#38: Periphery – Periphery II: This Time It's Personal (2012)Genre: Mathcore/Progressive MetalHow did I find out about Periphery? It’s pretty easily my brothers favorite band, and I used to laugh off those goddamn growls, but slowly delving into the world of Periphery, I secretly checked out some Periphery stuff, because I was embarrassed to admit I started liking it
. Picking a favorite album wasn’t that hard, as it doesn’t only have my favorite song, it’s also in my eyes the most consistent. Periphery is basically like experimental prog metal, with heavy mathcore influences, something like that. So expect (for the most part) heavy verses with a clean chorus, layered with some very busy instrumentals, PtH is probably the closest they come to in terms of musical style, but they’re very distinctive. The way the tracklist is shaped up here makes it feel way more like a complete album than their previous effort, having some good intro and outro tracks on the second one. I’m also a fan of the little breather moments spread out throughout the album, like on the end of
Facepalm Mute, makes for a great album experience, although I don’t think it flows all that perfectly into
Ji . I never figured I would ever listen to this band like.. 5 years ago, but I'm glad I eventually tried.
Favorite song: Ragnarok: It’s a fairly short track considering the last part is more of a transition, but for some reason I’ve loved this song for as long as I know Periphery, and I think the ending is just beautiful.
Other recommendations:Scarlet: The most radio-friendly song on the album, and frankly, the catchiest. Still has some heavy elements to keep it “Periphery”, but it’s very accessible.
Erised: Alright DT fanboys, here’s the song with the John Petrucci guest solo, if you didn’t know, Jake Bowen is the nephew of JP, so they have teh connections (they also toured with Dream Theater). Anyway cool song as a whole, the solo is definitely not something to miss out on. But yea this song has catchy vocals, a cool not-over-the-top drum solo followed by the JP guest solo which ends the song.
The Gods Must Be Crazy!: Fun song with great melodies, also a little heavier than the two previous recommendations, although it’s kinda similar to Scarlet in some ways.
#37: Sum 41 – Chuck (2004)Genre: Punk Rock/Hard RockSum 41, hell yeah! One of those
childhood bands for me, and this was the album that started it all. It didn’t yet have the heavy punk-y influence that Sum 41 became famous for (although some songs already have this style), this album was way more on the hard rock/metal side of things. Maybe from a guy with Three Days Grace and Shinedown in the honorable mentions this wasn’t as unexpected, and I think Chuck has been in top 50’s before, which is great. No doubt there’s some very heavy influences from other bands that are almost identical in some ways, tell me you’ve listened to
The Bitter End and did
not think of Metallica’s
Battery, same goes for
Some Say, those verses sound an awful lot like Oasis’
Wonderwall. Some people can’t stand when a band does this, I just see it as tributes, in the end they’ve given both songs their own twists and made it ‘
them’. Musically this band is definitely not as diverse as some of the other bands on this list, and they don’t need to be, because they have their own style going for them, and it works pretty damn well. The heavy songs are energetic and powerful, the mellow songs are moving and melodic.
Favorite song:We’re All To Blame: My first Sum 41 song, and still in my eyes their best. It’s like a mix of everything on this album, the heavy aspects return in the verses, the slow parts return in the chorus. Well, if you need a summary of this album, listen to this song.
Other recommendations:The Bitter End: Fuck yeah, I love Battery, and this is like a shorter version of Battery, a little more in your face. Only thing missing is the wonderful acoustic intro.
Pieces: Easily the most popular song, if you’ve ever heard a song off this album it’s probably this radio hit.
88: Pretty similar style to that of
Pieces, but this one’s a bit more uplifting, with the energetic chorus.
#36: Iron Maiden – A Matter Of Life And Death (2006)Genre: Heavy MetalNo doubt the reunion era of Iron Maiden was a step down from their pre-reunion era time, but they still put out some of my favorite Maiden albums, this was by far their best album of the newer albums though! They developed a style that, while going back to their roots, sounds very fresh. Honestly I couldn’t be more happy when hearing Iron Maiden sounding
this good once again. They have their smashingly heavy songs like Brighter Than a Thousand Suns, even some progressive elements in a few songs. And like always, they’re not afraid to tie together some ideas and create a few long songs. I’ve seen people say that Bruce did great on The Book of Souls, while I agree it’s impressive for his age, sadly I didn’t like his vocals on the new album at all, this one though, definitely my favorite Bruce performance of all the post-2k albums. I’ve always been returning to AMOLAD when I feel like listening to some heavy ass Iron Maiden mixed with cool melodies, and most of all, some of the best choruses in their career, even though they’re mostly the same repeating sentence. I’m glad I still had the chance to see them live, such a great experience, and a concert I’ll never forget, a bunch of songs played being from this album.
We've seen Seventh Son in the honorable mentions, and now this darker sounding album from the recent years, and prepare for some more Maiden in the near future!
Favorite song:The Longest Day: This song just fits the mood of the album so perfectly, starts out very sinister, and has a very simple but catchy chorus.
Other recommendations: The Reincarnation of Benjamin Breeg: Favorite overall song in terms of vocals on this album, and that guitar riff is simple, but just so good!
Brighter Than A Thousand Suns: Might very well be the heaviest IM song I know of, and for good reason.
The Pilgrim: A little simpler and shorter song than most on this album, and probably not as loved, but this was my introduction to the album and I still love it to death.