Every week Whenever they feel like it, the editors of The Apparatus webzine will present a new tech album that you should do yourself a favor and grab to have your mind completely blown…
PARIA has gone through some tremendous changes and growth. The line up shuffle/struggle that this band has endured has worked out for the best. To make a long story short, singer Brian Craig left the band in Jan 2007, Paria was left to record an entire full length, in a new direction, as an instrumental band. Then at the last minute Brian returned to the fold. The band then recomposed most of the tracks with vocals. With all these member changes, 'The Barnacle Cordious' sounds refined and tweaked to perfection. Since a lot of these songs in theory were all instrumentals in a past life. All the instruments individually are pushed into the audible foreground. This album is definitely a bass players wet dream. The guitarist plays a tremendous range of both orthodox and unorthodox guitar playing. I hear everything from classic guitar virtuosity to the best elements of 'Misanthropos' (all the dissonant and abrasive Mathcore techniques).
When I tried to listen to this album all the way through for the first time I got stuck on 'Pish Posh.' It took a good 4 or 5 listens to digest the song. before moving on in the album. This 8 and a half minute instrumental is truly breath taking. I imagine 'Pish Posh' as if Fade to Black or Welcome Home were reincarnated as a progressive metal opus instead of a thrash metal ballad. The other instrumental epic on the album "I've Never Been Here Before In A Long Time" has a slight uptempo hint of Black Sabbath's 'Planet Caravan.' I know it's extremely bold to compare Metallica and Black Sabbath songs to Paria's but it think they pull it off well. Paria plays, what I consider, retro AND modern metal at the same time.
'The Barnacle Cordious' makes for one of the best multi-pallet musical experiences. The heavier riffs and overall elements have a sludgy, stoner metal groove to them. There is also a lot of spacey guitar effects that assist to create a giant atmosphere. The vocals surprisingly have folded perfectly back into the band. There's plenty of vocal variety such as the angstful sing-a-longs "Staring Death in the Face", "Justice Will Be Met," etc There's also a range of tasteful clean singing in "Circus" and to deep and powerful growling in "Be." I know of a ton of bands that play so many genres they are unclassifiable. Paria is definitely one of them. I suggest this album to anyone fans of the band 'Name.' The only difference between Paria and most of their peers is that they pull it off so naturally and unforced. For what it's worth, this album has been well worth the wait. By their sophomore album they are proving themselves as high contenders in this cut throat world of modern metal.
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