Well... first off, a round of applause for what is without a doubt the most elegantly crafted, ambitious and stunningly diverse show of skill in this round.
The amount of genres and styles touched here is really staggering. I'm hearing jazz guitar runs, progressive metal riffs with time signatures that change like it's nobody's business, early progressive rock influences, modern prog rock influences, maybe even a few video game influences, and so on. The instruments, too, sound absolutely fantastic: the the guitars have character and are played amazingly, the drums are clear and detailed yet have plenty of punch. The vocals and vocal harmonies are completely transparent and clear. The mix is open and airy when needed, and rich and thick otherwise, but never overcrowded.
I'm going to go through the track and note a few moments that were particularly nice, because you should be credited for each one of them: (0:00) The haunting modern progrock intro reminds me of Porcupine Tree. (0:12) A jazzy polyphonic guitar solo that gradually morphs into a more traditional metal one. (0:30) Great interplay between the smooth synthesizers and harmonized guitars. (1:03) Polyrhythms that are a hell to try and analyze but a joy to listen to. (1:31) Dat blues influence (1:35) I love the jumpy slightly detuned guitars in this part. And you always have these tiny transitional guitar parts in all the little pauses. (2:32) Something almost sublime about this guitar solo. And great drumming patterns in this and the part that follows. (3:07) Very spacy chords are being implied by these arpeggios, which is fitting in a way. And the chord-playing clean guitar provides great support for it. (3:30) You just threw that amazing transition out there like it was nothing. Dude what (3:35) Almost no point in pointing out this part at this point because you know what I'll say. I love the dramatic Dream Theater-esque string section. (4:23) Same comments about this here as I said about 2:32, but more. (5:05) From here until the end, the vocal harmonies, distorted guitar rhythms and the entire mix just gets more and more over the top, with a climax around the last vowel of universe (it's also very appropriate that that particular vowel should remind me of 80s-90s space TV somehow). After that the tune promptly ends with some guitar pattern and string sequence fit for fading out.
My only main gripe would be that the long, drawn out singing occasionally makes the vocals sound a lot angstier than the lyrics would imply. Like in your audition entry, the subject of the lyrics and your approach to it is really refreshing, so I found the style you chose here a bit disappointing after the more, er, leisurely delivery, in Don't We All?. Apart from that, I could be listing a few things here and there that I thought could be improved upon, or that I would have enjoyed to hear in this song, but it would be missing the point, since the quality, ambition and skill in this song break the scale I was originally intending to use. This song gets clean 10's in all the categories I made up, as no other score would do the song justice. The passion shines through every note and every second of the song. Great work and congratulations.
10 points for sounds and instrumentation.
10 points for composition and melody/harmony.
10 points for theme/originality/other things that might impress.
Overall impression: 10.0