Between The Buried and Me, a band that have advanced so far since their inception in 2000, beginning as death metal meets metal core having a quite forgettable sound. BTBAM slowly began their evolution over a period of albums, with the absolutely groundbreaking Alaska things began to take a more progressive turn, with the now anthemic “Selkies” even prior to that there was evidence that the North Carolina boys had bigger ideas with The Silent Circus’ “Mordecai” but all of this was leading up to their definitive Colors.
Beginning from the first notes until the final epic conclusion in “White Walls” we’re treated to some of the most creative music in modern metal today, my personal favourite thing about the album has always been the main melody. Beginning with a simple chord pattern in the first track “Foam Born (A) The Backtrack” to then be repeated in “Ants Of The Sky” which even includes a medley with a country ho-down, resting in the bass driven “Viridian” whilst building through “Prequel To The Sequel” to the epic closure of 14 minute finisher “White Walls” with the final keys playing the same melody it makes the album essentially infinite. Whilst flexing their various musical muscles the genres this band spans are innumerable, whilst moving from full on death metal blasts to almost ambient prog madness in one fell swoop truly is an art form. Although as you can see on the cover each song represents a different Color on its own, individually they’re fairly one dimensional but put all of them together and the possibilities are endless, a metaphor for BTBAM‘s creativity.
After having written Colors they went on to write The Great Misdirect as well as The Parallax Sequence(s), an EP and a Full length to boot, about alien invasion of course…
Looking through Between The Buried and Me‘s discography is a fantastic, diverse example of a band growing into its own but where they truly found their niche, their sound if you will was the absolutely seminal Colors so whatever you do today make sure you give it a spin!
