Progressive metal band Periphery’s vocalist Spencer Sotelo and drummer Matt Halpern joined forces with post-hardcore band Slaves’ bass guitarist Tai Wright to form the new band King Mothership and release the new single “Cosmic Meltdown” from their upcoming album The Ritual due out Oct. 2. Sotelo worked on the King Mothership project for several years drawing influence from bands such as Muse, Jamiroquai, The Mars Volta, The Dear Hunter and Queen. According to the new band’s recent press release, The Ritual “remained in hard drive purgatory for nearly a decade.”

Stoleto, who sings, plays guitars and keyboards on the album, states “These ideas have been around for about eight years and it’s such an amazing feeling to have sculpted them into songs we’re all so proud of as a band. We had a blast making this record and I think it’s gonna be the first of many to come.”

Stoleto explains “I just got sick of hearing it in the demo form, but I would have some Periphery fans hit me up every now and then, and they’d be like, ‘What happened?’ Somebody hit me up in my direct messages like, ‘What’s the deal with that?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, what is the deal with that?’” He continues, “A couple years ago, I went back and started opening the sessions. I was like, ‘This is fucking cool.’ I was re-inspired.”

Halpern plays drums, Wright plays bass guitar and Plini plays the guitar solo in the track “I Stand Alone.” Steve Vai calls Plini’s guitar playing “the future of exceptional guitar” and MusicRadar named Plini the best guitarist of 2017.

The song “Cosmic Meltdown” starts off with a piano intro quickly turning into punk with punchy guitars, drums, bass and vocals. The five-minute song is in the key of F# and has a tempo of approximately 175 BPM. The intensity level is high. The keyboards take a lead role in the bridge and outro. It’s a well-mixed song overall.

The Ritual track list:

1. Hope
2. Cosmic Meltdown
3. Gold
4. Only You
5. Babby
6. Goodnight My Darling
7. Death Machine
8. The Ritual
9. Ego 101
10. The Devil’s Train
11. Imminent Distortion
12. I Stand Alone (feat. Plini)

Photo Credit: Mehreen Rizvi