Music; Muzak; Muse, Ick!

I've run into a bit of a slump with listening to new music lately. Just been recycling the old albums over and over again. This should change coming up here though as there are a bunch of albums coming out soon. They were all announced thirty-two years ago. In the meantime I relistened to some Periphery, a Prog Metal Djent band. Or as I like to call it, awesome.

Periphery is probably a little much for most people as they can melt your face off, but like most bands like this, they have a soft side. Also a silly side, as can be seen in the names of their last two albums: Periphery 4: Hail Stan! & Periphery V: Djent is Not a Genre. I've previously listened to them, just enjoying it as a whole and noticing guitar stuff as I am a guitar player (Also their vocalist, who rules). This time I've really picked up some other stuff.

Their vocalist comes from a punk influence and has that very stereotypical punk/emo singing style, but has the pipes to add lots of gravel to it when he wants. He also has a nice growl and scream. I know there are ways of screaming and growling to make sure you don't hurt yourself but it still amazes me that a guy like this can scream at the top of his lungs and still have a wonderful signing voice. I would have torn my vocal chords to shreds (And how is his wife? To shreds you say.).

Amazing vocals and guitars aside, there is also a drummer and a bass player. Or, as I like to call them, The Rhythm Section (Copyright Andrew Pilon, 2025). The thing I noticed about the bass lately is the distortion on it. I often hear guys talking about the fuzz on a bass but in the end it always blends in with the guitars and all you hear is the bass notes outside of the fuzz. It helps the sound on the whole but you can't pick out the bass (unless there is a solo). This guy is different. I can pick out the bass fuzz. Part of that is because both guitarists are off doing their own thing so the bass isn't covered by them. But another part of that is just the intensity of the bass. I mean, this guy quit the band and they still made him play on their next studio album so they must like him.

The drums are the other part. Imagine a metal version of that dude that played on Bedlam in Goliath. OK, now pull it back just a little bit. He doesn't do a roll on every-Thomas Pridgen?-thing but a tom is always being hit somewhere and it's never the same ry. I don't know how you write something like that. Whether it's this guy, Mike Portnoy playing Taylor Swift, Danny Carey or Lars Ulrich, these are guys playing at the absolute limit of their skills so to be able to come up with a beat and then just keep adding and adding and adding. I guess that's why they get paid money to do it. Most of us wouldn't have the time to do that but if that was your day job I suppose.

Anyway, not much today. Just some musical observations. I can't wait till the new albums come out, including one from a recently reunited Beardfish. They keep changing the layout of Spotify just ever so slightly and I feel that it doesn't give me as many suggestions as it used to. Probably even worse now that a computer is running the whole thing. Or it could just be me. Or....IT'S AN ALIEN RACE COME TO EAT OUR CD'S! STOP TH----actually, They can have the CD's.