 
Between The Buried and Me have always been a band
trying to find a place where they belong in the
metal side of the music industry, they’ve
skated through numerous phases of different writing
styles trying to find one that fits what they
stand for nicely. Up to now they’ve been
aggressive, complex and now they’ve decided
with “The Parallax II” to push the
extremely progressive style of their EP “The
Parallax” forward into a full album, their
first attempt at a concept album as well so that
alone makes this interesting. The original EP
was very powerful, and was a wave of long original
heavy prog material, can the follow up full length
really continue that power properly? We will see
indeed.
Rounding up to around 73 minutes in duration,
they’ve decided to go against the grain
of bands that are just plain vain enough to take
fans through an hour of them pushing a complex
mesh of riffs and sequences just because they
can, that does not make a good prog album that’s
just showing off for the sake of it what does
make a good album is putting together sequences
and using techniques that together that produce
a musical journey that people can follow and really
get lost in as well as sound appealing when blended
together. This album definitely fits those specifications,
although I do feel the shorter EP was that bit
more powerful in content and lacking of excessive
amounts of interludes.
The actual full length songs that they’ve
offered – at least the ones at around the
10 minute mark – have enough varying content
and interesting combinations to really lose yourself
in it, they minutes fly by in no time at all.
“Lay Your Ghosts to Rest” is easily
my favourite from the record; it’s got the
heavenly harmonies, drop dead beastly growls and
a variation in both tempo and tone, it’s
amazing. “Silent Flight Parliament”
is over 15 minutes in duration and isn’t
quite as good as its earlier counterpart and does
seem to drag a little after a while but for the
most part I can still get lost in it, its range
is just lesser of its predecessor.
So after a good few listens to this I can say
that whilst it isn’t as epic as the previous
EP it’s still got all the characteristics
of a successful progressive metal album that I
will still be able to get a fair few hours of
enjoyment of, unsure as to how long I will be
in this honeymoon phase for because already some
of the things I found outstanding about it are
beginning to have a lesser effect than the initial
listening of the record, but for now I can say
that I’m having some great fun with it.
4/5
Review by James Webb
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