, even though I would've also probably enjoyed some more riffy songs. I much prefer a good song to a good riff any day of the week. It's just awesome when you can combine both things lol.
• A few songs really hit me harder after the initial listen, so even in typing this now, I'm open to these current feelings and thoughts changing as time goes on. That said, right now I'm feeling like about half of this album is great, and half of it misses the mark.

Okay let's get into the songs:

1. Obsession - overall a good introduction to what the rest of the album will be. I love the synth sounds they're getting. It sounds like you're in an eerie, haunted space station. Not jump-scare haunted, but more psychological. Like you're realizing something is wrong, but nothing has fallen apart quite yet. I like how that sits next to the almost black metal parts that follow it. It's a great juxtaposition that highlights why this style of prog can be so satisfying to me - and I think this is the kind of stuff that Periphery can do exceptionally well. The outro/ending good - nothing too fancy or special.
2. Talk - definitely one of my favorites. Upon first listen I thought the chorus of this song was kind of weak. Overall I think it's the weaker part of the song, but it has grown a bit more on me. I love the initial line "They say to take it day by day", but that the second half falls flat melodically on vocals. I think they could have done that same melody again on the second half, then varied it up every second line. His performance and tone is fantastic - this criticism is purely on the melody. Everything else around the chorus is basically just standard Periphery carnage that I (and I imagine most people) fucking love lol. I love the syncopated guitar/drums in the first verse especially. Nothing else too really note - overall awesome song.
3. Mr. God - on first listen I thought this was just okay. I remember hearing it as a single as thinking that it was kind of run-of-the-mill Periphery (super heavy, dark, breakdowns, etc) but I also remember noting that it didn't overstay due to the shorter length. To clarify: run-of-the-mill Periphery is still good, but not mind-blowing at this point. After hearing it in the album context I think it's a good fit next to the other songs. In some ways it *is* run-of-the-mill Periphery, but next to some of the other more experimental songs it serves as a tethering to their old, but slightly newer version of sound. Grooves hard af. Awesome song.
4. Heaven on High - this is the first song that really stood out as having great "parts" but that I didn't feel like the whole song as a whole hit the mark. The intro is powerful and beautiful. I love the softer verses. The chorus suffers in a similar way to Talk, where melodically I think it's a bit uninteresting, and admittedly I think the vocals could have taken a different approach to their delivery. It feels at points a bit over the top for the underlying "pretty" sounding instrumental. I think what could've sold me on it is a cleaner, less gritted up delivery. I always feel a bit uncomfortable criticizing vocal delivery - as I have firsthand experience singing and I know how vulnerable of a process it is. That said, if I was their producer, I would've really pushed for the vocals to try a cleaned up or even softer approach, maybe one that more closely resembles the verses. The guitar solo was awesome, no notes really. The section afterwards, however, is an example of where I think a lot of prog songs tends to suffer. In this case, they threw in this pretty insanely heavy section in a song that this specific song didn't really call for. Sometimes that works, sometimes not so much - and in this case I thought it didn't really serve the song. I like the part in isolation, but not wedged into a song that is more melodically driven like this. I acknowledge that perhaps the breakdown/heavy part is more lyrically driven than instrumentally, but at least for now it doesn't really change how I feel about it.
