Since
2000, North Carolina’s ‘Between the Buried and Me’
(BTBAM) have forged their own brand of highly complex heavy music
that explores the full range of metal sub-genres as well as mixing
in elements of progressive rock, psychedelica and indie rock. ‘Colors’
is the bands fifth release and their most impressive. Whereas previous
releases just dipped into other genres, on ‘Colors’,
BTBAM delve deep inside these genre’s and make them their
own. From just looking at the number of tracks (8) and the album
length (64 mins), one can tell that ‘Colors’ is going
to be an album of epic proportions.
‘Colors’ starts of with a softly played, dark piano
melody which is accompanied by soft vocals reminiscent of Thom Yorke.
Just before the minute mark there is an explosion of sound with
a disorientating arpeggio-heavy keyboard solo and pounding drumwork.
An Opeth-esque melodic death soundscape then ensues and launches
the band into one of the albums heaviest tracks ‘B, The Decade
of Statues’. Rasping vocals, lightning speed melodies, frantic
drumwork and blastbeats which sound like audio bombs prevail in
this deathgrind assault but Arcturus like prog-piano workouts and
Cave-In like vocals/melodies join the fray to create an stylistically
varied track that keeps the listeners on his/her toes. Immediately
in the following track ‘Informal Gluttony’, listeners
are greeted to a tribal ethnically rooted drum and guitar workout
that sounds like Niles finest. The track descends into an ultra
brutal slice of complex deathgrind which is broken up by elements
of soft vocals and harmonious melodies . A great element about this
album is that all the tracks are joined at the hip and therefore
you are really getting one meandering 64minute track to dig into.
The quality of the arrangement prevails on this release as the melodic/heavy
elements are continuously and complexly switching in order to avoid
fatigue and keep things interesting by accentuating the heaviness
of the music.
Tracks like ‘Ants of the Sky’, ‘Prequel to the
Sequel’ and epic closer ‘White Walls’ really showcase
the depth, range and sheer technical ability of this band which
is seriously off the hinge. ‘A sonic labyrinth of grand proportion’
says the press release and it is spot on. To describe the range
and breadth of styles and the technicality of the composition in
just these three tracks would take at least 2 pages, suffice to
say these tracks (and the album as a whole) embodies a highly charged
and explosive maelstrom of heavy music which simultaneously and
seamlessly compounds and interlaces elements of progressive rock,
brutal deathgrind, choppy mathcore, sumptuous indie rock and disorientating
melodic deathmetal. Seriously, they totally shred, they redefine
the landscape of heavy music and push the bar higher for other bands.
BTBAM are one of those special bands that play in such a way that
you think their instruments are out of control and running away
from them yet they are masters of instrumanipulation and continuously
inject new and interesting melodies and motifs to spark energy and
to invoke the processing power of ones cerebral.
One of the key attributes of this release is its production. Jaime
King (veteran of past BTBAM releases) takes things up a notch with
‘Colors’ resulting in a lavish and sonically complex
album which benefits from possessing a wide soundstage. The drumwork
is one of the strongest elements of the production and sounds like
it is constantly moving across and up and down your speakers. The
rich production amazingly does not detract from the rawness and
brutality of the heavy parts.
Ultimately, If you like ultra heavy, chinstrokingly complex music
which, instead of sticking to one style and plundering it to death,
moves constantly to and fro to produce some of the most brutal and
complex ‘call to arms’ metal whilst concurrently crafting
seriously infectious prog melodies and softer rock compositions
that surpass many of bands specializing in these genre’s,
then this album is for you. (KS)
For
fans of: Arcturus, In Flames, Dillinger Escape Plan, Gordian Knot,
The Red Chord, Opeth
Click
here to buy Colors
Write
about this album here
|
