Composer Reacts to Periphery - Zagreus & Wildfire (REACTION & ANALYSIS)

[@MustacheCastache190]

The fact that you found that Hades reference is impressive, Misha joked saying P5 would've come out sooner if he hadn't played so much Hades

[@Djroshi01]

Why is that the most Misha thing? 🤣

[@CriticalReactions]

It helps that Darren Korb is one of my favorite composers and I listened to the Hades OST on repeat for weeks. Also have a few of the tracks as custom songs in Beat Saber 🤣

[@somekiryl]

Love Transistor OST!

[@CriticalReactions]

@@somekiryl Totally agree. Transistor is probably my #1 game ever. The lore, the visuals, the heartbreaking tale, the phenomenal skill system, and the audio. If ever there was a perfect game this could be it.

[@whatdothlife4660]

@@CriticalReactions Have you listened to any Austin Wintory OST's like Journey, Abzu, or my favorite album of the past year The Pathless? I have l istened to The Pathless daily for 6 months.

[@iDustball]

So it's funny that you picked right up on the Juggernaut style sound. Mark was on Nik Nocturnal's stream and said they were originally writing Juggernaut 2 but couldn't get it to work just right. So there's a chance some of these songs will have motif's or callbacks to Juggernaut's story/protagonist to unofficially continue story.

[@CriticalReactions]

That explains soooo much!

[@demo3645]

the Four Lights riff was the best little tease on Zagreus haha

[@CygnusVoyager]

So hyped for this album, absolutely love both singles

[@CygnusVoyager]

I haven’t finished the whole video yet, but the jingle you hear at the end of Zagreus before the orchestral part is the death theme from the video game Hades (also where the title of the track comes from) Edit: you figured it out at the end lol

[@CriticalReactions]

Took me some time but it finally clicked 😄

[@Silencer0151]

Mark wrote some of the stuff in P2, the riff in Scarlet for example is his along with a lot of the stuff in Mile Zero and I'm sure I'm missing others but you get the point. Great analysis, I really dig the harmonics in both of these tracks for sure!

[@danielobrien1137]

The fact they can mix heavy and beautiful so flawlessly makes Periphery one of my favorite bands of all time

[@mfsars1075]

+ the arrangements 🕷️🖤

[@Zaque-TV]

The "what is that" bit is from the game Hades.

[@CriticalReactions]

Yup, finally clicked about 45 minutes into the reaction lol

[@trowabarton222]

I feel like Periphery are going full Between the Buried and Me on this album and I'm all for it.

[@Zaque-TV]

Hell yeah man! Both songs are straight bangers. That jazz break comes in clutch. Zagreus has the nastiest groove I love it.

[@Bikonito]

prog fans try not to call everything with clean guitar jazz challenge (impossible)

[@LouisR56]

@@Bikonito he's talking about the piano part with the sax solo....

[@Zaque-TV]

@@LouisR56 sí señor

[@afro208]

its never too heavy

[@johnquinn7794]

I’m very curious to see if there is an overall thematic continuation of Juggernaut.

[@Djroshi01]

Potentially a strong chance. These riff references are becoming meta. This could be a social experiment for all we know 🤣 I love these guys.

[@VildhjartaFanGurl]

Wildfire is the epitome of never let them know your next move.

[@napalmdreams9654]

Man you really went hard on the Zagreus bridge. I don’t hear anything corny about it, just great rock

[@myklelara]

Only 20 mins into your vid and I’m stoked to see your reaction to Wildfire. One of the best and smartest reaction/review/breakdown I’ve seen yet. Instant subscribe my friend. 👏🏼👏🏼 Love me some Periphery.

[@myklelara]

Also just fyi, Mark Holcomb was instrumental in Pii for songs like Scarlet and my favorite Mile Zero

[@CriticalReactions]

Oh nice! For some reason I though he came in too late to be part of the song writing on that one. Also welcome to the community!

[@ckokomo808]

Welcome to the critical reaction community!

[@whatdothlife4660]

Cloudkicker vibes at 7:10

[@davidaguilera2365]

Everyone always says it’s a reference from four lights but I haven’t seen anyone mention it’s also in stranger things

[@CriticalReactions]

So I went back and listened to Stranger Things and Zagreus and I don't hear any of the Four Lights variations in Stranger Things but I do hear something very close to the heavy bridge from Stranger Things in Zagreus' opening riff. Also watched Wildfire again and I can't believe I didn't catch the parallels in the breakaway to lounge music concept, something they used in MK Ultra too.

