Band : Between The Buried And Me
Album Title : The Parallax Hypersleep Dialogues
Label : Metal Blade Records
Distributor : Rough Trade Benelux.
Release date : 11/04/2011
Release : (3-track) CD-EP

Realising it was a while since I first got in contact with this Raleigh (North Carolina) based MetalCore act, I found out that since having reviewed their Victory album Colors (posted 23/09/2007) the band indeed released the album The Great Misdirect (still through Victory) in 2009, but that for some reason it simply never made it to our website's headquarters (what díd get to our offices, was singer Tommy Giles Rogers' solo album Pulse – released under the name Giles – in January 2011)! Oh well...a follow-up to the story in mentioned review first?

For starters, BTBAM went on a headline tour from September to November 4th, 2007 with Animosity and Horse The Band (Giant, who are now known as Brave Young, also supporting during US gigs). In December 2007 BTBAM started off on another headlining tour, supports being August Burns red and Behold...The Arctopus. In 2008 live proceedings were started with a support slot on The Dillinger Escape Plan's UK tour, after which BTBAM became one of the acts that partook in Progressive Nation '08, the first of what became an annual Progressive music event also featuring Dream Theater, Opeth, and 3. Together with The Black Dahlia Murder, the band supported Children Of Bodom's US headlining tour starting in Summer 2008, and continuing into the Fall. The year was rounded off by a short 4-date tour of the Carolina states and Georgia...and the beginning of a month's touring of Australia (with headliners Bleeding Through, As Blood Runs Black, In Trenches, and Abandonment), which ended on January 9.

BTBAM then obviously took off time to write and record The Great Misdirect (critically acclaimed, the album shot to #36 on the Billboard 200 charts in its first week of release), for which they started touring (in Canada) with Killswitch Engage and In Flames in September 2009. More North American touring followed in early 2010, with Cynic, Devin Townsend and Scale The Summit. Europe came up next in a tour supporting Lamb Of God (other support bands including August Burns red and Job For A Cowboy), and in February the band was back in the States to support Mastodon and Baroness on their headlining US tour. During Summer 2010 the band toured on the Cool Tour, alongside Architects, As I Lay Dying, Blessthefall, Cancer Bats, The Acacia Strain, Underoath, and War Of Ages. After that, the band again secluded itself in the rehearsal studio to write their latest recording venture.

An adventure it certainly is! Because it's a conceptual album, see? Actually, it's even only part one of a two-part story, the conclusion following on the band's next album. In part one, we find two human characters living in different planes of existence separated by millions of light-years. Both are confronted with similar personal problems they have to deal with, and make decisions which change their lives and possibly the universe for ever (sorry I cannot tell you more about the story's details, but I have to work with the limited info coming with the download). The album itself only counts three tracks, but with a length ranging between almost 8 ½ and 11 ½ minutes the album is still just over 30 minutes long! In spite of their length, the tracks see BTBAM go through their usual breaks, tempo and stylistic changes, making for tracks which keep the listener mesmerized from start to finish! As per usual, there's some wacky stylistic incorporations...like the guys start off the mini-album with an ode to Carl Orff (music a mixture of piano play, horns, and choir chant) before exploding in true Metalcore style with aggressive/ progressive guitars, screaming vocals, and some electronics thrown in to boot where possible. The same track (“Spectacular Reflection”) sees a short return to the use of horn section (evidently synthesizer-generated), and somewhere along the track you even get a short Polka-like harmonium passage. At one moment extremely brutal but never devoid of Progressive elements and melody, the next moment will see the the quintet going into a calmer mode, more akin Progressive Rock lines. There's even moments where you'll swear to hear some xylophone being played! And of course frontman Tommy Giles Rogers goes through several vocal styles along with the music!

As per usual with BTBAM, The Parallax: Hypersleep Dialogues is a very diverse album, one which any lover of both the Extreme and Progressive Musical Arts will want to have and hold as his/ her own. I mean, I know I am goin' to get myself the album next time I'm in the record store, for sure! I mean, BTBAM already made my year-lists in 2007, and this album manages to excel even more!!! Oh, by the way, if you happen to read this because you wanted to inform yourself about the band's musical stylings, best check the songs posted at (www.) myspace.com/ betweentheburiedandme (which holds a near 7-minute sampler of above mentioned album opening track, plus a multitude of songs off previous albums). People who already know the band from previous albums...you know the way to get your own copies of the album, right?

98/100

Tony.