April 19, 2026

Periphery - Mr God - Single Review

If you're into progressive metal that combines raw intensity with meticulous craftsmanship, Periphery should be high on your list of must listen material. John and Derek get into Mr. God, the first single from Periphery's upcoming album A Pale White Dot. This latest single, on their own 3 Dot Recordings, is a ferocious mix of chunky, heavy baritone guitars, monstrous bass tones, searing vocals and huge drums— all crafted with a level of production that elevates the entire genre.

BIO

Formed in 2005 by guitarist Misha Mansoor, Periphery has ascended from a pioneering force in the "djent" movement to one of the most influential entities in modern progressive metal. Based in Washington, D.C., the band is celebrated for a sound that seamlessly fuses mathematical technicality with soaring, cinematic melodies and aggressive metalcore.

The band’s current lineup—vocalist Spencer Sotelo, guitarists Misha Mansoor, Jake Bowen, and Mark Holcomb, and drummer Matt Halpern—is renowned for its DIY ethos and innovative approach to production. After years of building an online following through Mansoor’s “Bulb” demos, Periphery released their self-titled debut in 2010. They have since expanded their discography with ambitious releases like the double album Juggernaut: Alpha & Omega and the Grammy-nominated Periphery III: Select Difficulty.

In 2018, the group asserted their independence by founding their own label, 3Dot Recordings, further cementing their commitment to creative freedom. Their later works, including Periphery IV: Hail Stan and 2023’s Periphery V: Djent Is Not a Genre, showcase a band that refuses to be pigeonholed, effortlessly shifting between bone-crushing riffs, electronic soundscapes, and pop-influenced hooks.

Whether they are headlining global tours or influencing the next generation of "bedroom producers," Periphery remains at the forefront of the progressive scene, constantly redefining what it means to be a heavy band in the 21st century.

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John and GAIN's Periphery Hallucination. (NOTE: Periphery would never let those two clowns deface their stage presence). 🤣

Periphery is back with new music. Thank the heavens above. Their album releases on May 15th on their own label, Three

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Dot Recordings. It's a killer. I'm psyched to have new music. Let's talk about it.

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So, Mr. God is a deity that I know and he is also taking away autonomy based on what I can see with the lyrical content.

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And they're bad about it. mishuga like mad about. Am I right on that?

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I don't I, you know, uh I am not the lyrical guy, so I rely on you to bring forth lyrical content and meaning and

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things of that nature. What I do know is that this is a pretty crusher periphery track. They're back with the heavy on

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this one. Periphery 5, Gent is not a genre, is uh I don't want to say more experimental, but they kind of branched

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off a little bit more than they had in prior albums. And if this song is any indication of their level of anger, uh,

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then this is, I'm sure, going to be a pretty heavy record, and I'm very excited about that.

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Well, it certainly felt like they leaned into their gent roots, if you will. Um,

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and, you know, it it definitely felt like to me, um, a very dark, uh, sonic place that they went to. Yeah.

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And and tell me if I'm wrong, but is it me or are the bass and the guitars tuned to the same level?

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Did I hear that correctly?

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You mean and excuse me, in terms of the mix? Yeah. Yes.

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Yeah. Yeah. The bass is very prominent in the mix on this one, which is is always great. Nollie, get good used to

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be a a sort of full-time member of the band. He is still very much a part of the band, but he's not an active member in terms of touring and all that. His

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bass tones are monstrous. They're incredible and they shine through very much on this on this track and hopefully they will on the rest of the album as well. Interestingly, perhaps to some,

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not to others,

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this track is all played on baritone guitars, which for those who don't know,

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it's a long the neck tends to be a little longer. Yep. Yep.

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Uh a longer scale, which allows the tunings to be a little lower. They can maintain string tension, all that fun technical stuff. But the result is nice,

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heavy, ugly, low, dark tones. And this track is absolutely lousy with them. And for our guitar playing uh fans out

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there, namely myself, Miesa wrote this track on a new signature guitar that Jackson Guitars built for him. It's a

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Surf Caster baritone, and it is a stunning guitar. Um, if you want one, I hope you've been saving your money

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because it's a limited run and they're going between I think I saw five and eight grand a piece. So, they are not

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inexpensive, but man, does it sound good.

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When I win the lottery, do you want a house or that guitar? It's up to you.

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Um, I would I have a house. I mean, I'd take both, but I'd lean towards that guitar cuz it's pretty nasty.

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Yeah. Well, you need a big house so you can have all the bands come into your studio and Yeah. do what you been meant me meant to do on this planet. Um, polytric

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drumming. Look at me. I'm paying attention. Look at you, buddy.

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Look at me. Yeah, you're rubbing off on me. But, um, the drumming on this track is absolutely vicious and I want to go

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see them live just to watch the the the the drumming take place.

