PARALLEL MINDS is a Progressive Metal band from France who've just released their sophomore effort,"Every Hour Wounds... The Last One Kills." The band plays loosely within their genre, offering elements of Traditional Metal and Power Thrash mixed in with soaring guitar-driven melodies.  The name may be a reference to that breakthrough CONCEPTION album, as their style has a similar clean-sung operatic quality, one that also reminds heavily of 1990's SAVATAGE.  This latter influence is spelled out with the excellent choice of bonus track on the album, a cover of the legendary Florida metallers' "Tonight He Grins Again,"  the best - and only - cover I've heard attempted of this relatively deep track. But, I digress. This nine originals that make up this record are a fine collection of melodic Metal, one that fans of shred guitar legends like Michael Romeo, Jeff Loomis or Michael Amott will surely appreciate.

"Every Hour Wounds" is a short introduction track, a rollicking double bass driven overture that previews every mood on the rest of the album's 50-some-odd minutes.  Vocalist Stephane Fradet shines on "The Last One Kills" with some adept banshee screams. The setup to each track is very much SYMPHONY X style machine gun riffs from the talented Gregory Giraudo with a powerful backbone of thunder coming from drummer Eric Manella and bassist Antoine Moutet.  This seems to be their sweet spot as the album works less effectively on slower passages and songs like "Syria," a track with a lofty premise (featured members of ORPHANED LAND) that doesn't quite land, perhaps due to Fradet seeming less comfortable in his mid-to-low range. Giraudo's super-detailed and complex rhythm parts however are a constant on the record and keep you hooked. The song "I Am C," a kind of QUEENSRYCHE-ian robotic dystopia fantasy, is one of the strongest on the album, as it mixes the different shades and tempos on the album to great success.  One song that surprised me with its lyrical eloquence was "The 52 Hz Whale," a true story that I was familiar with about a lonely whale.  It's one that has always resonated with me as a metal head and I'm glad to see someone bring it to life.  The song is grandiose and somewhat long-winded, but is built off a solid melodic framework.  "Kolyma" is a strong blitz of riffing and aggressive vocals that finishes the set off on the right note.

The album is a joy to hear from a guitar perspective, Giraudo is a skilled player who has created a palette of complex earworm riffs that keep this otherwise workmanlike effort of heavy Prog Metal from becoming too generic.  The inclusion of the SAVATAGE cover is additive in that it shows that the band takes influence from the right places.  Whether they can build off that note and create something as truly original as an album like "Streets," remains to be seen, but could be a nice challenge, and jumping off point, for album number three.<