Composer/Musician Reacts to Periphery - Reptile (REACTION!!!)

Bryan reacts to and talks about his thoughts on Periphery - Reptile (Audio)
ORIGINAL VIDEO: • Periphery - Reptile (A...
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Twitter: critreactions

[@Joose]

According to Spencer, it’s about a stoner during a reptilian invasion. And Misha owns a number of old school synths.

[@mikue666]

I have always interpreted it as a outlook on the current political tension in the US. But the makes sense to because Spencer would write some weird sci-fi story. Haha

[@IcarusNadir]

@@mikue666 isn't satellites more suited for that narrative?

[@onelight1734]

Stay off the drugs Unkay!

[@supershyguy1680]

@@mikue666 funny thing is Spencer listened to it and wrote the lyrics when he was high

[@Brave_New_Tube]

@@supershyguy1680 LMAO, that sounds like such a Periphery thing to do, everybody gets stoned while writing parts for this song and they just go, "Lol, let's make this our best song ever."

[@Technosel]

The deep voice spoken word part is Mikee Goodman of the band SikTH.

[@matthewconnell9326]

How anyone can get past the second part of the verse riff, namely the 'rock'n'roll' section on first listen and not immediately ruin their trousers is beyond me.

[@SirGingerOfKnight]

I presume you mean 3:53 ? Don't hesitate to correct me

[@qwikk]

@@SirGingerOfKnight I would think that's it yea, ruins my trousers!!

[@Tevatron044]

I was about to comment on this. The usage of blues scales in a typical classic metal rhythm is not that common in prog. This seemed more like a Mashup of classic styling with new wave of techniques

[@SpookySkeleton738]

Misha has this little trick where he sets the time signature in his DAW to something like 1/8 and then forgets about time signatures entirely, the result is almost invariably some weird polymeter that resolves in 4, or a single bar being elongated or cut short to make it "feel right".

[@LexiPixeL_]

Man I love watching reactions to this, this song is incredible. 17 minutes goes by in a flash, I can't even tell you how much I must've overplayed this track since April, and it still hits me just as hard in the same ways every single time.

[@CriticalReactions]

You're not kidding about the song being over so quickly despite the length. It feels like such a short song. I can't wait for Periphery to break the 20 minute barrier on a future album!

[@Rendydany]

@@CriticalReactions mark: "or we could just make a 1-minute song. all blast beat, how cool is that"

[@thienkhangcao1233]

@@Rendydany Converge in a nutshell

[@silasxaviertheprod.9734]

I’ve never really payed attention to Periphery lyrics before, even though the meaning you interpreted might not be the actual, it really added to the sound

[@CriticalReactions]

I was in the same boat as you, just loving the music and sound of it all, but Juggernaut changed that for me. I started going back over their other lyrics and while some songs can be a bit of "dumb fun" Spencer definitely has a strong grip of the English language and has written some amazing lyrics. So now I find it difficult to not listen to Periphery's lyrics since they so often have gems hidden in the prose.

[@silasxaviertheprod.9734]

Critical Reactions haha now I have to go back and look too

[@coralismmusic496]

@@CriticalReactions I totally agree

[@Brave_New_Tube]

Misha just needs to get contracted to compose an entire video game soundtrack already. I'm certain he could write/produce for just about any genre out there.

[@MilanTehVillain]

He’s done a couple of tracks here & there for some games. For example; - “Breaking the Covenant” & “Follow in Flight” (Halo 2: Anniversary). - “Sepiks Redux” (Destiny: Rise of Iron). - “Ending Credits” (Deux Ex: Mankind Divided).

[@Omegagrandmaster]

Misha x mick Gordon for the next doom

[@MilanTehVillain]

​@@Omegagrandmaster Funny enough, Matt Halpern played with Mick Gordon & Sascha Dikiciyan on a Doom medley at the 2016 Game Awards.

[@HugoStiglitz88]

I didn't know that. That's awesome dude. I knew about rhe halo music he made but not destiny or deus ex

[@HugoStiglitz88]

Nah dude. Mick Gordon is done with DOOM. He took too long to mix the official soundtrack, they gave him extra time, he still didn't finish it, and they asked for the masters so they could mix and master it, he refused, and they parted ways It sucks but Andrew hulshult and David levy have been an awesome replacement. IMO blood swamps is the best DOOM song PERIOD

[@Lordofmette]

Every second of this song is amazing

[@DoomsDaysLIVE]

The strings section was live. They work with an off-site composer and recorded the orchestrations. Highly recommend checking out their video The Making Of P4

[@CriticalReactions]

Thanks. I'm always interested in Periphery's behind the scenes stuff and wasn't aware there was a video about P4. I'll probably watch that today :)

[@noahbaker7530]

All live instruments, they brought in an orchestra for the album they went all out on this one boys😂

[@CriticalReactions]

That's amazing!

