Periphery III: Select Difficulty is the fifth studio album by American progressive metal band Periphery. The album was released July 22, 2016 through Sumerian Records, and was produced by Misha Mansoor and Adam Getgood.[1] The opening track, "The Price Is Wrong", was nominated for Best Metal Performance in the 59th Annual Grammy Awards.[2] It is the last album the band released on this label. It is also the last album to feature bassist Adam "Nolly" Getgood as an official member of Periphery before he left the band in 2017, though he still returned on Periphery IV: Hail Stan to produce, engineer, and mix the album, in addition to contributing final bass parts.
Periphery III: Select Difficulty | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | July 22, 2016 | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 64:06 | |||
Label | ||||
Producer |
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Periphery chronology | ||||
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Singles from Periphery III: Select Difficulty | ||||
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Critical reception
Aggregate scores | |
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Source | Rating |
Metacritic | 70/100[3] |
Review scores | |
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Exclaim! | 7/10[5] |
Rock Sound | 6/10[6] |
At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has an average score of 70 out of 100 based on 5 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[3] Calum Slingerland of Exclaim! praised the band's "drive to keep exploring out of their stylistic box".[5] Prog Sphere's Stefan Andonov stated that "Select Difficulty is by far their most diverse album, they have grown and have found a way to combine complex sounding vibe with the popular one."[7]
Track listing
No. | Title | Length |
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1. | "The Price Is Wrong" | 3:57 |
2. | "Motormouth" | 4:50 |
3. | "Marigold" | 7:20 |
4. | "The Way the News Goes..." | 5:04 |
5. | "Remain Indoors" | 6:10 |
6. | "Habitual Line-Stepper" | 6:52 |
7. | "Flatline" | 5:51 |
8. | "Absolomb" | 7:44 |
9. | "Catch Fire" | 3:54 |
10. | "Prayer Position" | 4:37 |
11. | "Lune" | 7:47 |
Total length: | 64:06 |
Personnel
Periphery
- Spencer Sotelo – lead vocals
- Misha "Bulb" Mansoor – guitar, synths
- Jake Bowen – guitar, synths
- Mark Holcomb – guitar
- Adam "Nolly" Getgood – bass, guitar
- Matt Halpern – drums, percussion
Production
- Misha "Bulb" Mansoor – production
- Adam "Nolly" Getgood – mixing, engineering
- Ermin Hamidovic – mastering
- Taylor Larson – vocal production
- Spencer Sotelo – vocal production
- Jason Richardson – additional vocal tracking
- Pete Adams – additional vocal tracking
- Randy Slaugh – live orchestra, choir production, engineering
- Ken Dudley – orchestral sessions mixing
Additional personnel
- Emily Rust – violin
- Cymrie Van Drew – violin
- Megumi Terry – violin
- Caryn Bradley – viola
- Kelsey Clegg – viola
- Clayton Wieben – viola
- Chris Morgan – cello
- Robert Willes – cello
- Adam Heyen – French horn
- Tyler Arndt – trumpet
- Tom Francis – bass trombone
- Austin Bentley – choir
- Tiffany Yeates – choir
- Jonathan Allred – choir
- Randy Slaugh – choir
- Eric Slaugh – choir
- Jeffrey Slaugh – choir
- Hayley Malesich – choir
- Kelsey Clegg – choir
- Clayton Wieben – choir
- Taylor Larson – choir
- Emily Piriz – choir
- Nick Day – choir
- Jake Bowen – choir
Charts
Chart (2016) | Peak position |
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Australian Albums (ARIA)[8] | 8 |
Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)[9] | 42 |
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)[10] | 86 |
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia)[11] | 139 |
Finnish Albums (Suomen virallinen lista)[12] | 22 |
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[13] | 39 |
Japanese Albums (Oricon)[14] | 102 |
New Zealand Heatseekers Albums (RMNZ)[15] | 3 |
Scottish Albums (OCC)[16] | 45 |
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[17] | 43 |
UK Albums (OCC)[18] | 57 |
US Billboard 200[19] | 22 |