Visit the Entropics! is a perfect showcase for Dave Lovelace's keyboard wizardry. Lovelace is the mastermind behind the keyboard shredfest known as Parallax. For Visit the Entropics!, Parallax's second release, Lovelace has teamed up with keyboard and production wiz Randel Osborne and it makes for a winning combination as Parallax pushes the boundaries of keyboard oriented heavy techno/prog/rock to and beyond its limits. To call this music "trendsetting" may sound pretentious, but I, for one, have never heard anything like this before.

I will be the first one to admit that I'm not easily impressed, especially not by keyboard-oriented music, but what Lovelace and Osborne have managed to create is a masterpiece that emulates the sounds of almost any instrument with keyboards. And the album did keep me interested. The songs are interesting, the production is flawless and the performance is fiery. One of the other guys here at The House of Shred told me that VTE reminded him of the album Optical Race, some of Tangerine Dream's best work.

The Bottom Line: A cool blend of techno, prog, & metal Visit the Entropics! is a modern-day symphony that's not for the faint of heart. It will enamor, confuse, and sometimes scare you as it blows your mind while placing a futuristic probe in your brain (just kidding). It will mostly amaze you, though, and keep you wondering how the hell they did that. Definitely check it out.

Shred Pick - "Demonosaur" (7:01)

Reviewed by Henry Bocanegra