[@noahbaker7530]

Critical Reactions yessir! Periphery doesn’t mess around when they want to get everything right, I’d recommend checking out the documentaries they’ve made for their albums it really shows how much work they put in 🤘🏻

[@martinronningyt]

@@noahbaker7530 Actually, this is a mix between Misha's programmed strings and live strings! You should check out Misha's breakdown of the song on his KZbin channel or Twitch. Really interesting to see/hear all the elements that went into this masterpiece!

[@Theplaymaker1271]

This song could be a deep dive into the contemporary class struggle between the middle-class and 1%, and offer an artistic argument for human beings to treat each other better. Or... It could be about alien reptiles taking over the world while the main character is smoking weed having an existential crisis. Who knows?

[@therealexpletive]

i can vouch for anxiety attacks being goobered out of my mind on herbs and thinking about extraterrestrials...

[@HugoStiglitz88]

It's literally the latter tho. Spencer said so

[@fscorpion678]

@@HugoStiglitz88that's the joke

[@moist__owlette]

I loved how much you analyzed what the lyrics meant and also jived with the meaning. Nice reaction :D

[@brandonralphs9280]

I really enjoyed the way you dissected this track. You gave an actual reaction and tried to analyze the various components at play. Killer review man. I’d love to see the same thing with more (or all of the) tracks off the album!

[@CriticalReactions]

Album reviews/reactions is definitely something I would like to get to, primarily because I would love to analyze concept albums like Periphery's Juggernaut. So the idea is something that is currently on the table I just don't know how or when I would do it yet.

[@hellkendi]

Listening to this song from the periphery is almost the same feeling as bohemian rhapsody, a long track discredited by many, but it's an incredible musical revolution.

[@S1D3W1ND3R015]

Its Periphery longest song but it's worth the ride. One hell of a rollercoaster. I love long songs that's why I love Periphery because almost all their songs are more than 4 minutes long.

[@asherkolars1283]

The solo's in a (mostly) Ab whole tone scale, while the guitars underneath are in G. really weird, but it sounds so cool.

[@bubbernub651]

Man. Its incredible what songs youve reacted too already. After seeing some of your newer content i thought of a handful of songs that you might like that i thought were fairly niche (usually dont have reaction videos to them at least). But youve done probably a dozen or so bands i was thinking of. Thats crazy, either you or your community has great taste, im excited to stick around now.

[@CriticalReactions]

It's all my community. I was mostly picking bands at random until recently when I let my patreons pick what I do. But every band comes from the community's request, I haven't personally picked any song to react to (aside from a couple of times that I was interesting in something recommended to me by KZbin). So yeah, these people are amazing for giving me so many great recommendations.

[@justaguy2567]

@@CriticalReactions great community

[@sarahpelosi4213]

"A grave is laid, a man within his cage". Shivers everytime!

[@LivingInTragedy]

I 100% wanna see your reaction to the song Satellite, the last song on this album. Best vocals spencer has ever done 🤘🏻

[@007faya]

Oh man, I would love that so much!!

[@BJPriceMusic]

Im horrible with lyrics......what is he talking about is Satellites?

[@flagmuffin1221]

Have to disagree. Some of Spencer's best growls are on Hail Stan, sure - Reptile, Blood Eagle, Chvrch Bvrner and Follow Your Ghost are all fantastic for heavy singing. But cleans? Nothing beats Juggernaut. Absolutely nothing. His best cleans of their whole discography (and even just singing in general) are all on Juggernaut. Satellite is also a somewhat boring song to me overall, but that's just my opinion...

[@mikue666]

I remember when I heard this song for first time I had chills and goosebumps everytime Spencer hit those highs. In both his screams and cleans.

[@dominik4666]

*Guitar pinches at **3:50* Spencer: "ok lol ill do it too"

[@denisew8110]

I love this song and you were pretty spot on in your description. If you've heard garden in the bones you'll notice the similarity to the 'victory alone' part of the song. Great reaction!

