This, being my first experience with Between the Buried and Me, was overwhelmingly….awesome. There just comes a point in your life when you’ve heard so much music that it all just kind of blends together into one big conglomeration of sounds. You find yourself unable to listen to anything new because, to you, that just sounds like that one band you used to listen to when you were fifteen, and that was twenty years ago. Yes, it’s true, you really do become that old person who compares everything to your generations music. That being said I went into this album oblivious to what I was going to find and came out with an ear to ear smile.

Progressive metal kind of captures the essence of what the band could be considered, but there are some tranquil moments in there that (yes I’m going to do it) reminded me of the guitar musings of David Gilmour during the mid-life Pink Floyd years. It’s these serene moments of clarity that I think were placed on the album to kind of give you a breather because the album is absolutely and completely nuts when it comes to the technical complexities of what the band does when they fly off into their seemingly manic explosions of sound.

Parallax II: Future Sequence has the ability to reach between the lines and take the best of prog rock and prog metal and kind of slap them together. The purpose? According to one writer (sorry I haven’t got the liner notes to the album or the experience of being there for the first installment of the parallax series) it’s a concept story about two people who are sent on a journey through time and space to cure the flaws of humanity by any means necessary. Okay, sure. Being one to always love a good musical trip I plan on sitting down with the album later and really exploring that concept. Just a pair of headphones, a nice comfy place to rest my head, and nothing else to distract me. We’ll see what happens. Until then my overall experience with the album is that it is definitely not for everyone but if you’re an adventurer Parallax II has a lot to offer, a complex sound that’s sure to make some sparks, and a controlled chaos that some will find beautifully designed. I highly suggest. Enjoy.