Review by Adam M on November 30, 2019.

Periphery perform djent music, and this is yet again the case on their new album Periphery IV: Hail Stan. What they do not do this time around is create memorable enough songs that can be listened to several times. Instead, they try to make their songs more focused and impactful but end up on the short stick of things. I found the clean vocal moments to be far less memorable than on their other discs. Then there are the heavy parts which don’t have much impact either.

Don’t get me wrong, there is still some fairly solid music at play here, it just seems like a watered-down version of their previous discs. There is still the use of djent song patterns to make for a disjointed and enjoyable listening experience. There is certainly an emotional current that runs through the album and makes it more enjoyable. Still, the dynamics present, don’t excite as much and even the buildup of the last song 'Satellites' doesn’t really make much of an impact. The music lacks the memorability of the previous couple of releases and this brings it down a lot in terms of quality. The softer moments of the disc simply don’t hold a candle to those found on the likes of Juggernaut: Alpha and Omega and this is really disappointing for a band I’ve held in such regard. Instead this gets lost in the mix of releases from this year and doesn’t stick out like previous albums have.

If the band wants to be more successful in the future, they will have to try and become more progressive, because they simply aren’t interesting enough anymore. Some fans of the band’s previous material may love this, but I found it to be quite underwhelming for a band I held in such high regard in the past.

Rating: 6.9 out of 10