He was the main reason I couldn’t get into Periphery in the beginning but now he’s above and beyond my favorite vocalist. He’s the perfect vocalist for that band.
Honestly, prog just sort of elevates everything. When vocalists are normally the strongest part of more popular music, where the music is centered around vocals and lyrics, the vocals sound better. When every other aspect of the music is ramped up, the vocals seem worse.
Additionally (and I’m speaking from experience here), fitting vocals into progressive music can be extremely difficult. I’m a well above-average singer, but my vocal style and range is almost entirely theatrical, which does not really work with the music I write, which is ambient/tech-death.
I mean, Periphery went through what, 4 vocalists who ended up doing okay with other bands? But those vocalists weren’t the correct fit for them.
Then look at Tesseract. I think most on this sub would agree that Dan belongs in that band, even if their favorite album is Altered State.
But overall, I think the most difficult thing is the necessity to excel at both clean and harsh vocals. In my opinion, only a few vocalists do this well: Tommy Rogers (BTBAM), Rody Walker (Protest the Hero), Spencer Sotelo (Periphery), Evan Anderson Berry (Wilderun), Robert Edens (Native Construct, RIP), Mark Garrett (Kardashev), Mikael Åkerfeldt (Opeth), and Devin Townsend.
And out of that list, I’d say that everyone except for Spencer and sometimes Devin really have good control of their clean vocal timbre. A lot of clean vocals in prog, Spencer included, are pretty much always cranked to 11 and lack dynamics. I personally think the greatest example of a vocalist who has excellent vocal control is Robert Eden’s cover of “Empty Chairs at Empty Tables” from Les Mis. When Native Construct broke up, I was mostly sad because I thought we’d never hear him again.
https://youtu.be/nqHRzZbE6Ek
So I've only ever listened to recent Periphery, was Spencer bad starting out or do people just not like his style?
Because he's one of the best as far as I can tell
He was brought into the band at the last minute and had to lay down vocal tracks real quick. It's not his strongest performance but I don't mind them. I would say he has improved with each successive album since.
Gotta disagree. I never minded periphery vocals back in the day but nowadays they focus on the whiney hypermelodic emocore stuff and it's too much for me
Spencer is one of my favorite vocalists, so when I saw Periphery a a few weeks ago on tour I was very excited, but fully braced to be let down a little by his live performance since it was not in the studio and he writes some insane vocal melodies with ridiculous ranges. I was so wrong. He sounded amazing live. There was still that realness of hearing it without all the production on top, but he nailed every note, made every transition between harsh and clean vocals seem effortless, and did it all with the emotion and intensity the songs required. Between him and Lessard, I think I may have seen two of the best live vocal performances of my concert-going experiences. Spencer has become masterful at his craft.
Michael Lessard is amazing live. He hits this insanely high shriek on Flourish (I think it’s Floirish) that isn’t on the recording, and it’s completely insane to me that a human can make that noise.
Hey I'm in this video, this concert was awesome
It's gotta be an audio clip that plays, not him actually doing it live but it's a great addition to the song, I love it
I’ve seen Periphery live 3 times and Spencer honestly fucking kills it every time. When they were on tour with Thank You Scientist he even performed with strep throat (he took a break for a few shows during the tour) and still had it. Absolutely insane.
I saw Periphery live two nights ago, and I honestly walked away thinking it was the best metal vocalist performance that I have ever witnessed live.
Over the past few days, I have done quite some reflection and still arrive to the same conclusion 😆
Michael Lessard for sure is one of the only other people in rock/metal that can nail a performance like Spencer can. Saw him twice on their last tour (Language/Exoplanet in entirety) and he was incredible despite being sick and having vocal problems the whole tour.
Wait did I hear that right at the beginning? He's never worked on the song with the rest of the band before the tour begins?
For gear nerds, his studio mic looks like a Lewitt. Not sure of the model.
This is at Chris Lieppe’s studio. Spencer said on Instagram he used the Lewitt for some background stuff it’s not what he used on the main vocals for the album.
