Buried Live

Between the Buried and Me are a progressive metal band from North Carolina that been receiving a good amount of attention lately for their versatile, well-crafted fourth album, Colors. As one would hope for in any band that recently covered Sepultura, Queen, Blind Melon, Depeche Mode, and Mötley Crüe all on the same album, Colors is a diverse, creative record that stretches the band further than they've ever gone before. After seeing their Halloween-night show this year at the Blender Theater, I'm convinced that Between the Buried and Me are one of the best metal bands to emerge in the past few years, and that Colors is in the running for this year's top ten. Not bad for a band with such an unfortunately screamo-sounding name (allegedly derived from a Counting Crows song?).

As they've been doing on this tour, BTBAM played Colors in its entirety at the Blender Theater, front to back. While that deprives their show of some spontaneity, the album itself is so surprising and enjoyable that it was great to hear the whole way through. If their were ever a time for BTBAM to focus on one record for their entire show, now is the time. The album's oddly melodic beginning, 'Foam Born (a) The Backtrack,' almost resembles mid-'90s Weezer, and the way that the keyboard intro and harmonized vocals broke into thrash metal aggression live felt completely natural. Sort of like if System of a Down were louder and indulged themselves more. Or a metal version of Man Man.

Like most modern American metal bands, BTBAM's metal is pretty non-melodic, but they are able to convey their strong sense of melody in the non-metal movements in their compositions. Sounding like kids who didn't forget the '90s-rock radio that they grew up on until they discovered Pantera, BTBAM spliced their throbbing, death-grunt metal with all sorts of catchy, melodic progressions that could easily have been hit songs had they been further developed. Instead, the band uses these interludes to make their own songs distinct and unpredictable, keeping listeners on their feet by infiltrating Mr. Bungle-esque solfege into 'Sun of Nothing' or elements of Tool into 'Informal Gluttony.'


For all the left-turns that Between the Buried and Me throw into their music, it always feels natural, and the music is never slowed down by all the changes. Most bands that interject a few melodic measures into their metal songs only cause distraction and impede the buildup of their compositions, and it appears that they're only changing the tone and the time signatures for show. But for BTBAM it never felt forced, and they blended an array of styles with seemingly little difficulty. Keyboardist/vocalist Tommy Rogers is foremost impressive for making keyboard metal that doesn't sound super-lame, but he was also able to death grunt and harmonize when either was appropriate. Guitarist Paul Waggoner, the band's other founding member, evoked monstrous heaviness and elegant sparseness whenever necessary.

By the way, the entire band was dressed in full farmer's outfits, complete with overalls and straw hats. Whether that was a statement about their geographic roots or just Halloween fun was never elaborated on, but the stunt was particularly suited for the country-hoedown interlude in 'Ants of the Sky.' Sounding a bit like '5-Piece Chicken Dinner' off of Paul's Boutique, the jam was accompanied by a guy in a cop suit who danced out onstage with his prosthetic junk hanging out of his short shorts, a la Johnny Knoxville's old guy skits in Jackass. Trick or treat...

'Ants of the Sky flowed seamlessly into the absolutely stupendous 'Prequel to the Sequel,' and it wasn't long before Between the Buried and Me ended their set with the 15-minute album closer and centerpiece, 'White Walls,' an anthology of twists and turns that was as perfect a grande finale as one could hope for. However, they encored with 'Selkies: The Endless Obsession,' a standout from their previous album, Alaska. In hindsight, the song's soaring keyboard intro stands as a clear sign of the mastery that was to come on Colors. At the rate that they're improving, the next one just may be a masterpiece.

Next year, BTBAM are embarking on a US Tour with Opeth and Dream Theater--I dare say, Between the Buried and Me are the main reason to go.

Of the openers, Metal Blade metalcore heroes Animosity were by far the best, grating Nintendo-metal clowns HORSE the Band were by far the worst, and the trancey, Isis-on-quaaludes wallowers that opened the show were as forgettable as their name.