I swear to God, I'll stop posting about Periphery for a bit after this post, sorry about all of the Periphery spam, I've just been an addict lately.
Periphery has had four vocalists so far, no idea if they'll ever get any more, but I wanna talk a little about them.
First up is Jake Veredika. This guy sounds like an absolute monster when recording his vocals, with him screaming throughout entire songs, sounding rather Meshuggah-like. His vocals pretty much were just screaming, with some occasional clean vocals. I haven't heard him sing much, so I can't really comment on that, but his screaming.. Like I said, this guy is an absolute monster, and I love his screams. He sounds so angry, and so blood-thirsty, but I know he'd get kind of boring as a vocalist, because he doesn't have much variety for Periphery, at least from what I've heard. Either way, I do like Jake, and I think his screams are pretty sick.
Casey Sabol, the vocalist who some consider even too good for Periphery. His singing is so clean and talented, as he hits every note and makes it sound like he isn't even trying to, to his fierce growling. I love the hell out of this guy, I think he was an absolutely great vocalist, and I love his solo material, I can't wait for this guy to put out his debut solo album, because it's going to rock.
As much as I love this guy, something about him singing with Periphery has never set too terribly well with me.. It's not like he's lacking in any fields, he's great at singing, and his screams/growls are pretty fierce, but he just sounds.. Too good. He sounds too perfect. There are no flaws about him musically, and it just feels weird listening to someone so.. Perfect. Weird? I know.
Chris Barretto, the vocalist who was originally supposed to be on Periphery's debut album, but ended up leaving the band, and having his spot taken over by Spencer. I can't actually get into a big description of this guy, because I haven't heard too much by him, but his singing is surprisingly smooth, and his screams are pretty loud and aggressive, with some of them sounding a bit black-metal influenced. Pretty nice.
Also he looks a bit like a Muppet. Muppet-core.
And now we've reached the last, the one everyone seems to love to hate, Spencer Sotelo.
Spencer can sing, even if it sometimes sounds a little strained, that's only because he didn't write the lyrics to any of the songs but 'Jetpacks Was Yes!', which was his strongest vocal performance on the debut album because of it. He feels more comfortable singing his own lyrics, he knows his range, and what he's confident in doing. His screams were originally kinda good, but like a friend of mine, Dylan Lawson had to say: "He sounds like an angry 14 year old." But he has actually gotten better at screaming, now that he has a grip on it, and his singing has gotten even better!
I love Spencer, no matter what anyone says. I think he's getting better all of the time, and soon he'll have the respect he deserves, because he's earning it.
So I'd probably put my personal rating as Spencer Sotelo > Casey Sabol > Jake Veredika > Chris Barretto, but what about you? Let me know in the comment section!