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1. Goodbye to Everything
2. Astral Body
3. Lay Your Ghosts to Rest
4. Autumn
5. Extremophile Elite
6. Parallax
7. The Black Box
8. Telos
9. Bloom
10. Melting City
11. Silent Flight Parliament
12. Goodbye to Everything Reprise
"Between the Buried and Mehave not made a name for
themselves through playing it safe. Pushing the envelope of heavy music with
each successive release, they have continually evolved in thrilling new
directions while maintaining the honesty and integrity that has connected with
so many listeners. With The Parallax II: Future Sequence, the first concept
album of their career, the North Carolina based unit have delivered their most
complex, ambitious, and accomplished work to date. "We're certainly not
the average metal band - we write what we want to write, and we've never really
tried to fit in anywhere," states guitarist Paul Waggoner. "With this
record we held nothing back. We were excited to experiment and see where it
took us, and working with a concept was a really interesting new
challenge."
The concept was first introduced to the band's fans with
2011's The Parallax: Hypersleep Dialogues EP, which established the narrative's
two characters, Prospect I and Prospect II, the story commencing with the
events of Parallax II. Separated by millions of light years, the two men exist
in ignorance of the other yet are intrinsically connected by a shared soul,
which ultimately brings them together. "Both men exist in isolation, one
because he runs away from the life that is his and the other when he leaves his
dying planet in the hope of creating new life elsewhere, through the planting
of souls," explains vocalist Tommy Rogers. "As the story progresses
you realize they are actually the same person, and at the end of the journey
they're responsible for destroying all life as they know it, reinforcing the
idea that humanity is a destructive species, and that there's some kind of
innate flaw about us that causes us to destroy everything we touch." While
the story is very much based in fiction and grounded in the imagination of Rogers , it was important
that the vocalist was able to emotionally connect with it, and relate it to his
own life, thereby making it relatable for listeners. "That was probably
the hardest thing for me, making sure I could find that connection. The main
thing that these characters go through is confusion and isolation, and I think
that's something every person deals with in their lives at some point. As a
musician you spend a lot of time with your own thoughts, so despite the science
fiction of it all it is still a very personal record."
Such an epic storyline demands a suitably grand and
expansive soundtrack, and musically the record captures the sound of five men
pushing themselves further than ever before. Having never fallen into the trap
of prioritizing complexity for complexity's sake, Between the Buried and Me are
renowned for their capacity for writing intensely complicated and often
challenging music yet never losing sight of the importance of good songwriting,
something that is demonstrated constantly across Parallax II's twelve tracks.
With swathes of crushing riffs, dizzying leads and convoluted rhythms that
shift in unpredictable directions, the record also boasts a great deal of
melody that is never trite or obvious. Equally, there is a wealth of rich ambience
and atmosphere suffusing the record, the combination of these qualities making
for an immersive listening experience. "The EP was a very interesting
challenge for us, because it was very concise. In a lot of ways we didn't
necessarily get to experiment or expand on parts in the way that we usually
do," Waggoner states. "With the full-length we really went for it, we
left nothing on the table - if we came up with an idea we thought was cool we
did it. It's an extremely dynamic record, it's over seventy minutes of music
and never really settles into one style, and we've got some different
instruments on there too. There's some banjo and mandolin and sitar, and we had
friends come in and play some saxophone, and there's a flute solo on there too.
It's still rooted in guitar, bass and drums, but there's some interesting other
flavors on there as well, which is exciting for us as a band." While the
project began with the concept being broadly sketched out, Rogers waited until the music was written
before he began to write the lyrics, taking the various themes and ideas and
making them work with the music in a cohesive manner. Written in a stream of
conscious style, the lyrics take the form of the thoughts of the characters,
allowing you an insight into their feelings rather than supplying a
straightforward narrative, and it was important to the members that each song
stand on its own merit and could be enjoyed when listened to apart from the
whole. "I don't think you necessarily need to understand or even know the
whole concept to be able to get something out of each of the songs here,"
Waggoner says. "It was important to us that we were very much aware of the
whole, but to not get so caught up in it that any particular song couldn't
stand up on its own."