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Yeah, Matt Matt Halpern is a great drummer. Um, again, one of the I think he was the second drummer in the band,

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but he's been with them forever. And he is a power drummer. Misha often puts a lot of the he sketches out drum parts

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and then hands them off to Matt who then finesses and all that sort of stuff. But yeah, credit goes to Nollie for Matt's

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drum tones alongside Matt. Nollie again is an integral part of this band and uh

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he is a a studio genius and just knows how to pull all the right sounds out of everything along with Misha. That's and

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that's not to discount anybody else in the band because they're all technically extremely savvy guys. But yeah, the drums are monstrous on this. It's a

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filthy very filthy song and you could even hear the the clank of the strings if you listen really close. And I know I

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knew that this when I was listening to it the first time I was like John is going to like the production quality on this.

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And so do tell. Is this actually like as good as it gets for you from a production standpoint? It's topnotch.

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Everything Periphery does I you know I I I put right up right up at the top. Um,

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when Misha and Jake and Mark sit down and write these songs, they do a lot of,

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I think the term is top down mixing where as they're writing ideas, they are listening and auditioning to these parts

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with a full mastering chain and all the tools on there that give them a good sense of what it's going to sound like at the end. Obviously, then they it goes

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through all their, you know, human filters and the nollie mixes and all that, but they are all so good and talented at what they do. their product

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is just it they always put out great products. Even the earliest Periphery stuff, hell, for that matter, Miesa's

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demos that he was releasing um prior to the beginning of Periphery and throughout, even his demos have

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production level that's better than a lot of really bigname bands out there.

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And I think it's because they're all kind of technical nerds. They all just they really get into it and they love the the you know digging deep and and

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extracting every bit of awesome that they can. And I will say this and I recently in my professional life started

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my own business. And when you own your own record label, three dot recordings is theirs. They have the ability to do

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what they want to do and they don't have to answer to anybody but themselves.

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you're going to put a lot more TLC into everything that you do and think through everything and you can hear it on this one track. And I found it interesting

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too. Uh I've I've read that there this is considered a hard reset for them and it's just more aggressive, right? I mean

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it's more aggressive than than what we heard recently and I think we we did a podcast on this a while back, right? on their last.

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Yeah, we did uh we did P5 back in the day to to mixed I I again I'm I've always been a periphery fanboy, so I I get excited anytime they put anything

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out. Even if I don't love it, I still love it. Um but you mentioned sort of a reset along those lines. This is the

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first Periphery album minus the Juggernaut Alpha and Omega double record that came out in 2015 that doesn't follow the standard naming convention.

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They had Periphery 1, which was sort of self-titled. Periphery 2, this time it's personal. Then the juggernaut double album. Periphery 3, Select Difficulty.

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Periphery 4. Hail Stan. Periphery 5.

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Gent is not a genre. This one is just a pale blue dot. Hang on, dude. You call yourself a fan.

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Come on, John. It's white. A pale white dot. White. Get it together, man. So,

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you know, they're making some changes,

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which is cool. Again, we talk about it all the time. Can they evolve? Of course they can evolve, and they seem to be doing that here a bit. Well, the new

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album is a pale white dot. It's coming out on May 15th on three dot recordings. Runtime 47 minutes and 20 or 38 seconds.

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Track list is Obsession Talk, Mr. God,

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which we're talking about. Heaven on High, Unlocking, Subhuman, which is going to be featuring one Will Ramos from Lorna Shore.

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Yes. Uh, Black Wall, Malevolent, Carry On,

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Neon Valley, and Everyone Dies Alone at the very end. And of course, I started thinking of Every Thing Dies by Typo

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Negative. So, I'm curious about how that song is going to play out uh right away.

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But great track. Uh, you had me hooked right away on this. you know, I sent it to you, then I listened to it and then

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you're like, we're doing this and it's a great track and I can't wait for the the whole record.

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They're such a good band. I mean, if you're into if you're into progressive metal or the heavy music in general, I mean, they're just I I don't I was going

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to say I don't know how people can't like Periphery, but there's a host of bands out there that are objectively great bands that people don't like,

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myself included. So, I retract that statement about I don't understand how you could not like Periphery, but they are I'm a fanboy, man. I'm a freaking

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fanboy. They just they they work at the top of what they do. They put so much care into writing, into producing,

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mixing, man. Like, everything they do is done with purpose. And I think that's really cool and I think it shows through. Now, maybe I look for it more

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because I am such a fan, but I'm very excited about this record and uh May 15th can't come soon enough. Agreed.

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So, that's that. If you haven't heard it, listen to it.

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Yeah. And listen to Spencer have an absolute conipian fit cuz that's kind of what it is. And then um Misha, Jake, and

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Mark kind of are three-headed hydra of [ __ ] destruction behind him. So,

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yeah. Ah. All right. Good [ __ ] Can't wait for the next one. And we will absolutely be talking about this album when it comes out.

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