THE PARALLAX II - FUTURE SEQUENCE

The sequel to their EP, The Parallax. This is one of the most popular albums the band has released, heck maybe more so than Colors. A concept album brimming with reality swapping and interplanetary epics. Story lovers always love a good sci-fi story. This album is gonna be quite the adventure due to its long winded length. So this may be a rather interesting review.

The album begins with a short prelude called Goodbye To Everything. Now unlike most stories this starts at the end. I will not spoil what it means but it certainly points to a more bittersweet finale with the lyrics. The song itself is an acoustic ballad with some sound effects sprinkled in. Tommy's vocals are on point as ever. This is a solid song to start the album off with.

Next song is Astral Body. Now this is where the story of the EP left off. It follows Prospect 2 breaking down mentally after realizing his planet is gone from existence so he starts to analyze and dissect himself. This band loves to create a mental conflict with the characters they make in their music and this is definitely one of the more up close examples we got. The EP had a sense of technicality, lost in trying to find this new sound to tie the Parallax stories around musically, so with this release it's a bit interesting to see them going to that complex approach to playing while also showing off the band's prog rock motif. The changes in tempo and pitch adds a nicely made layer to make this song feel super rich yet never too much. Despite being a very heavy metal band, Between The Buried and Me never had songs that feel too intense. They strike a nice balance between being fulfilling while leaving the listener wanting more.

Next up is Lay Your Ghosts To Rest. In this song Prospect 2 wakes up from his nightmare, however the planet is still gone, so he decides to go to another planet, the one he was sent the mission to go to, embarking on his journey. For the music side, it has that very articulated and refined Prog Metal I love dearly, while also showcasing a bit more flavor. It has a sort of space rock feel to it. The production definitely feels similar to an Ozric Tentacles or a Hawkwind album to me. The tiny bit of reverb does make this feel a true space adventure through the stars. I do like how it sort of has a waltz style near the end. The band does love experimentation with new styles so this fits pretty well. In all and all this is a great song, however I think it has a tiny bit of filler in some areas. I love my longer songs but this song still works if they cut a tiny bit down and make it like 7 to 9 minutes in length. I feel it's a bit overzealous in what it's trying to do musically. That aside, it's still great.

After that it's Autumn. This is an interlude. To be honest I do not care for it, it is just there. It is just some spacey sound effects and nothing more, but it does have a tiny bit of story. It's basically Prospect 2's mind at the current moment, in lost confusion, so it has some elements to it. Other than that, it exists.

The next song is Extremophile Elite. Now we get into the Prospect 1 side of the story as he reflects on his visions of Prospect 2. He wakes up though finding robots building something around him. The sound of metal clanking and building torments him so he buries his head in the dirt on this supposedly new planet. Prospect 2 soon makes his way down to the planet and finds a corpse in the dirt. This was so happened to be another nightmare but it does show the two Prospects are related in a visionary sense. This song continues the complex Prog Metal nature the band has, but I do notice a little something else. Up until the 2010s, Prog Metal was still progressive but it never truly captured the wacky and fun nature some other genres captured in the Prog scene. That was until something sparked. The most prominent contributor of this whole new wave of progressive metal was Haken. They showcased that Prog Metal can be more than just serious in terms of the music, it can be fun and silly too. Between The Buried and Me definitely had some great experimentation with the genre in the past but here you can definitely hear some Haken influence. The weird use of keyboards and a general sense of bounciness can be found all throughout this song and it gives it a more catchy flavor to it. I like this a lot, I just love a little silliness in my Prog.

Next up is Parallax, another interlude. This time I actually like this compared to Autumn. Yeah it's short but it is a bit more musical and the spoken aspect of it really changes things up a bit to give this a more interesting twist on the band's formula. It follows Prospect 1 and 2 as they realize their true goal and that is to become one again. Two seemingly reality bending characters trying to find a way to become whole again is such a cool story line to be honest.

After that is The Black Box. This time, instead of the prospects singing the song, we get another perspective, which is a being called Night Owl, a god who created everything and sees and hears all. This is the main threat of the story as they try to stop Prospect 2 from reuniting with himself and becoming one again. This is a shorter song but we get less of a heavy metal sentimentality through it and more of a ballad-like feel, but obviously in a villainous approach as it builds up into an epic crescendo. I do wish this was longer since the build up almost felt unearned quite frankly, but it does leave a good introduction to the main villain of this album.

