I always listen to the albums I am reviewing with headphones. The reason is you can really hear all the nuances and the mistakes with headphones that you might miss otherwise. Parallel Minds are talented musicians. But when listening to their album "Headlong Disaster," I found that the title of the album is completely accurate. The music is fine. In fact, had this been an instrumental album, I might have actually enjoyed it. The fatal flaw is the vocals and the mixing of them. There is a backing vocal 100% in the left ear, and another 100% in the right ear. The lead vocal sounds like it is almost mixed in mono and is usually dead center. There are times when the lead vocal sits 60/40 depending on the song. It is REALLY annoying. All the vocals are completely separate from the music when it comes to the mix. They basically sit on top of them. It sounds like some guys got together with a
karaoke machine and sang on top of an already mixed album.
I cannot figure out how anyone could hear this and think it sounded okay. It's baffling! Jacob Hansen actually mastered this and he might want to demand his name be taken off it. The album either needs a complete remix or an instrumental version. I would get through a minute of each song and get so distracted by the vocals that it was impossible to enjoy the album. The vocalist isn't overly strong so I don't think putting him way out of the mix like this helps that either! It's like putting a spotlight on a wart. "Here's our flaws! Take a good look!" Whoever mixed this album and/or recorded the vocals should be taken out back and beaten with a stick. Never let them mix anything. Shame on Jacob Hansen for taking the money and running.
If anyone gives this album a good rating, they are most likely tone deaf and are getting paid to shit out reviews. Sorry, guys. This album could have been good but was ruined by incompetence.
