Periphery - Juggernaut (2015)

Periphery's most massive undertaking to date, Juggernaut continues in the vein of Periphery II but on a larger scale. 

The album shows the band at the peak of their creativity. The Alpha side is the poppy side with such songs as Rainbow Gravity and 22 Faces delivering the band's trademark mix of brutality and catchiness. 

Omega on the other hand is a more diverse and experimental affair. To highlight some of this diversity: The extremely catchy sing-along ballad Priestess sits alongside the thrash-influenced Graveless and the prog epic Omega. 

I absolutely love Periphery II, but here one gets the clear sense that the band have pushed themselves to write their most compelling, bombastic material to date. One particular area of excellence (though many would disagree on this) is Spencer Sotelo's vocals. His performance on PII was already a dramatic improvement from the debut album, but here he's upped his game even more and is making the songs that much more dramatic. 

On the downside, the album does feel a bit repetitive with the same djent-chug present on basically every song. It's not a huge issue, but there will definitely have to be some significant experimentation on the band's next album.

Overall though, this is an extremely impressive album and my favorite from Periphery so far. 

P.S. Misha Mansoor should REALLY make an electronic album. The bits I've heard on Juggernaut and PII are phenomenal but there simply aren't enough of them.

9/10