My love for the band, Parallax, began in the winter of 2004 when I had received their demo (two tracks from which appear on "Mediums & Messages" in re-recorded form) after e-mailing the band for a copy and was blown away by how good their music, as well as their message, was. I listened to it almost religiously that year and was quite excited to get a hold of the full-length that they had recorded. I was saddened to hear from Kevin Counterintelligence that their lead singer, Blake Donner, had passed that summer, before he could hear the finished product, which sort of lead to the release of the full-length being delayed a few months.
Fast-forward to spring 2006 when I randomly heard from Kevin (Counterintelligence guy) that the CD was finally available and I immediately ordered it from him knowing that I needed to eat that week and I was low on funds. I received it three days later and for the next month or so it was all I listened to. I know that everyone says that but, really, this is all I listened to. Even during times when I shouldn't have been listening to music (like studying for finals and in class), I had this album playing.
Everytime I try to explain this band to anyone that hasn't heard them I can only really say, "awesome, emotional stuff, man." I say that because, well, it really is, and the fact that you know their singer passed before he could hear the finished product and that the remaining band members wrote the explanations (except for one) and liner notes makes the listen more intense.
If I could say anything, just get the record to hear the track that features Greg Bennick of Trial fame (just get the record because it's fucking amazing). I wish I had more to say about it, but it's amazing. I think this is where I'll stop and leave you with the explanation/introduction for "Surgery Without Sutures" written by Greg Bennick found in the CD booklet:
"To have limitless potential to feel and love yet to be bound by a slowly dying body is life's greatest irony. No matter how much we can imagine the universe, we are bound by the earth, eventually by the dirt itself. Given that set of circumstances, how are we to live? How is it possible to find inspiration and confidence in the midst of a future which is already pre-determined yet entirely uncertain at the same time? A year from now I could be making love, laughing, in awe, extraordinarily happy....or I could have worms crawling in the dirt through my eye sockets, unaware that the passageway through which they move ever housed a unique and caring individual life. In the midst of such opposites, it is easy to get lost, to give up, to get wrapped up in fear and pressure and rage. It is easy to look backwards wistfully dreaming of being in complete control of what we would have done to feel more alive in the past, rather than to risk defeat and live in the present, or hope for the future. This song is about what happens at the breaking point. It is about saying yes to the fear, to the regret, to all the people you never kissed, all the places you never got to see, all the friends you've lost, and all the ones you hope to find. Its about what you want to feel and experience, and how much you want to squeeze every last precious moment out of life before you are extinguished forever. Its about breathing deeply, feeling and living to extremes in the midst of a slow process of dying, a process which is as painful as it is beautiful...a process that will haunt us for the rest of our lives."
Try it.
Buy it.
Click here to view Greg Bennick's blog entry in which he discusses his track and his experiences with Blake Donner and Parallax.
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