[@mikeycurtis7861]

Soil we know becomes our own home, now we're staring at the ground together. The soil weve known becomes ours. Now one with the soil we own. Lol bro u talked EXACTLY when he sang the lyrics for the whole outro, saying what u thought he was saying.. but u talked over Spencer lmao. All good brother! Even after hearing this song a million times now, I love it a ton, and randomly (like now) I wanna see a reaction. The issue in the middle, u have, I believe was another talking moment of urs.. cuz that ENTIRE song flows very well. U where speaking when the riff began for a sec, and it changed to the next riff (very similar flow), when u said it was "heavily synch or a new time sig"... It was the same sig and the synch was actually simpler than the main riff in that part. Btw, u keep asking "is this about lizard people" running the world? BRO THE SONG IS CALLED FREAKIN REPTILE hahahaha😂

[@Allumik]

Damn, I've heard this song for 20+ times and had not realized some details that you noticed! Great song, loved that you brought up some things that were lost on me, adds so much to this masterpiece.

[@CHaRLieZzViDzZ]

I love your reaction, I just got one question. How on earth did you manage straight face through them solo pinches?

[@martingaspar8364]

Goosebumps from that blast beat chorus :) everytime

[@swingonthespiral]

WOW. I didnt know you reacted to this. This is one of my new favorite albums of all time.

[@riddhimanmedhi99]

Wow this is a really good song, hadn’t heard this one before . Those melodies are beautiful and incredible vocals

[@willydeezle]

Man this was a great breakdown! Good job

[@chrismiller3898]

So it's a combination of sampled and live orchestra. Misha writes and records all the synyh stuff, then sends it off to be recorded live and laid on top of the synth strings. Also, Omega at 11:44 and Racecar at 15:21 are the only two they have even over 10 minutes. To OPEN an album with this monster is so brave and paid off so well in the end.

[@wyliehj]

New favourite reaction channel!

[@Crcmvnt]

Love the motif of this album. End of reptile, garden in the bones and I believe again in satellites I could be wrong on that though.

[@XavierMacX]

I believe you're correct :)

[@robertgwinn1478]

Awesome reaction video to an amazing song. I fell for Periphery years ago and they have completely changed my playing style and listening standards.

[@taradiddlez2814]

I can't believe how quick you were to realize the meaning of the song

[@SirGingerOfKnight]

Considering this was the opener - I remember repeating the song so much I forgot about the rest of the album

[@noahbaker7530]

Check out the documentary of the making of this album on KZbin!

[@julianwilt899]

You are correct that is not spencer. That is Mike Goodman from the band SikTh!!! Basically Periphery wouldn't exist without SikTh! You should check them out!! SikTh - Bland Street Bloom SikTh - Part Of The Friction

[@julianwilt899]

Spencer featured on one of SikTh's song called Cracks Of Light.

[@mikebergman1817]

I know it’s 4 years later, but I am pretty sure they were talking about America, post 2024.

[@Under-Kaoz]

"green skinned apocalypse" I was... Yep 🦎 🤣 I fucking died when you said what I was thinking.

[@arthaal]

The bit at 14:25 becomes so much better after listening to Garden in the Bones, it's probably one of the best things from the album.

[@vecherinka4605]

The singer reading the poem is actually Mikee Goodman from SikTh

[@liliIiliIilil]

This is the best intro that you've done, hahaha!

[@LusidDreaming]

For the record they are live recorded strings. Same with the choral vocals

[@CriticalReactions]

That's awesome. Periphery never ceases to amaze me regarding the lengths they'll go for their craft.

[@demitech6460]

I definitely see your view of the lyrics, but my interpretation was a little bit different in the sense that I thought it was about the people in control deciding where and when we fight wars despite not fighting themselves. To me this makes sense especially with lyrics like “the ground our fathers soaked”, “the land from us they take”, “children gripping their sheets in horror”, etc. I loved the reaction!

[@demitech6460]

“Now one with the soil we own” could be people dying to protect their country and being buried back home, and to me the title is saying that the people in control are cold-blooded and unfeeling reptiles. “No class no race just f*cking violence...”

[@demitech6460]

Also yes I know I got the lyrics wrong because I can’t remember them exactly ;-; and this interpretation could of course 100% be wrong

[@funnyperson4027]

The violins are live they included it in the documentary for PIV

[@juankamehameha]

"When it got to the djenty part, it just stayed djent for a while..." That's just djent lmao. Ever heard Meshuggah? They build up a riff for like 2 minutes straight and then lay it down for 6 minutes. It's meant to establish a vibe or trance even

[@MattJFilms]

Would love to see a reaction to "Jetpack Was Yes V2". Spencers singing in that song is absolutely beautiful, and the highs he hits are RIDICULOUS!

