In order for a “progressive” album to be a success, its sound must be able to explore and experiment, yet still be memorable enough for the listener to relate to it. Progressive albums fail when they overload themselves with too many changes and embellishments, and end up collapsing on their own pretentious foundations. A great progressive album will provide its listener with new things to discover with every listen. A failure will simply drag the listener through a mess of complex arrangements, as if the band is trying to say: “Hey! Look at all this hard stuff we know how to play! That makes us original!” With The Parallax II: Future Sequence, Between the Buried and Me has scored a dazzling and entertaining success.
With The Parallax: Hypersleep Dialogues, I was glad to see Between the Buried and Me bring back a heaviness that I thought The Great Misdirect had too little of. On this new release, I can only cheer their praises even louder. With the serene and quiet opener of Goodbye to Everything, the band carries the listener through the almost triumphant and party-like atmosphere of Astral Body. Even from just the first few songs, it’s clear this album is intended like its two predecessors to be listened to end-to-end.
Though the band meant the album to stand as one unified conceptual piece (along with the EP), it still has some definite highlights. Songs like Lay Your Ghost to Rest and Extremophile Elite (or as I’d like to call it, Selkies: The Re-Do) show the band doing everything it does best- Death metal, hardcore, jazz, and even some splashes of world music, all woven into a fascinating musical picture. Great as these tracks and others are however, Telos is the great achievement here. I love everything BTBAM has done in its own way, but my taste gives me a natural soft-spot for the first 3 albums. On Telos, the band smashes and thrashes its way though riffs and the sorely missed low-end growls from vocalist Tommy Rogers, and a jazz bridge that flows better and more naturally than many others the band has tried in the past. The song ends with a brutal crunch and smash breakdown that could easily fit on The Silent Circus.
Normally I think in-between tracks are kind of stupid, but songs like Autumn and Parallax give it this album some nice breathing room. And yes, there are moments where the band gets a little long on its own virtuosity, and with 5 songs that stretch past the 10-minute mark, Parallax II can get a little exhausting. Yes, album is definitely on the loooooong-side, but I assure you, its worth being patient for.
For many metal-listeners of my generation, Colors will always hold a special memory for us. And though it had it had plenty of great moments, The Great Misdirect went off-the-tracks a few too many times (can’t wait to see what comments I’ll get for that…). With Parallax II: Future Sequence, Between the Buried and Me has kept their legacy secure while also sounding fresh, relevant, and ever more ambitious.
8/10
Favorite Songs: Astral Body, Lay Your Ghost to Rest, Extremophile Elite, and Telos
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRbnY8EK4Ew[/youtube]
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