Periphery's Misha Mansoor Working on New Animals as Leaders Album

Animals as Leaders' latest release, Weightless, was a bit of a stylistic departure from the band's self-titled debut, thanks in big part to a full-band dynamic that wasn't present with Tosin Abasi and Periphery guitarist Misha Mansoor hammered together the first album.

For fans who missed Misha's touch on Weightless, there's good news: Mansoor is apparently working with Tosin Abasi on Animals as Leaders' third album.

"Tosin Abasi and I have been hard at work on the new Animals As Leaders material," wrote Mansoor in a post on his Facebook page. "Six songs down so far!"

It's fairly safe to assume Mansoor will be handling production duties, but the extent of his involvement on the new record is unclear. Mansoor handled keyboards and drum programming along with engineering production on the band's debut album.

Josh Hart

Josh Hart is a former web producer and staff writer for Guitar World and Guitar Aficionado magazines (2010–2012). He has since pursued writing fiction under various pseudonyms while exploring the technical underpinnings of journalism, now serving as a senior software engineer for The Seattle Times.