[@joannaneagoe2977]

Very fitting reaction to an epic & inspiring song. A masterpiece indeed! Couldn't agree more!! One of my all-time favourite bands - I mean, Satellites, Lune, Erised, Flatline, Pale Aura, 22 faces and the list just goes on & on... Such an awesome band!! Everything comes together flawlessly & Spencer's vocals are so on point!

[@AlexGelinas42069]

Randomly got recommended this video, and decided to check it out as both a Periphery fan, and someone with two degrees in music (but who now works as a programmer, go figure) I mean this in a constructive way, but I feel the title/theme of the video could be reworked. While the time and effort put into creating the video was certainly appreciated, lyric analysis wasn't really what I was anticipating from a "musician / composer" video haha. Not to say that's invalid, just not really living up to the title. There were nuggets of the title in there, however - talking about atonal chromaticism with regards to the solos and such; but yeah, i ended up not finishing the video. Would definitely watch more if it was talking about compositional techniques, chord progression / resolution techniques, looking for and calling attention to stuff like secondary dominant tritone substitution, picking up on and explaining things like ornamentation / appoggiatura, time signature weirdness, etc. Again, thanks for making the effort to make this! Hopefully you're enjoying the process. Even if I didn't really care for the video, glad you enjoyed the song as much as you did - it is a fascinating one! Also, as a musician, I'd definitely enjoy checking out your takes on "Mr Invisible" by Thank You Scientist, or "Tenohira de Oderou" by Sokoninaru =)

[@CriticalReactions]

Thanks for the criticism. If you check out some other videos you'll find that lyrical analysis isn't typically what I do but occasionally when the lyrics grab me I'll talk about them a bit. It really depends on the song. As for some of the compositional aspects you mentioned, I talk about whatever I can pick up on a first time listen without looking at sheet music. I do want to get into more analytical stuff in the future -- listen to a song a few times, have the notation in front of me, do research -- but unfortunately I don't have the time available to do stuff like that right now. Thanks again for chiming in though, I take that stuff to heart since I want to make these videos the best that they can be. I've added your requests to the list. Thank You Scientist has been suggested quite a bit so I wouldn't be surprised to see them popping up sooner rather than later.

[@maasurino]

Racecar - what got me into periphery

[@willpotts4343]

I really liked your take on the lyrics. The song has never really made sense to me lyrically. I just know its a fantastic song with many great parts.

[@makjak111]

Crimson by edge of sanity is like 50 mins lol

[@angelloretto]

Ok, I'm subscribing....

[@jodacova1409]

So you have heard racecar, thank god! Everything periphery do is amazing, check out haunted shores if you haven't , the project before they ended up as periphery, it's old production style compared to the later stuff, still the technicalities are there !

[@VitrolaC]

It’a not just a song, it’s a history.

[@ibrahimutant]

Any plans to react to Animals as Leaders?

[@HugoStiglitz88]

It is a masterpiece. Top 5 periphery song IMO

[@sicboi80]

I dig this, take my like. I only wish you wouldn't talk over most of the entirety of the song. One of Periphery's best songs hands down \m/

[@CriticalReactions]

I know that talking over the song is going to upset some people but it's a conscious decision on my part. The two alternatives are to pause the song every minute to express my thoughts or to hold all of my thoughts until the end. The former destroys the intended pacing of the song and the latter isn't much of a reaction. At that point I could simply provide a link for the song and not include it in my video at all -- which *would* help keep the copyright claims away but isn't my intentions with this channel. I don't feel like there is a perfect way to handle this situation and I've chosen that one that I personally enjoy. And yeah, Reptile is easily in my top 3 Periphery songs. I can't wait to listen to the rest of Hail Stan!

[@joshuarinaberger7689]

@@CriticalReactions I definitely appreciate you talking throughout the song. Personally I don't get the purpose of reaction videos where they pretty much just say "cool" a few times throughout the song. Might as well just listen to the original if the reaction isn't going to add much more to it.

[@maxblair3317]

As much as I agree that it's a reaction video and the input is nice, I feel like you are talking over a lot of the song, there's definitely a fine line between not speaking enough and speaking too much. I felt like you were sometimes over-analyzing too much. Just my 2 cents

[@kambion]

Best vocal perfomance in a metal album since.... KSE Alive or Just Breathing?

[@mitchplaysriffs]

Shame this song didn’t win a Grammy.

[@SicklessFM]

Reacts to Zeal & Ardor - Row Row

[@jasonlucas8740]

It's all coming true. 2020.

[@beavsinator]

You can tell you are a fan of periphery now because now you are analyzing lyrics more than the composition. Hahaha. I know you did that as well. But I've never heard you go this in depth about lyrics before.

