Parabelle - Albums Collection 2009-2012 [5CD]

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Parabelle - Albums Collection 2009-2012 [5CD]

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Collection includes 3 studio albums and one live compilation by rock band Parabelle.

Parabelle has seen band changes throughout it's short music career thus far. Finding the perfect fit is a timely process but now is the time that things feel right. A hard working group of guys that will do whatever it takes to continue making music for its fans. Kevin Matisyn (evans blue) and Gio are still going strong and with the addition of Kyle Mathis and Joe Maurer of Neverset the band has that ability to put on the amazing live show they've always wanted to. Aaron Burton rounds out the new line up filling in for all the lead work. This is a band that will be rising up and it will be on their own terms.

Para - close to, resembling.

Belle - beautiful.

They say that hindsight is 20/20 but they say a lot of things. You have been told that you should not live in the past but no one warns you about dying there. Sometimes a clearer vision of what's ahead gives you a blurry look at whats behind. If life was a chance, it'd be one that was free. If true love is blind then how can it find me?

Maybe the winding road is the one you're supposed to be on because it's destination is equally important. It leads you to a home you hope to have. Love is a common bond for an unusual enemy. Even your best friends are not the ones that were there while things were being built; they were the ones that stuck around long enough to see you rebuild.

This is what it's called when you take back what never should have been taken. It's about owning what is already yours; your mistakes and your successes. It's about getting out of a rut. It's what you call it when the weight of the world tries to win but fails. It's when you're brought to the brink and take one more painful step. It's when you hit the ground running. It's when you realize that no one can stop you from REASSEMBLING THE ICONS.

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Parabelle - Albums Collection 2009-2012 [5CD]

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"A Summit Borderline/A Drop Oceanic" is the debut double album of the Canadian band Parabelle led by former Evans Blue's vocalist Kevin Matisyn and guitarist/producer Tim Huskinson of Framing Hanley fame. Parabelle specialize in melodic hard rock and their first record already shows how versatile and multidimensional they can be working within this supposedly stale genre. Due to its large scope, "A Summit Borderline/A Drop Oceanic" is an epic rock album that incorporates many different styles into two coherent discs. Thus, this independently released material is considerably more musically and lyrically daring than the previous endeavours of both Matisyn and Huskinson.

The former disc entitled "A Summit Borderline" is heavier than the latter blending the band's trademark infectious melodic rock with evident hardcore influences being mostly hearable in such tracks as "First", "Whore" and "When the Last Words are Sighs". Owing to heavy trash riffage, the band sometimes sounds really powerful in a headbanging kind of mode. Matisyn appropriately contributes employing screams and growls. The attack is the most effective as it comes unexpectedly in the bridge of supremely catchy "The Conversation Ends" when the heavy new tone-sounding guitar is preceded and followed by psychotic screaming. Another obvious highlights of this disc include "Are You Alarmed?" and "He Started Off Well", perfectly executed and appropriately dark songs that combine serious lyrical themes with melodic genius of Matisyn and his anthemic choruses, so prominent on the whole album.

The latter disc "A Drop Oceanic" finds the the band in a more meditative, calmer mode. In order to maintain this mood, the wide range of ballads is used verging from piano-based "Blur", through acoustic "Made Of", to a capella "Eternity Behind 4 Hours". They are all equally effective with the exception of "Never Let You Go" that sounds too generic like several other songs on this disc. Moreover, the band finally shows its brighter, more optimistic side in genuinely uplifting anthems, "Stay Close" and especially "In My Soul". The second disc is also marked by the braver use of keyboards which can either make for ominous sound like in furious "Puppet On a String", or create mysterious atmosphere like in hypnotizing and dreamy "A Drop in the Ocean" being a standout track.

