Between The Buried And Me – The Parallax: Hypersleep Dialogues

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Since 2005′s Alaska, hearing new Between The Buried And Me material has become an exercise in wondering what kind of crazy new elements they’ve introduced to the mix. Genre masterpieces Colors and The Great Misdirect saw the band stretching not just their own boundaries but the boundaries of progressive metal in general. While far from a straightforward effort, the band’s first EP, the 30-minute The Parallax: Hypersleep Dialogues dials back the excesses of those two albums and lets its three songs unfold in a more natural way with far fewer tangents and breaks from the groove. The prologue to a forthcoming concept album involving the same characters, known simply as Prospect #1 and Prospect #2, The Parallax showcases a relatively restrained Between The Buried And Me that hasn’t been seen in a number of years. Sure, there’s still jagged, arpeggiated riffs and tradeoffs between violently screamed and gorgeously dreamlike vocals, but jazz, country and all the other odd genres that had poked into the band’s sound on their last two releases are gone, replaced by a progressiveness that fits into the genre at hand rather than trying to expand it. The result is a less daring and therefore less enthralling album than Colors and The Great Misdirect, but a rather good one nonetheless.

Written by Brad Sanders
More: 2011, EPs, Hardcore/Metalcore, Progressive, Quick.Play Reviews, Between The Buried And Me