James LaBrie, who had recently joined Dream Theater, contributed background vocals on the song "Life in Still Water." On March 16, 2010 a special edition of Parallels was released through Metal Blade. This included a remaster of the original album, a bonus disc of live and demo tracks, as well as a DVD.[3][4]
Eduardo Rivadavia at AllMusic gave Parallels three stars out of five, calling it Fates Warning's "biggest commercial if not artistic success" and "an ideal first purchase for fans of traditional '80s metal." Highlights noted were "Eye to Eye", "Point of View" and "We Only Say Goodbye".[4]
In 2005, the album was ranked No. 371 in Rock Hard magazine's book of The 500 Greatest Rock & Metal Albums of All Time.[6]
^Stratmann, Holger. "Review" (in German). Rock Hard. issue 55. Retrieved 2015-03-23.
^[...], Rock Hard (Hrsg.). [Red.: Michael Rensen. Mitarb.: Götz Kühnemund] (2005). Best of Rock & Metal die 500 stärksten Scheiben aller Zeiten. Königswinter: Heel. p. 60. ISBN3-89880-517-4.CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)