5. Unlocking - this is my favorite song on the album, and it's one of my favorite Periphery songs. Unfortunately I have basically the exact same criticism from Heaven on High in this song as well: the breakdown in the middle of the song feels really out of place. I'm imagining a version of the song where the (fucking incredible) post-chorus 1 goes directly into verse 2 and I think it would just be an overall better song for it. If you're starting to get the impression I don't like heaviness or breakdowns, a quick spoiler: Subhuman is a God-tier Periphery song and is my next favorite song on the album. This criticism I have doesn't stem from not liking heaviness, and it doesn't stem from the notion of putting a heavy part in a softer, more melodic song. For me, it's all about how you arrive at said part, or in other words, how you execute the transition. In both this song and Heaven on High, the heavier/breakdown sections feel like they're in their own world and are separate from the rest of the song. There's a way to present that kind of "jump" in music that I think is really engaging and works for the songs, and the cool thing is that there's not just one way to do it. System of a Down is my favorite band of all time, and I think they're pretty masterful at doing insane jumps (such as in Chop Suey's verse to chorus). If I had to boil it down to why I think it works in some songs than others, I really do think it's about transitions and presentation. Chop Suey works as a song so well because the verses (heavy) are next to an established chorus (soft) that both get equal time to exist together in a fucked up harmony. When you throw a crazily heavy breakdown that is otherwise really pretty and melodic - you *really* have to sell it somehow. Either through a really powerful or meaningful transition (like the whole song suddenly shifting, maybe even slowing down), or maybe lyrically the song is about the ebb/flow of emotion and requires something really powerful to match that energy. Like I said, there's no one way to do it, but in both this song and Heaven on High it just doesn't work for me. Otherwise though, one of the best Periphery songs to-date, and I hope they continue to explore this kind of sound more. This song is also one of the exceptions to the previously mentioned "not much attention to lyrics" because I did go out of my way to read the lyrics, as well as appreciating the chorus lyrics in context where the lyrics/melody seem to match energies so elegantly. The delivery of the lines "been a long time, unlocking myself" really do make me feel like he's transitioning from being in a place of weakness but coming out on top with what strength is left to move forward. It's the lower energy delivery of the first chorus, then amped up in both energy/octave in the last chorus that really does a mini-journey within the song itself that highlights what I love about songwriting. It's as if he's gaining strength as the song moves on and that the chorus lyrics are almost an affirmation that he really is going to "unlock" himself. Really powerful. I didn't expect the song to hit me so much.
6. Subhuman - I actually don't really have much to say about this. It's kind of a masterclass in how to make a stupid heavy, brutal song lol. As I said above, it's my 2nd favorite song from the album and a God-tier Periphery song. It does what it sets out to do, and it's short enough to be endlessly re-listenable. I will say that this song seems to follow a trend that I'm not sure the band is even aware of - in that since P4 they've been putting one song on the album that goes out of it's way to try to one-up themselves of being fucking insanely heavy and brutal lol. In P4 it was CHVRCH BVRNER, in P5 it was Everything is Fine!, in APWT it's Subhuman. I hope they keep doing this trend lol.
7. Blackwall - this was the only song that really disappointed me. This is one of the examples of a song that deviates from the "normal" Periphery sound that isn't executed well. The song starts strong and I was really digging the synthy vibe of it up until about 01:10 in the song. When the song kind of "drops out" and starts building up again, it *really* made me think we were about to get this new evolution of Periphery where they really heavily blended the kind of synth-scape sonic textures that I know at least Jake and Misha are big fans of *with* the heaviness of Periphery's "normal" sound. In my mind, I thought we were building into the band coming in, blending the established sonic landscape of the track that was already established with something more riffy/djent-like. I will admit that part of why I think this song falls flat is due to my own expectation of where it might go - which isn't totally fair to the song. Normally, you should assess a song for what it is, not for what it could be - and I think most people who aren't necessarily creative/imaginative for music would judge it exclusively for what it is. However, I'm not one of those people, and I really felt like this song was about to be a leap forward in terms of evolution for the band - one that blends the electronic elements that are usually subtly there as layering, and serving them as one direct sound. There's not one specific way they could've done that that would've worked for me, but I firmly believe they were (and still are) capable of moving their own sound forward in this way. However, the buildup starting around 01:10 kept building into... Kind of nothing? I realize that sounds a bit harsh, but the song basically drops out and then builds upon itself very slowly until just reaching a 2nd chorus. The 2nd chorus isn't especially impactful for any reason, and it took about 2/3 of the song's length to get back to it. Idk - to me this is just an example of unconventional songwriting that doesn't land. Which is disappointing, because I fucking love Synthwave, and I feel like the vibe they established at the beginning of the song was so good. From a technical perspective, all of the sounds they were making during the buildup were also pretty sick - I just think they would've functioned better in a soundtrack for a game/movie instead of a song on an album from a band? Subjective, I know. From my perspective, this is just a failed experiment, but I WANT them to keep experimenting, so failures are par for the course. For reference, I think Crush was a great song that did a similar-ish blend of genres that worked really well.
