For Those About to Squawk: Waldo’s Reviews the New Periphery LP Without Hearing It

Alright, ‘beak freaks. It’s your old boy Waldo here, proving that I’m not ALWAYS a cranky parrot. It seems as if there’s a bit of a dry spell with new releases, but, hey, that doesn’t mean anything, I’m going to still spout my opinion like, well, whatever…

Scour are releasing their debut EP on Housecore, and when someone told me that this was a black metal band featuring Phil Anselmo, I was a little hesitant. But you know what? This is pretty pecking cool. Including members of Cattle Decapitation and Pig Destroyer on some of the instruments, it’s little wonder. Anyway, calling this “black metal” is a little off, it’s intense, but not in like an old Gorgoroth way. This isn’t underproduced “kvlt” cave black metal, but that’s not saying it’s super slick either. The first thing one notices is Phil’s voice. It’s not screechy and sounds like him, without sounding like the Great Southern TrendPhil. This is pretty good, I’ll say, and while not 100% black metal (there are some thrash influences here) Scour accomplishes creating their own sound in a genre that is SUPER generic. Peep it. It’ll be cool to hear more.  7 Fucking Pecks

Periphery… uh, what do I say about this? Well, how about I review it without even listening to it? Bethesda, MD’s greatest contribution to metal are releasing Periphery III: Select Difficulty on Sumerian, and this is a MASTERPIECE! Just kidding, I didn’t listen to this, but you can bet it sucks. This is some djenty birdshit with, like, some melodic parts thrown in. The production here is polished, crisp and clear (I STILL haven’t listened to it) and leaves the listener wanting something with a little more teeth. These guys can play no doubt and like to show you that they DON’T just listen to metal (never going to listen to it) with like interludes and some stuff that can even be considered “psych.” Anyway, this isn’t good, so like, uh, I dunno, be like me and don’t listen to it. 1 Fucking Peck

The slamalicious Defeated Sanity is (bird)dropping Disposal of the Dead/Dharmata on Willowtip. I’d first of all I’d be remiss to not point out that this is the merging of two separate eps to form one brooootal record. The first half, the Disposal of the Dead half is Defeated Sanity at their rawest. Just good headbanging slam metal, but WHAT is with that snare sound? The snare sounds like someone banging on a Pringles can. Ok, so on to the second half of the record. The Dharmata side shows WAY more maturity and is a little more tech and proggy, ala Cynic, or Atheist, but this is still death metal. Anyway, I dig this, this is cool I’m just not really sure that most people will understand that it’s two separate releases, but anyway, screw it. Peck it out! 6 Fucking Pecks

That’s all for now, go ahead, hate me for hating Periphery—I welcome it.