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Review Summary: Hampered by awful vocals, cringeworthy melodic sections and almost complete lack of substance, the first half of Juggernaut exists as one of the first misfires of 2015. Progressive metal has released some of the best pieces of music in recent memory, but likewise, it also has a tendency to make for tedious listens by relying on their technical chops to get by as a band . This happens to be one of the plentiful problems that exists on Periphery’s Juggernaut: Alpha and sadly, it doesn't stop at the over reliance on musicianship alone. Unfortunately, the music often comes off as cheesy due to the undeniably pop influenced delivery of literally everything the album has to offer. The transitions between metal and the more melodic pop sections prove to be extremely awkward as well. In addition to these gripes, Juggernaut: Alpha also features an atrocious vocal performance. Despite some occasionally enjoyable melodies and screams, Spencer Sotelo's tone really jars the ears because of how whiny and pitchy he sounds well singing most of his cleans. Make no mistake that all of these cons mentioned above makes for a truly lackluster listen.
Take “A Black Minute” for example, with its beautiful atmospheric guitar work paving the way in the beginning. The promising introduction quickly goes downhill once his ugly vocals come in and the rest of the song barely has anything worthwhile as well. The succeeding track known as “Mk Ultra” proves to be a bit of an improvement with its admirably performed instrumentation that could be compared to Animals As Leaders. The band’s performance here is well done, but it quickly loses the listener’s attention due to its average screams and lack of any emotional depth. However, “Heavy Heart” possesses different problems that includes Spencer’s terrible vocals and lyrics. Fortunately, the song balances itself out with less technically focused instrumentation and Spencer’s surprisingly potent high notes. Despite the pros and cons evening out here, what this really makes for is yet another subpar track nonetheless.
Another problem that exists on Juggernaut: Alpha lays in the record’s way of coming off as cheesy doing the numerous melodic sections that lean more towards pop than metal. Coupled with seemingly out of place harsh vocals in the title track as well as laughable keyboards in the same song's introduction, the concept of cheesiness shows itself quite often on the record. The vibe in question here also brings down songs like “Rainbow Gravity” because it’s a song the has quite a bit of potential with it boasting some enjoyable guitar work, but the annoying transition from a more metal vibe to pop really rubs the listener the wrong way.
All in all, this is an album that could have been something if the vocals were improved and the pop/metal elements were meshed together in a different manner. It’s truly a shame because everything on this record happens to be played extremely well, but alas, this is easily overlooked because the transitions between heavy metal to unfortunate pop metal only manages to come off as unsatisfying and cringeworthy. Pop is by no means a bad genre and is quite impressive if done correctly like any kind of music, but it just doesn't flow seamlessly with the metal in their music. Despite some admittedly enjoyable interludes and the occasional burst of brilliance in certain sections of the album, most of this record comes off as laughable, awkward, and ultimately boring due to its lack of emotion. Make no mistake that 2015 has acquired its first misfire with Periphery’s Juggernaut: Alpha.
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Album Rating: 2.0
Uh oh here will go! Sorry it's just a complete coincidence I posted this right after the 5 review lol
I know this is harsh, but as usual any critiques are welcome!
| | | Album Rating: 3.0
Hot damn, a negative mongi review?! Will read after this game of league.
| | | Album Rating: 3.5
But what do you think of Omega?
| | | Album Rating: 2.0
Haven't heard that one man I'll probably listen to that soon. For now, I just listened to this for what it is.
@Hogan yea it's been know to happen from time to time haha
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love you Mongi for fighting the war on cheesiness, probs the worst thing in music especially prog since its inception
| | | Album Rating: 2.0
Thanks dude and it'd not always bad. I mean Dream Theater plays it pretty well. I'm not the biggest fan of them but gotta give credit to where it's due man.
| | | Album Rating: 5.0
bout to read
| | | Album Rating: 2.8
Hot damn, a negative mongi review?! [2]
Good read, agreed with most of this
| | | Album Rating: 2.0
Haha thanks dude. I'm thankful to have finally purged my mind of these thoughts with this xD
| | | Album Rating: 5.0
So Rainbow Gravity would be better if it was just all boring meshuggah rip off chugs, i see. also, i wonder if this album was cheesy or not, I couldn't tell =p
Good review. There are a few things I'd like to address though:
"Coupled with seemingly out of place screams in the song’s atmosphere and laughable keyboards on the title track" - what song is the first part talking about? is it still the title track?