Parabelle manages to be much darker and emotionally plausible than their contemporaries largely due to a genuinely briliant performance of Kevin Matisyn. His outstanding lyrical and vocal skills are on full display throughout the whole endeavour to the point that it feels very much like his own many a time. He is never afraid of making his work very personal and he is never anything less than authentic. Another standout mamber is obviously Tim Huskinson who succeeds in creating a distinctive sound. It's a far cry from being groundbreaking, yet it emulates the identity of the band rather well.

Both admirably melodic and genuine, "A Summit Borderline/A Drop Oceanic" is a stellar collection of mostly great songs that combine hard rock and alternative metal in a truly accessible manner. For me, it is the most pleasantly surprising release of the year.

Review by Greg Fisher, Sputnikmusic.com

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Parabelle - Albums Collection 2009-2012 [5CD]

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Parabelle - Albums Collection 2009-2012 [5CD]

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Parabelle - Albums Collection 2009-2012 [5CD]

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If you don't know who Parabelle is, it's probably best to start with their frontman with the signature voice, Kevin Matisyn. He gained a popular following in the band Evans Blue for their first two albums (see the recommended albums on the side) and was voted out of the band before the third album was completed. After that, he formed Parabelle and focused even more on songwriting. In every album that Matisyn has done vocals for, the lyrics have been a primary focus for most listeners.

Now in the album here, Your Starry Eyes Will Never Make Us Even, Parabelle finds a very smooth balance between musicality and lyricism. There isn't a unifying theme to the album, but rather the typical (typical in terms of Matisyn's writing) themes of love, depression, loneliness, and war. The production quality is excellent, with some nice atmospheric elements to supplement the music. The song tempos are generally similar, but the tone of the music contains plenty of variance (check singing/screaming chorus of "Line of Fire").

Your Starry Eyes Will Never Make Us Even gets better as it goes. The first two songs, "Tear the Blue" and "Blisters and Bad Eyes" are typical Parabelle songs that could've been taken from anywhere in Matisyn's discography, and while decent, they sound fairly similar and don't offer anything beyond that until the bridge in the latter song. "Rise" plays out in a similar vein, but much stronger than two previous songs. The vocals are clearly at the front, and the chorus is perfect in its own simple way.

The 4th and 11th tracks, "In the Shadows" and "My Surrender" are absolutely beautiful, both musically and lyrically. "In the Shadows" is about having low self-esteem in a relationship, where the speaker believes they aren't worth their lover. The chorus follows, "And I will leave you in shadows of where I used to be/You won't be afraid/But I was wrong, I lived so you wouldn't be alone/But you deserve better than this, better than this/Don't you know." The chorus is very dynamic and a large improvement from Parabelle's previous album, Re-Assembling the Icons. The final track, "My Surrender" is another signature Matisyn track with possibly the most poetic one on the record. The song is even more potent than "In the Shadows," and closes the album perfectly.

The drums on Your Starry Eyes Will Never Make Us Even are surprisingly strong, and stand out in a genre where the drums are rarely noteworthy. "Whisper" contains one of the catchiest choruses Parabelle has ever written, and the drums fill in perfectly in rest of the song, especially in the verses. In both "Your Starry Eyes" and "Heaven Like", the drums drive the chorus and offer some unique parts in the verses.

The first single released by the band, "Let It Out", is safe like the first two songs on the record, though with a thundering chorus to help the song stand out. However, the following song, "Line of Fire", may stand out the most on the album. Opening with a dark (albeit basic) guitar riff, the song leaps into this screaming/singing dynamic in the chorus that works in a strange way and opens up a new, heavier direction for Parabelle.

In conclusion, Your Starry Eyes Will Never Make Us Even is a solid effort. Not every song is memorable, but those that are display some of the best work that the band has ever released. They are starting branch into different directions musically and perfecting what they've been doing well for years. If you're already a fan of Parabelle, you'll probably love every song on this album. If you don't know much about them but like mainstream or alternative rock, you'll probably enjoy most of the songs here.

Review by TheSupernatural, Sputnikmusic.com