Alex Bois is a guitarist and vocalist for Maryland progressive metal aficionados, Periphery, who have been making a great deal of headway since their inception, back in 2005. Alex’s father, also a musician, was in a band and had guitars lying around the house. This led to Alex becoming interested in the instrument, and he soon gave up his piano studies in favor of learning the guitar. In addition to his own attraction to guitar, Alex has stated that once he found out that girls were fond of guitarists, and once he heard James Hetfield’s monstrous riffs in Metallica songs, he was hooked for good. As he continued playing and practicing, Alex began to develop his own style, which definitely helps him when it comes to writing, along with two other guitarists, some of Periphery’s more challenging and difficult compositions.
Periphery was started by Misha Monsoor, who would post his music on websites like Soundclick and Myspace. During this time, Alex was involved with another band in Los Angeles, but nevertheless, decided to get together and jam with Misha. Things began to click, as these two began hiring more musicians, including many singers, and began to play out as much as possible. After five years of writing riffs and slugging it out on the “independent scene,” Alex and Periphery, which also features guitarists Misha Monsoor and Jake Bowen, along with percussionist Matt Halpern, bassist Tom Murphy, and vocalist Spencer Sotelo, have signed with the label, Sumerian Records. Canadian distribution of the self-titled debut will be handled by Distort Records, and Roadrunner Records will handle Australia (where Alex also has citizenship, because his father is from there), and the rest of the world. Their music has been compared to that of bands like Meshuggah and Dillinger Escape Plan, though Periphery has tried to lean more toward the melodic side of heavy, prog-rock. Another unique thing about Alex and the band is that they released an instrumental version of their debut album, in addition to the regular version.
Alex has played Ibanez, Epiphone and Schecter guitars. In October 2010, Periphery’s trailer was broken into, and among the items stolen were Alex’s Ibanez RGD2120z 6-string (in a rare, satin black finish), a super rare Epiphone Genesis outfitted with EMG 81/85 pickups, and a 7-string Schecter Blackjack. Bois has been photographed on stage playing a Carvin guitar, and he plays an Axis Super Sport Music Man. His rig includes a G Major, which handles all of his clean channel effects like delay and chorus. He uses two noise gates (an MXR and Boss NS-2), and an Ibanez TS-808 Tube Screamer. Alex uses an ENGL 100-Watt Invader amplifier.