Lionsgate Canada

Due to Periphery’s four years of bland progressive metal that is implemented with Djent, I avoided listening to their fourth mainline album, Hail Stan for quite sometime, with the presumption of their more lackluster material they released after Juggernaut: Omega. However, I recently came upon this album again and decided to give it a full listen through to see whether I affirmed this conception. To be honest, I was completely wrong, this album is somewhat detached from he heavy djent style, to a more emotional grandeur. But to understand why I am wrong, we must look over each song and decide whether this album is truly worth a full listen. I will rank this out of five, so without further ado.

Reptile: 3

The nearly seventeen-minute song takes on a narrative journey about a war between the lower class and upper class, illustrated as David Icke’s theory of higher figures being shapeshifting lizards. However, due to the length of the song, it is only good for the first six-ish minutes. But overall, it presents a more blackened metalcore sound and has a grandiose that creates a really great opening track overall. 

Blood Eagle: 3

Blood Eagle’s instrumentation is quite simple with very basic deathcore sensibilities. One of the best parts of this song is its lyrical concept. The track is based upon the culture and storied downfall of the Vikings. There isn’t a whole lot of Viking metal within metal (outside of the Viking-metal subgenre). I kind of wish they made the choruses similar to the instrumentation of its predecessor.

CHVRCH BVRNER: 2

The first half of the album’s shorter songs are kind of lackluster with little to no differentiation or emotion. It’s just basic deathcore-esque chugging with more progressive capabilities. I think a lot of it comes down to time. The three minutes just isn’t time for them to fully flesh out a song to my nor theirs liking.

Garden In The Bones: 5

This song slaps. So the track’s verse and choruses remind me a lot of a more alternative take on classic rock or almost a post-grunge song. The ending of the song merges this with their heavier (as seen in the past two tracks) to kind of meld an emotional and genre-spanning counterpoint towards the end. Also, I liked the mixing of this song, which felt more like a live studio session than their normal mixing. It creates such a raw, but overall engaging track.

It’s Only Smiles: 5

So a big mainstay for this album starts here with the implementation of synths and then kind of institutes the key and overall attitude with the corresponding track. This song combines the metalcore style they are known for with a more pop-punk style to create this lighter feeling, and overall cheerful sound. The lyrical concepts reflect this attitude with Jake Vereidka’s lyrics speaking about the want to rise due to a mother figure they look up to, wanting the same for them. I love this part of the album because they combine a bunch of outside styles with their technical approach to djent and metalcore.

Follow Your Ghost: 4

The next track pretty much takes the style of CHVRCH BVRNER and Blood Eagle. However, there are two main factors why I prefer this song over the latter. The first is due to the application of a blackened deathcore sound, as reflected in Reptile. While also presenting lyrics that show the conditions of warfare and politics of pre-Roman/Medieval eras. These two factors spice up and make this structure readily listenable.

Crush: 4

The seventh song of this album comes from the brilliant mind of Misha Mansoor. They combine a cyberpunk aesthetic with melodic deathcore style. It is such a great song, with uplifting lyrical concepts. Towards the end, they implement full chorus-like synths and a black metal-esque final chorus. 

Sentient Glow: 2

The (almost) finale of the record isn’t the best, but I’m sure there is someone who would like this track. It’s just kind of bland, but it does present Periphery’s playstyle. I wish they had applied the grandeur of a lot of the other titles to a more vanilla version of metalcore sensibilities.

Satellites: 3

THIS IS WHAT I MEAN, this song applies Periphery’s style of progressive metal (hints: the longer runtimes) while giving a simplistic breath of fresh air while utilizing the metalcore approach they didn’t quite get in its predecessor. I just think it’s a very strong last track, and at the end of the day, that’s what you want.

Overall, this record IS one of the best Djent-based albums of all time, and makes me want to listen to some material that I have slept on before.