Unfolded Like Staircase

Discipline | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 1, 1997)
• Original Release Date: September 1, 1997
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Strung Out Records
• ASIN: B000260FRK
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #87,297 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Unbelievable! ...a progressive statement of epic proportions that rocks" --Progression Magazine (USA)

"...an olympic Discipline...twenty years from now Unfolded Like Staircase will be seen as a milestone of the prog-revival. Heaven!" --Stage Magazine (Belgium)

Outstanding...What a great way to start off the new year!

Product Description

Four epics, including the 22-minute "Into the Dream." Features vocals by Matthew Parmenter. Melodic. Narrative. Unclassifiable. Running Time: 64 minutes, 52 seconds.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Very VDGG influenced nightmare., January 12, 2005

By 

Dan A. Bobrowski "boceephus" (California) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Unfolded Like Staircase (Audio CD)

Multi-instrumentalist Matthew Parmenter takes his bandmates along on a dark and sinister journey to into the dream of limbo on a pair of crutches just before the storm takes them to Eden. Or so the song titles tell... This is a dark album, but it never drags or grows boring. It is worthy of many repeated listenings and, for me, a great companion on a long bike ride. Instrumentally challenging and flowing. From the opening Kashmir meets Lark's Tongues riff, you are thrust into the tides of Parmenter's mind.

Parmenter harnesses his new infatuation with Peter Hammill and VDGG and melds it with his Genesis fixation and King Crimson influences and creates a powerful visionary album. Dreams and nightmares abound, but I never felt a depression from the music, rather I feel exhilarated and bouyant, like waking from a running dream, when you feel ready for battle and toss the blankets while searching for the demon's face.

Canto IV, with Dantesque imagery and a certain hopefulness in the face of darkness in lyrics like, "What I believe is emptiness" followed by "and kindness in our hearts." Being raised in the catholic religion, I understand his vision of what Limbo would be like, ""how can there possibly be, no room up there for me." I get shivers remembering the sobering lessons of my youth, with Pink Floyd like characters spewing forth hell and damnation. Being from Detroit, as I am, Parmenter may have had similar experiences as a child.

Into the Dream paints another grim picture, "why chase a rainbow? Best to give in," and "If the rapist must break free, from the deepest part of me, when judgment chains our darkest side, denials breeds a genocide." Can you get more dark and sinister? Yet Matthew ends the final movement with the return to the sea of the turtle, "I am free." Maybe a metaphor for death or an escape to heaven? Continuing on the religious lyric train, in "Before the Storm," Parmenter again speaks of Eden and lost innocence and the journey to return.

Add some Disciplline to your prog collection. Find Astray by Matthew Parmenter as well.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great American symphonic prog album., May 8, 2006

By 

D. Tonya "the_digital_dan" (Barber-tucky, Ohio) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Unfolded Like Staircase (Audio CD)

Ok, I admit it, I'm a sucker for long songs. With 4 songs in 64min, you get your money's worth here. However long songs alone do not always mean there's coherent songwriting. Thankfully the music presented here is utterly fantastic. The songs are epic for more reasons than just their track times. Each song evokes an emotional trip through a dark and somewhat depressing realm with little to be found as uplifting. At times it reminds me of older Genesis and King Crimson material; but at the same time it sounds nothing like either of them. I wouldn't say the music is as intricate or as complex as other symphonic prog luminariers. Instead the music is very true to the atmosphere and the instrumentation varies enough to never become tired or redundant. The vocals are at times quite sinister and tormented sounding. No growling or snarling, just darkly passionate in tone. The delivery of the music is just fantastic. I've hardly been able to pry myself away from this CD since I bought it a month ago. My only complaint is that the bass is mixed a bit too strong on this recording.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Rare Gem in my collection, April 8, 2008

By 

Alex Djelalian (Canada) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Unfolded Like Staircase (Audio CD)

I'm heavily into metal and recently broadening my horizons more and more to various forms of rock, be it psyche rock or progressive rock, or what have you.

I listened to a snippet of this cd in a small but cool little store but the cd was reserved. I got a pretty good impression of it in the 1 minute I listened to "Crutches" so I ordered it on a whim. I have to say it's one of the best CD's I've bought in a while. Though it has only 5 tracks, all 5 are great, and I rather have it this way rather than 12 tracks on an album only 5 of which are good. The tracks are long but interesting. I don't find myself fastforwarding to, for example, minute 3 of a track because an intro is not good. I can listen to this album from start to finish over and over again.