[@christopherblowers443]

Vektor- recharging the void is also a masterpiece

[@marcusfigueroa665]

Like the blue color of your walls

[@facelesscovers763]

Please react to NeObliviscaris Eyrie

[@AlexRaiu]

Mate...you really seem to analyze and know what you're talking about, but I stopped the video after like 1 minute and a half...that background noise just gives me a headache... install RTX Voice or just look for some noise suppression or noise cancellation... I really want to look at your videos. Subscribed and waiting for a change boi! Good luck!

[@mariogonzalez1990]

You should react to Exile by Tesseract. I really hope you haven't heard this track because it will blow your mind.

[@CriticalReactions]

I've listened to Of Matter so far and that's it. I really enjoyed it and look forward to revisiting this band though.

[@wesleyhackelton4849]

Racecar is actually close to this at 15:21

[@CriticalReactions]

Yup, Racecar and Omega are (I think) second and third place as far as length goes.

[@aleclewis9496]

was gonna like the video but it was on 666 likes and I just couldn't bring myself to break it.... lmao

[@johnquinn7794]

It seems like the lyrics are rooted in Gnosticism and the tale of the Archons.

[@dakrisis]

Well it sure as hell beats 'Telegraph Road' timewise.

[@dakrisis]

And yeah, the most prolific parts of the backing score are played by real musicians as well as a choir ;)

[@dakrisis]

This is the first song of the album. The last song on the album, 'Satellites', ends with lyrics going like: "Battered skin under the road, life begins as I corrode".

[@mrgeralds4002]

you shut your mouth when solo is come !! thats a deep raw solo !

[@andrewkogan6673]

It’s 12/8. Technically 4/4 but because of the triplet feel you can count 3s

[@parrottguitar]

Andrew Kogan it's all 4/4 but they do accented triplets

[@andrewkogan6673]

Andrew Parrott which would create a 12/8 time sig..

[@parrottguitar]

Andrew Kogan oh

[@gSWG3R]

There's a difference between groups of 3 16th notes, and 16th note triplets. This is in 4/4.

[@ElijahJohnsonDrums]

Cookedaburra d yeah, like if I had 3/4 and 4/4 in triplets they would sound different because 3/4 is just taking off the extra 1/4 note

[@Lily-wd7dz]

I think the song peaks at the beginning. It has a flow to it that it completely loses in the middle. I think the beginning was damn near perfect and needed to be reintroduced in some modified form at the end.

[@CriticalReactions]

That wouldn't be a terrible idea. I still love the linearity of it but man, that second chorus with the intense fry screaming over the choir is probably the best part of the track.

[@mathiaz943]

"Green-skinned" probably means "dollar- skinned"....

[@orangetango2205]

*complains about 'compressed audio'.... *uses XM8500

[@CriticalReactions]

I work within my budget. If you want though, I'll wait for that nice high-end microphone donation to the channel to help improve the audio 😁

[@LongDongMckongSchlong]

"Wait... is this song about lizard people? Or about those old conspiracy theories that our government is ran by lizard people?" I needed that laugh today

[@CriticalReactions]

Glad I could help brighten your day a bit. Hope all is doing well with you!

[@somedude8683]

@@CriticalReactions I got that same message out of the song. I got lizard people are taking over and a stoner named billy is the only hope of defeating them lmao

[@jackmartino8245]

It’s abt lizard ppl

[@BeatsAndMeats]

Interweebs!!!!!

[@VildhjartaFanGurl]

You look like a periphery fan lol

[@mikeminol]

You ruined the blast beat post chorus.

[@CriticalReactions]

They're still there, trust me. 😂

[@mikeminol]

@@CriticalReactions i know hahahahahaha

[@Weeping_Somnambulist]

Never really listened to these guys for whatever reason, just hear their name batted around as huge Meshuggah fans. Talented musicians but omg I can't stand this singer. Whiny metalcore vocals don't do it for me. Not what I expected. Lyrics sound like they were written by an angry teenager. They're basically just a really musically talented metalcore band. Not my jam unfortunately. Brian, I would love to see you react to "I" by Meshuggah in its entirety. PLEASE!

[@CriticalReactions]

I love that vocal style but I grew up listening to My Chemical Romance and The Used and From First to Last so I'd say I've had a long time to acclimate to them. I'll see about getting more Meshuggah on the channel.

[@ding1r]

I think you will like Blood Eagle from them. The riff is very Meshuggah and there's just a very small cleane vocals section. I actually think you will love that song.

[@Weeping_Somnambulist]

@@ding1r I'll give it a spin one of these days