Produced by the band - which is rounded out by guitarist
Dustie Waring, bassist Dan Briggs, and drummer Blake Richardson - alongside
longtime collaborator Jamie King, the recording process was smooth, though
labor intensive, if for no other reason than the sheer amount of material that
had to be tracked. Stepping back from it, the band are proud of everything they
have achieved. "This whole process
was a lot of work, and it's definitely the most rewarding piece of music we've
ever written," states Rogers .
"It's a very coherent record, and I think nowadays records are getting
thrown out there without much thought put into them. I like that what we've
done is kind of bring back the whole album feel, which was really important
once but doesn't seem to be any more." With plans to play Parallax II in
its entirety on forthcoming tours, the band hope this album introduces new fans
to their music, yet they maintain the humble aspirations that have always
driven them. "I'm a firm believer that if you create something that's
unique and different there's always going to be a niche market for that. Our
mentality is to keep doing what we're doing, writing music that challenges both
us and the listener, and to keep playing to everyone who wants to see us,"
Waggoner states. Rogers
concurs with this, adding "I think what we do speaks loudly to people.
We're a very genuine band, we do what we want because we love doing it, and I
think that's what people want. They want honesty in their music, and they want
music that comes from the heart rather than comes from a computer, or that is
made by people motivated by making money. We're just going to keep writing the
best songs we can and with that continue to grow, and hopefully through doing
that more and more people will find us.”
Between the Buried definitely know how to make me over
listen to an album as “The Paralax II” has been something I have been listening
to non-stop. The album starts on the very beautiful short acoustic intro track
“Goodbye to Everything.” This leads straight into the next track “Astral Body,”
which if I may say so my self has a very amazing music video. It is a very
technical and progressive track, with incredible guitars. The contrast between
riffs was intense and was always entertaining. “Lay Your Ghosts to Rest” really
gave me a Meshuggah style feel to how coordinated but how hard to follow the
heavy parts were, especially the chugging and technical parts. The bass in this
track was great as well, especially when you can focus on it by itself. There
is a very groove style bit a minute and a half in which was interesting. The
vocals on this track are well done with a mix between growls and clean styles.
“Extremophile Elite” is led into very nicely with the short
interlude “Autumn.” The beginning of “Extremophile…” is very intergalactic
space sounding with its keyboard and guitar beginning. There is a really good
mix of heavy and clean in this track. The guitars on this are almost too good
to be true and the bit in the middle is really interesting. The xylophone bit
almost half way through is awesome and is then mimicked on the guitar which is
very epic. The chorus of this track is very catchy. “Parallax” is a short
little track with mellow guitar and spoken word. “The Black Box” is another
short one as well with piano and clean vocals. It gives you a short break from
the insane ten minute behemoths.
“Telos,” is another great long track with chugging bits,
technical riffs, and mellow breaks. The mellow bit in the middle reminded me of
the Trioscapes’ “Gemini’s Descent”, which is followed by a evil sounding part
that may even be Walter Fancourt (Trioscapes’ saxophonist) or just a keyboard
part. I know he makes an appearance somewhere on the album but differentiating
between instruments is very difficult with how epic everything sounds as a
whole. The clean vocals on this track are very calming and the solo at the end
is awesome. “Bloom” is another short track that is led in nicely from the track
prior. It’s a very weird three minute piece, including technical and very...
interesting parts. One in particular is a surfer style riff with accompanying
“ba-da-ba-ba” singing, which is odd but very hilarious.
Leading in nicely from the track prior is the ten minute
long, “Melting City
If you are not a fan, what the hell is wrong with you? (I
have been asking myself and yes I am a hypocrite) This album is a very good
introduction to the band. With a mix of heavy, technical, clean, and just straight
up odd and obscure bits, Between the Buried and Me is a very well rounded band
with incredibly talents musicians all around. There is not a single member in
this band that can be overlooked and that is something that a band should be
proud of. I highly recommend this album!
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