After 2 years of behind the scenes work in pulling the songwriting and membership together, we have the debut album "Headlong Disaster" from the French band PARALLEL MINDS. All three members possess a ton of experience through previous groups - Stéphane Fradet spent 9 years singing for FALKIRK, Grégory Giraudo currently plays guitar as well for the Progressive Metal band COEXISTENCE, while Franky Costanza is the long-time drummer for DAGOBA. So it shouldn't really be a shock to the system that these 10 songs seem to combine a lot of their Progressive natural tendencies with a bit of a Power Groove element to make things more down to earth and catchy.

The material seems to be split up between shorter, more compact and immediate arrangements of a 4-5 minute variety and a couple more 'epic' songs, including the 8:28 "Migdal Bavel (Myth Of Babel)" and the close to 20 minute "Hyperion". A lot of the vacuum tight guitar parts and drum syncopation for "Into the Void" have that NEVERMORE meets PANTERA feel, while Stephané gives more of a rhythmic delivery to the verses that comes off a touch too modern and commercial for my tastes, while the follow up "Reborn Through Hate" contains tranquil clean guitars during the verses but another battering ram of aggressive riffs and Franky's propulsive double bass backbone to make this a clear cut winning anthem for the group, the instrumental section offering some Progressive/D-Jent aspects for dynamic differentiation.

All three musicians get to showcase their musical interplay skills and exemplary knowledge of the Progressive Metal genre in "Hyperion", a lot of the subtle changes and movements from contrast to bombast similar to what one would expect in SYMPHONY X. Everything from the distorted melodies around the 5:39-5:50 section to the quieter, acoustic oriented transition around the 11 minute mark builds the mood for the out of this world conclusion. The final 2 songs are cover versions of "Coming Home" from THE SCORPIONS and "Only the Good Die Young" from IRON MAIDEN - the former containing acoustic guitars for the opening segment before the heavier guitars kick in, while the latter showcases Stephané and his soaring/gritty range.

PARALLEL MINDS with "Headlong Disaster" serve up a solid Progressive Metal offering with loads of melodies and groove aspects - and it should be interesting to see where things go in the future.