8. Malevolent - a bit lackluster for me. Spencer has some standout vocal performance on this song, but this song doesn't excel at anything really. It isn't disappointing in the way Blackwall was, it just didn't really have anything noteworthy about it other than some of Spencer's technique and some crazy squealies/djenting. I will also add that the 2nd verse section does go crazy hard on the instrumental and is so over the top that it's probably not fair to say it doesn't excel at having wonky, chaotic riffing lol, but Periphery is already excellent at doing this so I should really say it's not noteworthy compared to what's considered normal for them.
9. Carry On - another one of my favorites from the album. This song does a better execution of some of the concepts that I mentioned that I didn't like from Heaven on High and Unlocking. The heavy/soft sections each get their own ample time to express themselves, and even the transitions between the parts (instrumental drop outs) serve to separate the sections as opposed to haphazardly "running into" the heavy part from the soft part. Chorus melodies are catchy and grow from one chorus to the next, which as I noted from Unlocking, is just a fun and timeless method of songwriting that I'll never get sick of.
10. Neon Valley - also a bit lackluster for me. Without having read the lyrics intently, I get the impression that this song has some thematic importance, but the song itself meanders a bit and doesn't really explore too much sonic territory that is exciting. The short melodic/key changes don't hit in an impactful way. Spencer's vocal delivery in the chorus seems a bit like maybe he's not super comfortable in that range. He seems to open up a bit more towards the end of the song and his tone/expression sounds more natural. It's not just about high notes and all that, but I do think Spencer excels at those. There's something "low energy" about the entire song that feels like it maybe could have been a B-side. I hate giving negative criticism because I feel what I'm saying sounds super harsh, but it really is one of the more skippable songs on the album.
11. Everyone Dies Alone - if I don't get hate for everything else I've said so far, maybe I will for this, but I think this song is just okay. I'm a bit more familiar with the lyrics for this one since it came out as a single and, while I do appreciate the lyrical context of it all - I think the chorus vocal melody isn't great. It seems like another song where Spencer isn't in his best vocal range, but really I think it's the melody itself that just doesn't work for me. I think a lot of what surrounds the chorus are the great parts of the song, but it's always disappointing when the chorus (what should usually be the best part of a song) is worse than everything else around it.
12. A Pale White Dot - I'm the kind of person that finds it jarring when a band does something like this to end an album - especially after a song like Everyone Dies Alone. In isolation, I think this is a really pretty acoustic song that I think would fit as background music (in the best way possible) to a lot of really beautiful moments/scenery of life. But it feels completely separate from the album. I don't know the details, but I think I read somewhere that this is basically Mark's song on an acoustic? I don't know exactly, but I don't really care for it as an album closer for an album like this lol it doesn't really feel like a proper closer, and in way it makes Everyone Dies Alone almost a de facto "proper" album closer in the sense that it feels like it's the last song that feels like it actually belongs on this album. This is such an annoying criticism because I want to have a "no rules" approach and not care about things like this - but one big point of an album (as opposed to EP's or singles) to me has a lot to do with cohesion. Even coming from someone who genuinely loves prog music, if you throw an acoustic song like APWD next to Subhuman it kinda breaks my brain a bit, and not really in the way that I like prog to break my brain lol. To summarize: a really lovely song, not a great album closer.

If you read this far, I really would love to hear your thoughts and where you might agree or disagree with me. If anyone from the band reads this, please know that anything remotely negative comes from a place of fandom and not hate. I love music, I love making music, and art should exist for the sake of it - regardless of what I or anyone else thinks.