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Consortium Project: 2 - Continuum in Extremis
Consortium Project: 2 - Continuum in Extremis review

Consortium Project: 2 - Continuum in Extremis (Reissue)

Melodic Power Metal
4.0/5.0

True to their word Lion Music reissues, from 2011, vocalist Ian Parry's second Consortium Project 2-Continuum in Extremis. Here's another album bursting with Parry's brand of bombastic and melodic power metal. A strong singer in his own right, Parry does not tire of creating grand composition or collaborating with fine talent. Some of Europe's best metal guitarists appear here including Stephan Lill (Vanden Plas), Patrick Rondat (Elegy) and Thomas Youngblood (Kamelot).

While the expectation for Continuum in Extremis is more of Parry and company's extravagance, the album concept offers some particular interest. It's a fictional and fantastical tale. Parry creates 'a fictional world going out of control, which is saved by women (Neofems), who prevent man from destroying the planet. Their realization is a new peaceful world enclosed in a Biosphere, where Man (now referred to as Monomales), have no part of this new order.' God bless the fairer sex as the save the world. Within, the songs reflect currents that were swirling in 2000, such as discovery of the human genome, global warming, and human cloning.

As for the music, little changes from one Consortium Project to the next. Although, in the case of Continuum in Extremis there's a certainly friendly, more accessible feeling, across this entire platter. Perhaps its the stronger melodies or Parry's fuller and smoother vocal arrangements. It's not entirely heavy-handed as the projects can sometimes be. But expect the bold and sweeping in the title track or the bombastic in Mirror Image and Asphyxia. But then The Catalyst, Intrusions of Madness, Momentary Lapse of Reason, and Sentiment in Sanctuary offer subtle melodic maneuverings without the maddening, often redundant, intensity found in a normal Consortium song. Ultimately, Continuum in Extremis is a stronger effort than the first project.

Like the previous reissue, Continuum in Extremis contains two bonus tracks.


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In Short

Lion Music reissues Continuum in Extremis the second Consortium Project from Ian Parry. Expect more bombastic power metal, but with a friendlier accessibility.

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