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Time and freedom breed invention. Without compromise, GRAMMY® Award-nominated quintet PERIPHERY—Misha Mansoor [guitar, programming], Jake Bowen [guitar, programming], Matt Halpern [drums], Spencer Sotelo [vocals], and Mark Holcomb [guitar]—enliven, enlarge, and expand the outer reaches of their signature progressive alternative metal on 2019’s Periphery IV: HAIL STAN [3DOT Recordings]. For the first time in a 13-year career, the group devoted an entire year to crafting the nine tracks comprising the album. This time around, they operated as an entirely independent outfit, recording it as the first PERIPHERY release for their own 3DOT Recordings. The band open up the proceedings with the 16-minute “Reptile.” Exemplifying a penchant for progression, it twists and turns through moments of bludgeoning groove, intricate fret fireworks, and melodic reprieve wrapped in what Marks calls a, “more saturated, aggressive, and darker tone than on the last albums.” Elsewhere on the record, with its incendiary chant and frenetic sensory assault, “CHVRCH BVRNER” might be “the most spastic Adderall-driven song we’ve ever written,” as Mark describes it. The near ten-minute closer “Satellites” saw the musicians sit together in a room with practice amps in the center and perform face-to-face—a technique implemented on “Lune” from Periphery III: Select Difficulty. They bulldozed a path for the album with the single “Blood Eagle.” “It’s the most unrelenting, uncompromising, heavy, and pissed-off song on this thing,” grins Mark. “A ‘Blood Eagle’ was a style of Viking torture. It fits the vibe!” Through taking their time, PERIPHERY arrive at a new level in the end on HAIL STAN. “When people hear certain songs, they’re not going to expect them,” Mark concludes. “It would be amazing if we become known for that sort of unpredictability. All of our favorite artists embrace freedom and follow their own muses. It’s tangible when a band embodies that quality. I hope we do too.”