User:Jer757/Periphery

Periphery is an American metal band from Bethesda, Maryland (by way of Baltimore, Maryland), formed in 2005.

Formation and lineup changes (2005–2009)
Periphery was formed by guitarist Misha Mansoor in 2005. He slowly gained a reputation on the internet, primarily via a regularly updated Soundclick account, Meshuggah and John Petrucci forums, and the sevenstring.org message boards. Before and during Periphery's tenure in the metal scene, Mansoor developed a reputation for doing his own audio production, the majority of which was performed with a home computer and a Pod XT during this period. Mansoor has continued to update his personal project, Bulb, which preceded Periphery, often transferring songs between the two projects. Mansoor continues to be involved in a number of other musical projects, including Haunted Shores, and Of Man Not of Machine.

Between 2005 and 2009, Periphery worked with vocalists Jake Veredika, Casey Sabol and Chris Barretto , gradually moving from a Meshuggah-influenced sound to a more ambient, melodic sound, with a focus on innovative production.

Periphery has toured extensively since 2008, supporting artists including DevilDriver, Veil of Maya, Animals as Leaders , God Forbid , Darkest Hour , The Dillinger Escape Plan , Fear Factory , and Fair to Midland

Spencer Sotelo and self-titled debut (2010–2011)
In January 2010, Sumerian and Periphery announced April 20 as the release date of the band's self-titled debut album, to be distributed by Sumerian Records in the United States, Distort Records in Canada and Roadrunner Records in Australia and the rest of the world. On January 20, 2010, amid speculation that they had changed vocalists again, Periphery uploaded an album sampler featuring vocals by Spencer Sotelo, a San Diego native who was later announced to be Periphery's new vocalist. On April 8, 2010, Periphery posted a new track, "Insomnia" on their Myspace page, as well as announced a tour of Australia in support of The Dillinger Escape Plan.

Periphery released their self-titled debut album, Periphery, through Sumerian Records on April 20, 2010. It debuted at #128 on the Billboard Top 200, as well as #2 on the Billboard Heatseekers chart.

After the release of the album, Periphery played multiple tours around the US and Canada; a short tour of Australia along with The Dillinger Escape Plan, and a headlining tour of the UK and mainland Europe in February 2011. The band's first headlining tour, “League Of Extraordinary Djentlemen Tour”, featured support from TesseracT and Monuments in the UK, while their mainland European shows included Monuments and The Safety Fire. The band ran into multiple health issues during the tour, of which Spencer Sotelo had a case of Bronchitis and was regularly unable to perform the entire set. Jake Bowen also fell, breaking one of his fingers, in the first week of the UK tour and was unable to play for the rest of their headlining tour. He recovered and joined the band during the last couple of shows on their tour with Fair to Midland and Scale the Summit right before they dropped out of the tour.

On March 22, Periphery released a cover of Metallica's song "One", which was recorded for the Homefront video game soundtrack. The song was released as a free download on the Homefront main website, as were other covers by The Dillinger Escape Plan, As I Lay Dying, Veil of Maya, and many others. .

Icarus EP, the departure of Alex Bois and the Juggernaut double album (2011-present)
On January 19, 2011 the music video for "Jetpacks Was Yes!" was posted exclusively on NME. The video features a re-recorded and re-structured version of the song, which was released on The Icarus EP. Periphery's first single from their "Icarus EP" titled "Frak the Gods" was released March 24. The song, production quality, and Spencer's improved vocal abilities received acclaim from both fans and music critics alike.

Periphery is currently in the studio working on their next two-part full-length release. The band stated via their Facebook page that they will be releasing two full length albums. They will contain a mixture of reworked "Bulb" demos as well as completely new material written by the full band (in contrast to their debut album, where Misha had most of the creative input). The upcoming releases will also be the first to feature more prominent backing vocals from bassist Tom Murphy as well as the use of string arrangements and orchestral elements. The album will be produced by Misha and Adam "Nolly" Getgood (of British progressive metal band Red Seas Fire) and will be engineered and mixed by Taylor Larson (Sky Eats Airplane, Of Legends, Life on Repeat). The first of the two which will be entitled "Juggernaut" will be a concept album, and is planned to be released around May 2012. The title of the second album has yet to be revealed, but unlike the first release, it will not follow a conceptual theme.

On July 6, 2011, Periphery announced via a MySpace blog post that the band had parted ways with guitarist Alex Bois. However, they will not be changing touring schedules, stating that they are hiring Mark Holcomb and Adam "Nolly" Getgood, to play Alex's parts during live shows until they can find a permanent replacement.

During their set at the Sonisphere festival in Knebworth, UK, the band played a brand new song. This song, entitled "Face Palm Mute", is set to appear on their next album. When Tom Murphy and Matt Halpern were interviewed before Periphery's set they stated that the band have enough material to write 3 new albums.

In July 2011, Mansoor elaborated on the forthcoming albums in Australian magazine Mixdown. He confirmed that there would be two albums recorded, and that one would be a concept album. Mansoor has had interest in a concept album for quite some time, stating that "[he] wanted to to get this concept album out there. It's been an idea for years and years." Mansoor also revealed that the band would release the albums separately, saying "[they]'ll probably do a staggered release, three to six months apart" and that "[he] really want[s] them to be these separate bodies of work, because they will sound different, and be completely different approaches, too."

On 7 September 2011, they were announced as the opening act for Dream Theater on their European Leg of A Dramatic Turn of Events Tour starting in January 2012.

On October 18, 2011, the band announced Mark Holcomb as their newest member.

Equipment
In an interview with Mixdown magazine, Mansoor discussed the band's live sound; "I think the tone quest ended for us with the Axe-FX. We now go direct. We don't use amps any more, we don't use cabs, we don't use pedals. We just have an Axe-FX and a Fractal MFC foot controller....and we just go directly into the board with that." Says Misha Mansoor. In terms of guitars, Mansoor uses a variety, despite having a number of endorsements. Mansoor plays Bernie Rico Jr, Mayones guitars, Blackmachine, Ernie Ball, Ibanez, Decibel and Daemoness guitars.

Studio Albums

 * Periphery (2010)
 * Juggernaut (2012)

EPs

 * Icarus (2011)

Videography

 * "Icarus Lives!"
 * "Jetpacks Was Yes!"

Band members

 * Current
 * Spencer Sotelo — lead vocals (since 2010)
 * Tom Murphy — bass guitar, backing vocals (since 2005)
 * Jake Bowen — guitars, programming (since 2007) backing vocals (since 2011)
 * Misha "Bulb" Mansoor — guitars, programming, production (since 2005)
 * Matt Halpern — drums, percussion (since 2009)
 * Mark Holcomb - guitars (since 2011)


 * Former
 * Alex Bois — guitars, backing vocals (2005–2011)
 * Chris Barretto — lead vocals (2008–2010)
 * Travis Orbin — drums (2005–2009)
 * Casey Sabol — lead vocals (2007–2008)
 * Jake Veredika — lead vocals (2005–2007)