King Mothership, the new band featuring Periphery’s Spencer Sotelo and Matt Halpern with Slaves’ bass player Tai Wright, will release their debut album, The Ritual, on October 2 via Century Media Records and 3DOT Recordings. Pre-order here.

The first taste of the driving, melody-laden collection comes via digital single, “Cosmic Meltdown”. Check out the visualizer below.

“Very excited to finally share this record with the world,” says Sotelo of the release that finds him expanding beyond vocals by recording all guitars and keyboards. “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.”

King Mothership is a project Sotelo has been working on for a number of years, recording bits and pieces for a project that had yet to take shape. Taking inspiration from bands like Muse, Jamiroquai, The Mars Volta, The Dear Hunter, and, yes, Queen, a distinct sound emerged but the record remained in hard drive purgatory for nearly a decade.

"I just got sick of hearing it in the demo form," he says of the album. "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?' A couple years ago, I went back and started opening the sessions. I was like, 'This is fucking cool.' I was re-inspired.

Periphery bandmate/drummer Matt Halpern soon signed up for the band, while former Slaves’ member Tai Wright laid down most of the bass. There's also a guest solo from Australian prog guitarist Plini on closer "I Stand Alone".

The Ritual tracklisting:

"Hope"
"Cosmic Meltdown"
"Gold"
"Only You"
"Babby"
"Goodnight My Darling"
"Death Machine"
"The Ritual"
"Ego 101"
"The Devil’s Train"
"Imminent Distortion"
"I Stand Alone" (feat. Plini)

"Cosmic Meltdown" visualizer: