don't say I didn't warn you...
Founded in 2000 from the ashes of Prayer For Cleansing (vocalist Tommy and guitarist Paul), Azazel (guitarist Nick and bassist Jason) and Bury Your Dead (drummer Mark), Between The Buried And Me are a band you'll probably be hearing quite a lot about in the near future. The five piece from Raleigh, North Carolina, released their debut on Lifeforce Records (Germany), creating shockwaves within the metalcore world, with their avant-garde slant taking all the rules to making music and turning them on their head.
They followed this up with tour support slots for PTW, Hatebreed and Malevolent Creation, in addition to playing the 2002 Hellfest and Furnace Fest. All this hard work paid off, as they signed to Victory Records later that year. The band stated their excitement about signing to Victory, saying that "we feel that our band will definitely stand out on this label". BTBAM would stand out wearing full camouflage in the middle of the Amazonian rainforest - I've simply never heard anything quite like them before.
Vocalist Tommy says that "musically, the new stuff is more technical and our knowledge of music matured - we are better songwriters". He wouldn't exactly make the best telesales man with understatements like that, because I think that, in the interest of accuracy, after "the new stuff is more technical" he should have inserted something like "than most spacecraft". That would've done it. As you may have guessed by now, BTBAM play extremely technical metalcore, a musical beast that maniacally clutches at prog, classic rock and even jazz, and incorporates parts of each to create a truly individual sound. Sledgehammer double bass hits pound against your eardrums, along with frenetic, unhinged riffs and tortured vocals - this really is the sound of people that have to be 'let out for the weekend'. The phrase "heaviest band in the world" is banded around too often really, after all, like Highlander - there can be only one, but as far as I'm concerned, BTBAM take the title by knockout.
The vocals aren't all screams though, occasionally sounding like Stephen Richards from Taproot, especially on the melodic breakdown of 'Mordecai', with its smooooth Santana solo. '(Shevanel Take 2)' is the band's 'Horns And Tails' (PTW) - a mid-album breather that soothes the wounds the first 5 tracks inflicted, before sadistically re-opening them with the barraging assault of 'Ad A Dglgmut'. The most demented song (which is saying something!) is probably 'Aesthetic', with stop-start dynamics akin to that of a musical strobe light.
All in all, the vocals are slightly too 'metal' for my liking, and the music is possibly too technical, but even if you don't like this album, you can't help but respect the skill that was involved in its formation.