CONNECTIONS

I raved about Parallel Mind's debut album that came out in 2005. I think I've rated it 4 stars here, but honestly, it's more like 4-1/2. I followed this band's website eagerly looking for a follow-up album that finally came out 10 years later. I'm not quite gonna say "thud", but...

On "Connections", the band tries to tie the first album in by naming the opening 15-minute 4-piece suite "Colossus 2". I would say that suite is OK, and mostly in the style of progressive jazz fusion that the first album excelled in. The tonal difference here is the presence of a guitarist, and one that tends to favor riffing and metal leads. It's kept to a minimum, but a little bit more and - heh heh - you would have lost me altogether.

The real issue I have with this album is track 6 "Confession of Faust". This is the only song with vocals, aside from some wordless female vocals during "Colossus 2". And the vocals here are very reminiscent of Dream Theater, along with some metal riffing. (Honestly, it sounded just like a song from "Metropolis 2" - can't remember which one...) The song is not terrible in a prog metal sort of way, but it is WAY out of context with the rest of the album. It's just jarring. And at that point in the album, I was left wondering if it was even worth listening to the end.

It is.

The last 3 tracks covering the final 25 minutes of the album are GREAT! Much more of what I was looking for from the band. The drums and keyboards are incredible throughout the album. They replaced Bill Kopecky on bass, and the replacement is good. He's no Bill Kopecky.

Even if you skip track 6 (as I will from now on), you still get a solid 48 minutes of pretty good music. So I'm going 3-1/2 stars on this album. Definitely check out their debut.