"alas, this is easily overlooked because the transitions between heavy metal to cheesy pop metal only manages to come off as uninteresting and cringeworthy" - I don't get how something can be both uninteresting and cringeworthy at the same time. Like, if it's cringeworthy, you reacted to it, so it held your interest right?
"The succeeding track known as “Mk Ultra” proves to be a bit of an improvement with its admirably performed instrumentation that could be compared to Animal As Leaders. The band’s performance here is well done, but it quickly loses the listener’s attention due to its only passable screams and lack of any emotional depth." - "known as" is a bit redundant, you can get rid of that. this has nothing to do with the writing and all with opinions, but also why do you consider it emotionless? the screams in that song seem pretty desperate and insane to me, as does the playing itself.
| | | Album Rating: 5.0
it also seems like you spend a lot of time in this review repeating the same thing, which is that the pop sections are cheesy. you tell us this in the first paragraph, then the third paragraph is the same information as the first paragraph with little in the way of new information aside from an example.
It would work better if you spent less time on it in the intro paragraph, then had a whole paragraph about what the vocals were cheesy and provided examples of moments where they were cheesy. Or given a bit better of a description - in the first paragraph you're saying "sometimes spencer is ok I guess, but most of the time he isn't" it would help to know a bit more specifically. especially because you list the pop as being cheesy and a bad part of the album yet say his choruses are one of the only redeeming factors.
I know I'm putting a lot on you, but I'm just trying to help you organize your thoughts better in the future =o
| | | Album Rating: 2.0
Thanks for reading man.
To the first one: Yes the title track. I'll make that more clear.
Second: You have a point there. I'll change a few words.
Third: Yet again I can change that too! As for the emotionless part, personally bands that seem to rally on their ability to play a lot don't really make me feel anything. Metal tries to get the blood pumping and make you feel "alive" from my POV, but I just don't get that here because of the pop elements. It's not that pop=bad, not by any means, but it combined with metal just sucks imo. It certainly doesn't help that I hate the vocals and lyrics too haha
Also, I do like Dream Theater a lot which is pretty reliant on their musicianship and Animals As Leaders even more so there are exceptions.
| | | Album Rating: 2.5
Animals As Leaders are great live just putting that out there. Tried listening to this just now and couldn't get past the first three songs. Blah.
| | | Album Rating: 5.0
No problem dude, I love different opinions haha. I think it's super important to have perspective on everything we listen to, and everything you said I can totally understand.
Personally I think this album is MORE emotional than their previous albums, especially the first one which suffered a lot from what you described, because there are less riffs crammed into the songs. And yes - I really get way more of an urge to sing along to these albums than to headbang. This album definitely needs a review from people who just wouldn't have liked it anyway (not sarcasm, that's my legitimate opinion) because the combo isn't for everyone and there are definitely elements of this that could be called cheesy
| | | Album Rating: 5.0
Also I think you would like Omega better, but I don't know by how much. I think people are really
overstating the differences between the two. Omega is better but it's really more in how songs are
structured and not in how different it sounds
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it seems like you spend a lot of time in this review repeating the same thing [2]
not your best review but it's not bad by any means
| | | Album Rating: 2.0
Sorry that was the thing I meant to correct earlier
| | | Album Rating: 2.0
Ok changed some notable stuff but I'm too tired to go more in depth right now so I'll edit more tomorrow haha
| | | Album Rating: 5.0
People say the lyrics and stuff are bad but honestly I think they're better than they were before. They're still like trying too hard to be progressive, but the story and stuff seems interesting. the lyric sheets JUST came out so we'll see how it turns out
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haven't jammed but correct rating
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