Metal Band of the Week:
Between the Buried and Me
August 8, 2009 by Kyle BradyTags: Band, Between the Buried and Me, Metal, Music, Review
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As a band that’s toured with Dream Theater on “Progressive Nation 2008”, plays their own small-club headlining shows, and will be touring with In Flames in Fall 2009, Between the Buried and Me is not an unknown band from North Carolina, nor are they new – the sixth full-length album, one of which contains covers of influential bands, will be released on October 27, 2009.
The music of Between the Buried and Me has dramatically changed over the years: their self-titled debut in 2002 was a very aggressive and melody-ignorant release with an occasional musical changeup, but “The Silent Circus”, just a year later, indicated that this band was interested in more than just being aggressive and brutal. The release of “Alaska” in 2005 marked a turning point in the creative direction of BTBAM as a much more progressive band with interests in not only melody, but instruments, arrangements, and musical influences that other “progressive death metal” bands would consider not worthy of their attention.
This renewed interest in musicianship and musical creativity, rather than rehashing old material, landed the band firmly in the territory of progressive metal, leading to inevitable comparisons with Opeth and Dream Theater. However progressive Between the Buried and Me may be, they did not lose their ability to be absolutely brutal and terrifying – melodic and epic movements inside songs like “Selkies: The Endless Obsession” are interspersed with the kind of aural violence that begs for intense headbanging.
“The Anatomy Of” followed “Alaska” just a year later with their interpretation of songs by bands like Metallica, Soundgarden, Queen, and Pink Floyd, very clearly showing that their range and talent had not yet been fully realized on their original works – but were finally displayed in their latest release of “Colors” in 2007.
“Colors” is a 64 minute seamless album that plays solidly from start to finish, each song melding into the next as if it were a concept album without a concept. The album received critical acclaim from Revolver Magazine, Decibel Magazine, and Mike Portnoy of Dream Theater, while also making the Billboard 200 list. More important than the critical reception, or the usage of the song “Prequel to the Sequel” on Rock Band 2, is the music itself: a beautiful, moving, and brutal work that sweeps listeners from one side of the emotional spectrum to another with its instantaneous changes.
The band itself labeled the album as “adult contemporary progressive death metal”, which, while ridiculous, is an apt description since the eight-song epic includes singing, screaming, guitar solos, falsettos, blast-beats, jazz, funk, country, acoustic guitars, anthems, and more – all somehow melded into a coherent and astoundingly visionary release for a band that is still relatively young. To say that “Colors” is wonderful would be a severe understatement.
And yet, with all of their musical talent, including a wide range of styles and influences, BTBAM remains largely unknown. Their fanbase is sizable and extremely devoted, but the larger metal audience is either unaware of the band or still skeptical. The result is that while the band can headline their own tours in small rock clubs, an opening band occasionally has a better reception from the crowds, or, while opening for bands like Dream Theater, the majority of the audience listens passively with only the barest of interest. Perhaps this can be attributed to the first-time-listener shock that takes an entire album to recover from, but regardless of their initial musical inaccessibility, the band deserves much more than the dedicated semi-underground following it currently has.
The upcoming release of “The Great Misdirect” in October may change things, as not only has Tommy Rodgers (vocals) claimed the six-song album to be “some of the best material [they’ve] ever created”, but their contract with Victory Records will be complete – allowing a label like Roadrunner, a more powerful and BTBAM-friendly outfit, to sign them. With the right combination of a new label, high-profile touring, and heavy promotion, Between the Buried and Me has a chance to achieve the extreme success that their adult contemporary progressive death metal band has deserved for so long.
Between the Buried and Me can be found on MySpace and on the upcoming In Flames Fall 2009 tour; their new live album, "Colors Live", is available on Amazon [CD] [MP3], along with the previous releases: "Colors" [CD], "The Anatomy Of" [CD] [MP3], "Alaska" [CD] [MP3], "The Silent Circus" [CD] [MP3], and their self-titled debut [CD] [MP3].
Kyle can be found on Twitter and MySpace, or reached via email.
