The fifth installment in the series assumes the same basic format as the fourth, with four long (20+ minutes) tracks of blended noise posing as garbled memories. Stage 5 is less abrasive than Stage 4 and at times makes for a pleasant, even blissful listen. Stage 4 was more "noisy" because stabs of melody would constantly pop in and out for fractions of a second, as the brain ceaselessly tried to jumpstart the re-formation of coherent memories. In Stage 5, at this point in the deterioration into an increasingly formless dementia, the mind is too weak to fight the condition. The songs that formed the basis of Stages 1-3 are only discernible if a person of sound and astute mind makes the point of trying to listen for them.
However, once the brain admits that the fight is lost, there are extended periods of peaceful contentedness. By the end of Stage 5, it would appear that the next step could only be a formless swirl of dark, isolationist noise. But I have a strong feeling that I'm going to be surprised.
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