THE PARALLEL - EMBARK EP [REVIEW]

Album: Embark EP
Artist: The Parallel
Label: Subliminal Groove Records
Release Date: October 9, 2015
Reviewer: Habib T

Today, we embark on a short, but exciting musical journey that will take us to the proggy plains of Canada with a remarkable hardcore twist. Although The Parallel's debut EP Embark is only 14 minutes long, it contains sufficient material for the band to define their sound.

The opening track "Embark" is the shortest on the album, but it shows some serious, powerful vocals reminiscent of Northlane and Volumes, as well as crushing breakdowns. However, the following track, "Pendulum", better showcases the band's sound with melodic, heavy riffs full of progressive metal elements with a djenty vibe. The third track "Shipwrecked", which is my personal favorite from this EP, does a fantastic job of creating the ambience and mood a band needs to achieve in order to characterize their sound, with a more technical albeit hardcore style. If I would say that there is a song to represent this relatively recently formed band, it would be this one. The release ends with the song "Endeavors", offering an emotional and highly melodic tune complete with a wonderful addition of clean vocals.

Overall, the Embark EP is a good start for a band like The Parallel. The EP is stylistically diverse and exhibits the band's different approaches to the progressive hardcore style. I am definitely looking forward to more of their releases.

7.5/10


Catch The Parallel on Facebook.
You can also visit their Bandcamp and stream their EP!