Samples of all the songs can be heard on amazon:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Periphery-II/dp/B008A56ZPG

This album kicks so much ass! The biggest beef people have is Spencer's vocals which get significantly better on this album by the way. You can't deny the kid's talent (one of the most ridiculous vocal ranges I've ever heard) and dedication to improve. An absolute masterpiece as far as I'm concerned. 10/10

Leaked.

It's not bad, at first listen I like it more than the debut.

I feel the same sense of extreme indifference that I did for the last one. His vocals have improved, but the compositions just aren't as exciting. So it's about on par.

Written by The Benighted on 01.07.2012 at 01:55

I feel the same sense of extreme indifference that I did for the last one. His vocals have improved, but the compositions just aren't as exciting. So it's about on par.

Yea. Composition and style aren't change, that't true - this djenty and virtuous stuff aren't impress.

But yea, vox improved, that's definitely good.

It's a bit dissapointing album. Vox is still good, but rest? It doesn't change (Irony - progressive music that don't improve? Shame on you Bulb...)

I turned them down for the vocals with their debut, but now I can stand them a little more. In fact they sound somewhat similar to Protest The Hero, but heavier.
Ok record, I will revisit their debut I guess.

Written by Unhealer on 03.07.2012 at 18:34

I turned them down for the vocals with their debut, but now I can stand them a little more. In fact they sound somewhat similar to Protest The Hero, but heavier.
Ok record, I will revisit their debut I guess.

I was quite indifferent about checking this out, but Protest the Hero reference has now piqued my interest. Let's see how they stand against each other.

Guys, I have no idea what you're talkin' about. This album is superb, so much better than their first one. Spencer sounds great(a lot less whiney) and the songs actually make sense instead of being just a bunch of riffs thrown together.

So many bands have tried to copy Periphery's "djent" style recently, and this is band telling them who's the boss!!
They raised the bar so high with this one, hell if I was a kid starting a djent band right now, I'd quit and shut up about the genre for at least a year.

At first I was really disappointed from this album, but the more I listened to it, the more I liked it. In fact, I think I like it even more than their previous full-length album. I don't know about you guys, but I'm absolutely pleased by this release.

I need to hurry up and buy this so I can hear it in it entirety! What I've heard so far is really fresh and sounds awesome!

Still only on my early listens, but I really like it so far. I'm still not sure about 'djent' as a genre, but I like this as a fresh take on progressive metal, much like protest the hero. And yes, there are deffinitely Protest the Hero moments. The songwriting style is more towards 'Light' and 'Letter Experiment' than some of the more straight metalcore songs on their debut. Interesting point about the vocals (which sound pretty great here, even if they are emoish Linkin Park kind of sound, they are still excellent) the first album used autotune/auto pitch correct making them sound so unnatural and robotic on their first release. Also, he's got a pretty bad ass hardcore growl too.

I like it, but it's a lot more commercial and poppy in comparison to the last album, but the vocals (my only problem with the band) seem to have improved a lot. So yeah. I'm happy with it.

Favourite tracks are Make Total Destroy, Scarlet and Masamune.

Agree with the vocal comments; they are really really better than in the debut album, which is the main reason I couldn't enjoy that one. I belive this one is closer to PTH in the vocals as I said above, the riffs are really well placed together and the songs have a less pop feeling.

Written by [user id=127889] on 28.06.2012 at 12:30

Leaked.

Bravo!

Sure it takes talent to reach high notes and sustain them (Mariah Carey, Celine Dion, etc.) but what makes a good vocalist is the delivery. If the majority of a vocalist's output seems whiny and out of place, it's not going to sound "good". In this case, I'd argue the vocalist here is undeniably talented, but his delivery could use some work.

Jeez, the more I listen to this album, the better it gets.
Check out the song 'Mile Zero'. One of their best ever imo.

The growling and screaming is better than many great Death metal vocalists however the whiny metalcore singing is very off-putting. Also wtf is up with that album title? Pure cheese.

Why would people rate this a 2 or a 3??? this ain't no LuLu lol but i can see why some people wouldn't like this but a 2! i used to think it was an 8 for the longest time but with every listen comes change

A few generic riffs and at times the purely clean vocals can prove irritating. Otherwise the leads are original and creative, the majority of the riff-work is solid, and the vocalist's range is outstanding.

Edit: I had no idea what I was talking about...the majority of the tracks are phenomenal. And the vocalist....

Amazing album, get's better every time you listen to it.

I see so much similarity between the songs.boring

Definitely better than the debut!
The vocals are truly something to behold, and seem to really fit in with the musical approach they took with this one!

Always been a bit iffy towards this band, but I've had a bit of a djent 'rediscovery' re-trying bands from the scene that didn't really click with me (Monuments and TesseracT's Altered State kicked it off). I still wasn't all that convinced by the debut, but I can fully admit that listening to this again was a way better experience than I anticipated.

Bought this to complete my Periphery collection, after all, they are one of my favourite bands.

I've listened to this a few times over a few years now and my thoughts on it boil down to this: I don't mind lengthy albums, but this one doesn't justify its runtime. There are good songs and good moments, but not enough, and they are spread thin over a bit of average chugging and songwriting. Still a million times better than the debut, but nowhere near their subsequent efforts.

Written by 24emd on 24.10.2023 at 13:02

Bought this to complete my Periphery collection, after all, they are one of my favourite bands.

I've listened to this a few times over a few years now and my thoughts on it boil down to this: I don't mind lengthy albums, but this one doesn't justify its runtime. There are good songs and good moments, but not enough, and they are spread thin over a bit of average chugging and songwriting. Still a million times better than the debut, but nowhere near their subsequent efforts.

Curious to see that Periphery are one of your favourite bands but yet you don't like this album; for me it's comfortably their best. I get the length issue, but by that token I'd imagine it would affect your feelings towards all their albums, as they're around the same length. I'd say this is perhaps their only album without filler/unenjoyable songs, and it's also got the highest proportion of top-tier songs (the Muramasa/Ragnarok/Masamune trilogy, Have A Blast, Scarlet, Luck As A Constant, Make Total Destroy and Erised). I sometimes find my attention drifting in the stretch Epoch thru Mile Zero, but pretty much all their albums have parts that lose me (P3 used to not, but for some reason I startd losing my appetite for some songs on there).

Written by musclassia on 24.10.2023 at 19:05

...

Yeah I'm a little surprised too 60+minute length isn't something that immediately turns me off, but I feel like there are a few too many songs that don't really offer anything interesting, unlike the subsequent albums which all have varying song styles, structures and lengths. I loved everything since P3, (Juggernauts were also pretty good) so they're definitely a band I follow, and would most likely enjoy anything they put out from now on. I just suppose they had a weak start imo. There are still bangers on this record and the debut though.