Between the Buried and Me
The Parallax II: Future Sequence
Reviewed by Joe Tingle
If it wasn’t already obvious, Between the Buried and Me have completely transformed into an all-out progressive metal act. And that’s OK, because they’re one of the most competent bands playing progressive metal, and aren’t afraid to push the envelope in a musical genre that, ironically, doesn’t lend itself to innovation as much as listeners would expect. Their newest album, The Parallax II: Future Sequence, is a continuation of that overall innovative quality which has defined Between the Buried and Me’s output so far.
Future Sequence begins with layered vocals over an acoustic guitar, before launching into Between the Buried and Me’s trademark progressive metal sound. Vocalist Tommy Rogers screams over a down-tuned heavy metal guitar accompanied by major key appreciated leads, and before long a clean, jazz-sounding solo is played over a chugging breakdown riff, and that’s when you know BTBAM have no intention whatsoever to return to their original metalcore sound. There is no doubt that, stylistically, Future Sequence picks up the pieces where its EP prelude, Hypersleep Dialogues, left off: Between the Buried and Me are now the new and unabashedly extreme masters of progressive metal’s more excessive domains.
There is a concept here, though I’m not sure what that is. Spoken words segments are scattered through the music, though they do little to advance the narrative. Lyrically, Future Sequence is academic and abstract, conjuring up subject matter probably only appealing to listeners with Creative Writing MFA’s. The only time you’ll feel close to Tommy’s lyrics is if you bother looking them up in Future Sequence’s 24 page full-color art book (regarding the art, Artist and Designer Chandler Owen did a good job; this is the type of album you do want to buy).
Ultimately, it’s hard to describe music as dense and challenging as Between the Buried and Me’s. There’s a good contrast here between metal section and quieter progressive sections. There are nods to musical sections from the EP, as well as songs on previous Between the Buried and Me albums. While there are few early “stand-out” tracks, the entire package is very consistent and songs flow seamlessly into one another. And everything works on Future Sequence; it really does stand out as being more melodic, more technical, and much more well constructed that their last full-length outing, The Great Misdirect.
If Between the Buried and Me’s output has been mostly experimental– and thus hit or miss– in recent years, Future Sequence represents the band drawing from that lab work to concoct something that sticks with what’s worked while cutting away what hasn’t. Most 70+ minute progressive metal albums feature cut-and-paste riffing ad nauseum and, in the words of Bilbo Baggins, just feel stretched out like butter on too much bread. But Future Sequence is not, which makes it a contender as one of the best albums of its type this year.
