Between the Buried and Me find the time to do a lot of things on their cartwheeling prog-metal exercises, but they don’t often take a chance to look back. The North Carolina polymaths have been pushing at the boundaries of gleefully geeky rock and metal genres of various prefixes (prog-, math-, and avant-, just to name a few) since their formation a decade and a half ago. And like most of their catalog, their latest LP Coma Ecliptic finds them forging boldly into the future of tightly choreographed instrumental excess.

But in a brief nod to the great prog-rock tradition, they’re billing this new one as a rock opera of sorts, with each of the record’s 11 tracks functioning as an episode in a greater narrative concerning the very nature of life, dreams, and the fabric of reality. As ever, both in its concept and kaleidoscopic instrumentals, Coma Ecliptic is heady stuff, and you’d be remiss if you didn’t stream the whole thing right here, right now, before its release July 10 on Metal Blade Records.