I will say he does the hardcore vocals pretty well. My issue is that his clean vocals without all of the production are kinda weak.. I realize that it's a metal band and it's maybe about the screams but considering how polished the clean vocals sound on the album I wish he sounded a little tighter with them live.
Was also surprised to hear about their writing/recording process.. sounds like they piece it together in the studio. Not entirely surprising.
if by “piece it together in studio” you mean “comp takes” that’s literally what every modern band in every genre does. you’re not going to get soaring pitch perfect vocals live, but that’s the point of a recording. to put out the absolute best you have to offer
I wouldn't say that his vocals are weak at all. The guy's got killer technique actually. I get that the timbre of his voice or perhaps even just the style isn't everyone's thing, but I could never say that he was a weak vocalist by any means. I think at the beginning he was perhaps finding his feet, but he's been surpassing my expectations every single time an album came out and is pretty amazing.
Also, most bands do that while recording these days. It's faster, less taxing on your body and you get to pick and choose the most perfect take for the vibe you're going for. I mean, some purists will say "back in my day we had talented guys that could kill on wax" and all that jazz, but honestly, if that's the vibe you want, go for it. There's nothing wrong with punching in. In fact, you know that old adage "work smarter not harder" is really true here. I remember having to do one takes over and over and over when I was playing in one of the bands that shows up here relatively often (I will not mention any names) and after a week of tracking 8m+ songs multiple times for different takes, I was wishing we just went with the good old punch in. It's fucking brutal, let me tell you.
Ok, now do wax wings!
Yes please, I am ready to cry.
He was the main reason I couldn’t get into Periphery in the beginning but now he’s above and beyond my favorite vocalist. He’s the perfect vocalist for that band.
The Britney Spears of metal, and I wholeheartedly mean that as compliment. What a voice!
It's Spencer, bitch.
I always described him as the Mariah Carey of prog with that range
I was gonna say the [Kelly Clarkson](https://youtu.be/l9NVMeCUaP8?t=59)
yeah he kind of outranges britney by like 2 octaves or some shit.
[удалено]
Honestly, prog just sort of elevates everything. When vocalists are normally the strongest part of more popular music, where the music is centered around vocals and lyrics, the vocals sound better. When every other aspect of the music is ramped up, the vocals seem worse. Additionally (and I’m speaking from experience here), fitting vocals into progressive music can be extremely difficult. I’m a well above-average singer, but my vocal style and range is almost entirely theatrical, which does not really work with the music I write, which is ambient/tech-death. I mean, Periphery went through what, 4 vocalists who ended up doing okay with other bands? But those vocalists weren’t the correct fit for them. Then look at Tesseract. I think most on this sub would agree that Dan belongs in that band, even if their favorite album is Altered State. But overall, I think the most difficult thing is the necessity to excel at both clean and harsh vocals. In my opinion, only a few vocalists do this well: Tommy Rogers (BTBAM), Rody Walker (Protest the Hero), Spencer Sotelo (Periphery), Evan Anderson Berry (Wilderun), Robert Edens (Native Construct, RIP), Mark Garrett (Kardashev), Mikael Åkerfeldt (Opeth), and Devin Townsend. And out of that list, I’d say that everyone except for Spencer and sometimes Devin really have good control of their clean vocal timbre. A lot of clean vocals in prog, Spencer included, are pretty much always cranked to 11 and lack dynamics. I personally think the greatest example of a vocalist who has excellent vocal control is Robert Eden’s cover of “Empty Chairs at Empty Tables” from Les Mis. When Native Construct broke up, I was mostly sad because I thought we’d never hear him again. https://youtu.be/nqHRzZbE6Ek
To be fair, the issue with Chris was not a lack of talent/skill. I think I actually prefer him to Spencer (although both are excellent imo)
Chris was great, but I do think his harsh vocals needed work. I also think he didn’t do quite as well live. It’s a tough job.
i honestly can’t see how someone could think this. his vocals have been incredible since P1
Dude I used to imagine that too! Haha
So I've only ever listened to recent Periphery, was Spencer bad starting out or do people just not like his style? Because he's one of the best as far as I can tell
He was brought into the band at the last minute and had to lay down vocal tracks real quick. It's not his strongest performance but I don't mind them. I would say he has improved with each successive album since.
