Review Summary: They were the chosen ones.
BTBAM are a very ambitious bunch. Since Alaska they have been throwing various styles & genres together to form epic, bombastic pieces of music, music that I liked. I liked it so much so that I gave 5s to all of their previous albums. Am I a fanboy? No. I was a fanboy. I was convinced these guys were the new, American, Opeth, perhaps even better? Looking back I see I am dead wrong, but the thing is; they could've been.
Between The Buried And Me's first two albums were heavily rooted in metalcore & deathcore, but with enough originality & emotion that it didn't face the pitfalls of those two subgenres. Alaska was a true progression, the sign of a band growing into something greater. The beginning of this band's "progressiveness". Then came Colors, the album that fans old & new alike agreed was the second coming of Christ, but it had flaws, as any album, but it was still the sign of a growing band achieving bigger and better things. The Great Misdirect came along and saw the band at their technical best. The songs were more cohesive, there was a wider array of styles that didn't seem forced, & the lyrics were able to be conceptual yet relatable. Nothing could stop these guys. Sure there was more shred wankery, but it was forgivable. It an interview with Noisecreep vocalist Tommy Rogers said that the band still hadn't found their sound yet. Reading that made me excited for the next endeavor.
Well the next endeavor was the biggest and most ambitious yet, a concept of time & space travel split into a 30 min EP and 72 min LP. The Parallax Parts 1 & 2. I bought Part 1 the day it was out and boy was I pumped. There were signs of BTBAM new & old in this disc. Embracing your past while looking towards the future, you couldn't go wrong with that. I loved part 1.
Part 2 was another day one purchase for me, even though I was a tad bit weary after hearing Astral Body prior. I listened to the album all the way through and I liked it, I think, but I did not feel compelled to visit Sputnik & immediately 5 this. So I waited on it. Listened to the album about 20+ times, still couldn't bring myself to even decide on a rating. What happened to my perfect beloved BTBAM?
Gone were the traces of early BTBAM influence, gone were the relatable lyrics, gone was the genuine emotion in Tommy Rogers voice that I believed he hadn't lost after Alaska, gone was the cohesive songwriting. All that was left was the clear truth that ever since Colors the band did find their sound and they've stuck to it. Trying to outdo it in the same style ever since.
I'm not the only one who's drawn the Opeth comparisons, a lot of people compare them, probably for the misguided reason that they are both popular progressive (death?) metal bands. I didn't tire out on Opeth from MAYH through Watershed because although the style only changed slightly from release to release, it still evolved and there was emotion, emotion in the riffs & solos, and emotion in the delivery of vocals. A dedication to sonic perfection with whatever material was on their hands. The songwriting was nowhere near as ambitious or pretentious as even Opeth themselves think it is. With BTBAM, it is clear that for lack of (caring to use) a better term, they've "sold out". They even said that with the exception of Mordecai & Selkies that you won't be hearing any old tunes live because they don't go over well. I assume this is due to the crowds they attract touring with their modern "progressive" brethren.
Aside from my gripes with present day BTBAM, there are just overall problems with the music presented here itself. Pointless interludes, uneven mixture of elements that are way past quirky (the word the band uses to describe their approach), and a boring guitar tone.
They are also heavily into this concept of these two characters screwing up in all sorts of ways and traveling through space. Astral body is a very "happy" sounding metal song to start off a dark tale that's already in progress. Telos has arguably Tommy's strongest screaming performance in the whole album, but look at those lyrics. Whether you're the mad frontman of a hardcore punk band or growl about fictional zombie murders in a death metal band, what would ever compel you to deal with intense emotions by screaming about rebuilding the universe and patching uniforms? It's one thing to scream nonsense when you're angry and hopped up on heavy riffs, but I can't defend this.
Bloom is just a really freaking odd one that does not fit in any context, nor is it that memorable of a song. The only songs that work in anyway on this album are the last 3 songs. The feel of the music suits the sci-fi atmosphere & lyrics that the band were going for, but even then they suffer the flaws that have plagued the band since Colors.
BTBAM had a chance to do something really beautiful here. I look at the albums the guys recommend and the music they have cited as influences in interviews and scratch my head wondering how this is the end result of people with such talent & great taste in music.