[@XenoPoopz]

I have a theory that the album title Djent Is Not A Genre is just a big joke and that the new album is actually a sequel to Juggernaut.

[@CriticalReactions]

I'm sure the title is a joke but I wasn't expecting a sequel. If it is though.... well, I might not get too much music listened to this year cuz I'll have P5 on endless repeat.

[@manuelsilk]

Hades reference there is the cherry on top

[@CriticalReactions]

100% and it being unexpected made it even better!

[@Kelly.sapphire]

I agree. I prefer Zagreus with its more melodic moments. So excited about the new album. They are in my top 3 bands with Leprous and Caligula's Horse. Also can't wait for a tour.

[@dek86s]

protest the hero influence?

[@MustacheCastache190]

ive been thinkin this too, mainly with the song structure

[@dek86s]

@@MustacheCastache190 what bands do you like the most?

[@Shablagoo7861]

Four lights bro they do that stuff in every album and have hidden easter eggs.. I think they felt rushed on jugg by the label and want to redo part of it

[@jaspin555]

loved these songs and enjoyed your reaction! i am guessing that you have already seen the new Sleep token song - "The Summoning" ? it kinda blew up here and is making the rounds, but theres no reaction i would love to watch more than yours!

[@CriticalReactions]

I saw it was released alongside 2 others (I think) but haven't had a chance to check them out yet. I wanted to do a reaction but Hail the Sun came out the same week and then Periphery dropped theirs -- two highly anticipated albums by me. And now I have a Creator Request which is what I normally do in that Friday time slot. I'll see what I can do though. I've heard good things about The Summoning

[@TheProgSchool]

Great reaction as always! If you're interested in more of the details of Zagreus, I just put out a full musical analysis of it. kzbin.info/www/bejne/fYG5ppeZqtWagKM Really looking forward to the rest of the album!

[@CriticalReactions]

100%. I'll be checking this out tomorrow

[@muskett00]

I'm glad you took the investigative detour at the back end of this reaction. You should do this whenever you see fit, as it's welcome. I'm not a fan of the 'harsh' vocals, but whilst I enjoy everything else there are too many of those vocals for me to ever get past them and become a proper fan.

[@CriticalReactions]

I recommend their 3rd album then. Similar ideas but much lighter in nature, which led to a greater emphasis on clean vocals. Alternatively you could check out Tesseract, a band that came out around the same time as Periphery but actively pushed away from harshes, using them only on their debut album as they felt this style of music wouldn't sell without them.

[@alispie]

I feel like they chose the name Zagreus because of him being the main character in Hades. Idk much about The actual mythology, but trying to break free and repeatedly killed over and over just to be thrown back to the very beginning seems like a fitting concept for the lyrics. Edit: ah you figured it out 😂

[@CriticalReactions]

I was a bit slow on making the connection but I finally got it going 😄

[@VildhjartaFanGurl]

I love you

[@newworldotter8583]

It feels like Periphery is going to keep trolling us musically with this EP. Especially considering they titled it "Djent is not a genre" lmao.

[@drewguidry2873]

If you're not a fan of brutally heavy, don't react to "Everything is Fine". Trust me, everyting is NOT fine.

[@jonathanhenderson9422]

Enjoyed both of these, perhaps even more so because it's been so long since I listened to Periphery or most djent-based prog, so this sounded much fresher to me now than it did back when I was exploring the genre and everything started to sound rather samey. The first track was definitely more varied, while the second leaned into the djent aspects more but still offered enough variety to keep things interesting. It also probably helps given that I haven't listened to Periphery enough to recognize all of the self-referential stuff you mentioned in the review; I just found myself enjoying the riffs on their own. Though I liked the poppier elements as well I don't feel like Periphery does those parts as well (or at least as interestingly/innovatively) as the heavier parts.

[@merkaba_lite]

Zagreus so much better. Wildfire is the normie track that is meh for me.

[@CriticalReactions]

That's where I'm at but I'm hoping it works well in the context of the album. I compared it to Blood Eagle from P4 but another, maybe better, comparison would be MK Ultra which also is primarily heavy AND ends on an odd, lighter shift as well (elevator music in that one). In isolation I'd never listen to MK Ultra but it works extremely well in the context of the album and I never skip it.

[@shryggur]

popurriphery. im sowwy :(