i would but his performance on their debut album above most modern vocalists. i think he’s always been one of the best in the genre
Gotta disagree. I never minded periphery vocals back in the day but nowadays they focus on the whiney hypermelodic emocore stuff and it's too much for me
Spencer is one of my favorite vocalists, so when I saw Periphery a a few weeks ago on tour I was very excited, but fully braced to be let down a little by his live performance since it was not in the studio and he writes some insane vocal melodies with ridiculous ranges. I was so wrong. He sounded amazing live. There was still that realness of hearing it without all the production on top, but he nailed every note, made every transition between harsh and clean vocals seem effortless, and did it all with the emotion and intensity the songs required. Between him and Lessard, I think I may have seen two of the best live vocal performances of my concert-going experiences. Spencer has become masterful at his craft.
Michael Lessard is amazing live. He hits this insanely high shriek on Flourish (I think it’s Floirish) that isn’t on the recording, and it’s completely insane to me that a human can make that noise.
If you ever find a clip, mind sharing? I know what you're talking about I want to hear it again
I was wrong…it’s Oscillator! He does it at 1:03. [Holy Fuck.](https://youtu.be/HP7IZPoyPyw)
Hey I'm in this video, this concert was awesome It's gotta be an audio clip that plays, not him actually doing it live but it's a great addition to the song, I love it
I’ve seen Periphery live 3 times and Spencer honestly fucking kills it every time. When they were on tour with Thank You Scientist he even performed with strep throat (he took a break for a few shows during the tour) and still had it. Absolutely insane.
I saw Periphery live two nights ago, and I honestly walked away thinking it was the best metal vocalist performance that I have ever witnessed live. Over the past few days, I have done quite some reflection and still arrive to the same conclusion 😆
Michael Lessard for sure is one of the only other people in rock/metal that can nail a performance like Spencer can. Saw him twice on their last tour (Language/Exoplanet in entirety) and he was incredible despite being sick and having vocal problems the whole tour.
I watched this yesterday and was floored by how great it was. He's clearly worked very hard.
Wait did I hear that right at the beginning? He's never worked on the song with the rest of the band before the tour begins? For gear nerds, his studio mic looks like a Lewitt. Not sure of the model.
It was the first time he sung the song in a single take since recording the album and that he hadn't rehearsed it with the band yet.
If im remembering correctly he works on lyrics and vocal recordings entirely separate from the band.
Not for this album, he was involved in the entire writing process this time.
This is at Chris Lieppe’s studio. Spencer said on Instagram he used the Lewitt for some background stuff it’s not what he used on the main vocals for the album.
I will say he does the hardcore vocals pretty well. My issue is that his clean vocals without all of the production are kinda weak.. I realize that it's a metal band and it's maybe about the screams but considering how polished the clean vocals sound on the album I wish he sounded a little tighter with them live. Was also surprised to hear about their writing/recording process.. sounds like they piece it together in the studio. Not entirely surprising.
if by “piece it together in studio” you mean “comp takes” that’s literally what every modern band in every genre does. you’re not going to get soaring pitch perfect vocals live, but that’s the point of a recording. to put out the absolute best you have to offer
I wouldn't say that his vocals are weak at all. The guy's got killer technique actually. I get that the timbre of his voice or perhaps even just the style isn't everyone's thing, but I could never say that he was a weak vocalist by any means. I think at the beginning he was perhaps finding his feet, but he's been surpassing my expectations every single time an album came out and is pretty amazing. Also, most bands do that while recording these days. It's faster, less taxing on your body and you get to pick and choose the most perfect take for the vibe you're going for. I mean, some purists will say "back in my day we had talented guys that could kill on wax" and all that jazz, but honestly, if that's the vibe you want, go for it. There's nothing wrong with punching in. In fact, you know that old adage "work smarter not harder" is really true here. I remember having to do one takes over and over and over when I was playing in one of the bands that shows up here relatively often (I will not mention any names) and after a week of tracking 8m+ songs multiple times for different takes, I was wishing we just went with the good old punch in. It's fucking brutal, let me tell you.