Between The Buried And Me - The Parallax II: Future Sequence

How have I never gotten more into this band before? Between The Buried and Me rocks the shit out of the concept album.Developing a story line they began with their EP, The Parallax: Hypersleep Dialogues, North Carolinians Between The Buried and Me (BTBAM) have released their first concept record, The Parallax II: Future Sequence, replete with everything you'd expect from such a project: extended jams, atmospheric vocals, and indecipherable monologues from the story's cast of characters. But don't worry, it's a great album…

Having been around since the turn of the century, BTBAM has managed to coalesce a variety of musical influences into an interesting melange of progressive and death metal, with touches of everything from Smashing Pumpkins to Queen to The Beatles. Pulling it off without sounding like it's all crammed in there for the sake of having it in there is what sets BTBAM apart from a lot of other bands. And The Parallax II: Future Sequence presents a deft application of this talent over the course of its 72 minutes and 42 seconds.

What stands out for me, having not listened to BTBAM before, is their ability to move between an authentic modern death metal sound to movie soundtrack to progressive metal jams in a way that serves the story of the album with a good sense of forward momentum; tracks like Autumn, Parallax and Goodbye to Everything provide the perfect amount of space in between massive tracks like Lay Your Ghosts To Rest and Extremophile Elite. In less capable hands I could see this sort of experiment quickly becoming muddled and (ultimately) ignored, but the fearless lads of BTBAM handle this insanity like pros.

The Bottom Line: Throw the psychedelic vocals of latter-day Beatles, the spaced out metal of Mastodon, the intricate arrangements of Dream Theater, and the brutality of death metal into a pot, stir, and let simmer for a little over an hour. Set the table, and sit down to a satisfying meal of concept album rock courtesy of the mad geniuses of Between The Buried And Me.

Tracks to Listen, this is an old school concept album jam, so do this right: Get baked, plug in your best pair of [over the ear] headphones, light some incense and candles, turn out the lights, lay down on the living room floor, and crank this motherfucker up, you savvy?

- Genghis has a favorite new album…