Between the Buried and Me, the
masters of modern metal, never
cease to amaze. Their latest
album, “The Great Misdirect,” released
on Oct. 27, is another beautiful
piece of art by this North
Carolina quintet.
The band was formed in 2000 in
Raleigh, N.C. This was after the
dissolution of vocalist Tommy
Rogers and guitarist Paul Waggoner’s
previous group, Prayer for
Cleansing.
Between the Buried and Me is
well known for their ridiculous
arrangements of their songs. One
second a song is a fast, relentless
heavy metal part with blast beats
and screamed vocals, and the next
second Rogers is crooning beautifully
over light guitar and percussion.
So far they’ve released seven albums:
“Between the Buried and
Me,” “Silent Circus,” “Alaska,”
“Anatomy Of,” “Colors,” “Colors
Live,” and “The GreatMisdirect.”
This band is flawless when it
comes to going from one musical
extreme to the other, blending the
most beautiful sounds with some
of the ugliest.
“The Great Misdirect” isn’t
much of a departure from Between
the Buried and Me’s earlier
work. Their previous album in
2007, “Colors,” showed the band
abandoning their more hardcore
roots by using fewer breakdowns,
but this time around that isn’t the
case.
Some might say the new album
lacks intensity or heaviness. But
Between the Buried andMe is still
a brutal band.
The album also seems to summon
the sounds of early progressive
rock bands likeYes, Rush and
Kansas. There are a lot of instrumental
parts of songs that sound
like they are straight from the
1970s rock scene.
“The Great Misdirect” features
six tracks, but the CD still fills up
about an hour. The longest song
on the CD is the final track “Swim
to the Moon” and it is 17 minutes
and 54 seconds long. The shortest
is the opening track, “Mirrors”
which is three minutes and 38 seconds
long.
Between the Buried and Me
goes through so many transitions
in their music that one song is
more like three or four songs anyway.
“Desert of Song” is a standout
track on this album. It is one of
only a few of Between the Buried
and Me’s songs that have absolutely
no screaming or crazy
metal riffs. It is their second original
acoustic ballad, their first
being “Shevanel, Take 2” from
“The Silent Circus,” their 2003
album.
For people familiar with this
band, their latest album will not
disappoint; it features everything
that makes Between the Buried
and Me so original. The outlandish
tempo changes and genius
musicianship is still there.
If you would like to hear their
albums you can go and buy them.
Maybe you will even en