Palaris - The Pros and Cons of Redemption

Blue Duck Records has released their fifth record in the form of Paralis’ “The Pros and Cons of Redemption”. I went by the name of the band and imagined that their sound would probably be something along the lines of the new wave of “emo” bands hitting the airwaves these days. I was somewhat disappointed to find that while this is probably the sound that the band was going for, they don’t pull it off very well. I believe this probably due to two problems.

First off the band had only been together for about a year when they recorded this, which may be the reason behind the monotonous songs that all sort of run together after a while. Only one song sticks out my memory and that’s only because of the singer sort of doing an impassioned spoken word towards the end of the song. The second noticeable problem, and possibly the worst, is that the production seems really muddy. This not only serves to hide any possible gems the band may have had within their songs, but it also sucks the energy out of the record. Any attempts to rock out were severely dampened making these all too brief moments feel silly.

I’m certain that given more time Paralis will mature as songwriters and as musicians and hopefully even able to get a better recording next time around, but for now I have to say skip this record.