Coming off of it we have Telos. It shows Prospect 2 using his abilities to contact Prospect 1 in an attempt to try and get them on his plan to start things anew. Prospect 1 seems interested in this plan. Prospect 2 also finds a letter from his dead wife who couldn't bear being alone, so she killed herself but to send a message to Prospect 2 on how bad the mission has become. With these feelings, Prospect 2's end goal is to now destroy earth, which fears Prospect 1, who now has an end goal to become a normal person again and not go through his other's plans for destruction of humanity. Now this is a good song, a really good song. It is super virtuous and is filled to the brim with excellent changes in sound and style that it truly creates an epic scaling song. Musically this song is as good as ever, but the story could use a little work. Prospect 2's goals feel very cookie cutter like. The whole destroying humanity due to a lost thing has been a sort of basic and bland trope even in the year of 2012. It doesn't feel completely absolute, but Prospect 1 definitely is a lot more interesting, I just wish they utilized him a lot more in the story. Also they kinda ditched Night Owl in the plot in this song which felt weird. I kinda wanted a big epic battle between a godlike being and an actual god to take place, but I guess that didn't happen for this song. Some weird choices. The song is good, but the story feels weird now.

Next up is Bloom. Prospect 1 now floats in a body of water and soon gets dragged down by a bunch of jellyfish who hypnotizes and experiments on him. After they found out his purpose they let him go where he drifts onto the faithful island that showed up in the first song of The Parallax EP, showing a flashback. You can definitely hear the weird Prog vibes in this song. It's super wobbly and funky sounding but still distinctly from the same cloth as many other songs this band has made. It is just a wacky song and I love that a lot. Just a fun song all around, despite the dark story.

Melting City is up next. Another perspective is introduced and that is a government investigator named Black Mask. He is sent to steal the letter Prospect 2 read in Telos. Black Mask decides to keep it which soon eats at him so he goes back to where he stole it, only finding ash. He leaves the note behind after reading it and runs off for Prospect 2 to find. This and Bloom are kinda in the same form, this being longer though. It is a flashback song that shows a chain of events that'll lead to the epic of The Parallax. This also has the same vibe as Bloom too, a more wacky sounding song, though this doesn't fit as well since the story and subject matter is much grimer. I do love this song, but it does feel a tad out of place and unneeded in the long run. It is a good addition and a little more story elements doesn't hurt, but it does feel filler for the sake of filler.

Next up is Silent Flight Parliament. Now this is a song worth talking about, another big epic from the band. It has such a good melody throughout it with a good amount of technical skill to really make this song feel epic in nature. It has a consistent yet ever changing vibe and style in the music that really sets a nice run for this album. Of course an epic wouldn't be complete without a solid ending. The repeating lines of 'Jet propulsion disengaged, dancing towards our future, a future of nothing, a future towards nothing' is such an awesome finale line that just makes this experience feel all the more worth it. The story of this song is Prospect 2 realizing that Night Owl and Prospect 1 oppose his plans, so he decides to put his plan to action. He kidnaps Prospect 1 and forces him to witness his plan of moving the earth into the sun. Now this is a good plot, but here is the weird part, and that is Prospect 1 accepting this fate. I am saying he had an advantage against his other self, but come on, they should've fought. Like the ending would be so much better if they had one last battle, the ideals of moving forward and destruction, life and death battling one last time. It's kind of a cop out ending to be honest, but it doesn't sour the song too much, but it does feel a little wrong. That aside it's still a magnificent piece for this album.

Lastly is the reprisal of Goodbye To Everything. So now the two Prospects accept their fates and earth and then are destroyed by the sun. This whole thing wraps the adventure up, but it does lead some questions like how did Prospect 2 find a way to kidnap Prospect 1 if they are in separate realities, and also why did Night Owl not try to stop them as he wanted to before in The Black Box. The story feels janky at times, but still a nice concept album for this band's career.

I know I am in the minority here but I do not find this album to be their best work, but that does not stop it from being a very enjoyable musical venture. It is certainly a recommendation for people who want a space bound story while also wanting some awesome heavy music, just note the story is a little all over the place.