Between the Buried and Me Album: “Silent Circus”

This album... wait... this band pretty much owns everyone in the talent department. This is pretty much one of the most well put together albums I've ever heard... and I don't usually like stuff this heavy. First of all... everyone in the band has a copywrite on their instruments... and no one else should be allowed to play anything after what these guys do. The drummer is pretty much insane... and owns the double bass. The guitarists play some of the most retarded chord progressions and make them sound amazing. Insanely technical. The singer has one of the widest ranges I've heard... deep growls(which I'm not a fan of), high pitched screams, an amazingly beautiful melodic singning voice. On top of all this are pretty good lyrics and an insane live performance... if you don't know about BTBAM yet... you need to get to know them

The driving force behind Between The Buried And Me's second masterpiece comes from Tommy Rogers bizarre and creative song lyrics, Paul Waggoner's amazing guitar riffs and Mark Castillo's superb drumming. Please do not label this band as a metal band, because they stray as far away from a typical metal band as ever thought possible. Tempo changes galore, most songs are just constantly shifting metalcore riffs and beats, it's all insane, but it does slow down in the middle of the album to deliver an amazing acoustic-driven ballad, then launching again into full blown metalcore chaos. It is unlike anything you'll ever hear because these guys are just such great musicians. This re-release includes a DVD with a full BTBAM concert in North Carolina, their hometown, plus most of their music videos. If you consider yourself a fan of hard music, then you should most definitely own this album.

Between the Buried and Me is the future of extreme music. Imagine taking Opeth, Cryptopsy, Converge and Lamb of God all into one. This band is amazing. With a progressive nature towards their metalcore sound, they are original. They're not a band that overuses melody or breakdowns, nope, they balance it out at the right level. Just listen to one track off this album and you will know what I'm talking about. Recommended.

Proggressive death metalcore. Between the Buried and me have managed to do it again, although this time it sounds completely different from their self titled cd. This cd makes your brain hurt when you try and comprehend how they go about writing songs like these. Their breakdowns are simply unsurpassed by anyone, mostly because there are so many in each song and couldnt possibly be more brutal. Never have I heard such a wide array of any lead vocalist's screams before, Tommy goes from the highest pitch scream and holds it for thirty seconds then right after immediately starts a grumbling noise thats almost is if he is about to throw up. Mark the new drummer is a little double kick happy, but you know you love it and how amazingly technical he is. At times youd think it was a machine playing drums theyre so fast. Paul Waggoner is god, he shouldnt be allowed to be that good at guitar, not to take away from the other guitarist but he is amazing. Listen to this cd and see them live, the best part about them live is that it sounds exactly the same as it does on the cd, tones and everything. Get this cd and their self titled cd if youre tired of listening to stuff that sounds the same, there is no other band that comes close to mixing such a wide variety of music types into one incredible cd.

This album is often heavy in the best possible way...but occassionaly meanders into schlock. "Ad A Dglgmut" is a good example of the sound of the album as a whole..it's one of the heaviest songs I have ever heard...until halfway through when it transforms into a song that Live would have recorded in 1996. Ugh.

Seriously, though...85% of this album is brutal, with awesome death-influenced vocals and insane musicianship, and will satisfy nearly any fan of death/progressive/extreme metal out there. Be warned, however...this album occassionally lapses into quesitonable territory. This questionable territory encompases feeble attempts at ambience with clean vocals and acoustic guitar. Three songs are examples of this: "Reaction" and "Shevanel Take 2" are BORING, as is the forementioned second half of "Ad A Dglgmut". It's not that clean vocals and quiet interludes are bad things...bands like Opeth have built a career out of getting loud/soft/loud dynamics right, and Between the Buried and Me themselves get it right (if only for a moment) on "Mordecai" off of this very album...

...it's just that the vocalist's voice just isn't strong enough when he's actually singing. It's thin and a bit whiney. In other words, annoying. The clean vocals often accent the relative weakness of the lyrics, too. Fortunately, the singer's death vocals are great, so most of the time you can't understand what he's singing anyway. Therefore, the lyrics are largely inconsequential most of the time.

Why the four-star review? 80% of this album is awesomely heavy...awesomely heavy enough for me to forgive the band for their pitiful attempts to try and be Opeth or Isis. Go forth and rock, but keep your finger on the "skip" button when the moments of peril arrive.