Disco de Between the Buried and Me: “Alaska [Bonus Track]”

For a lot of bands, being memorable means writing inoffensive, cookie-cutter hit singles with a few irresistible hooks and huge choruses that listeners can hum along with when they hear it playing from a local rock radio station. But North Carolina's quintet, Between The Buried And Me, spit on that rule book, shred it, and throw its remains out the window, opting instead to be memorable the old-fashioned way -- with brilliant songwriting, top-notch musicianship, and a sound all their own.

BTBAM's junior release, 2005's "Alaska" (a second for Victory Records), is the ultimate style/genre blender, mixing together hardcore and metalcore, technical death metal, and grindcore with a heavy mathcore influence, and even a fair amount of progressive metal and free jazz elements. (In other words, imagine Dillinger Escape Plan, Necrophagist, Cephalic Carnage, Meshuggah, Dream Theater, and Neurosis all playing at once, and you'll get the general idea.) Thus, this record isn't a snug fit for any one genre, but every influence can be heard equally. It perfectly balances just the right amounts of harmony, dissonance, restrained tempos, off-the-wall lunacy, head-spinning technicality, crazy time signatures, turn-on-a-dime tempo changes, crushing heaviness, and infectious melody, making it one of the most colorful, complex, intricate, engrossing, well-balanced, and textured heavy music releases of recent memory.

The album begins with one of its most meticulous and symphonic numbers, "All Bodies." It starts with a forceful, deeply grooving rhythm made up of muscular, churning riffs, a gluey bass line, and pounding drums. The song gets noticeably more melodic as it progresses, first with a handful of nicely wailing guitar solos (sprinkled into the back of the mix), then with an extremely surprising (and brief) spot of soulful, operatic vocals and spiraling arpeggio guitars. Then, the title track opens with a winding, keyboard-sounding guitar solo before segueing into driving, jackhammer blast beats, and a fiery, crunching lead that plows over everything in sight. The grindcore influence is especially apparent on the brutal third track, "Croakies and Boatshoes," which is highlighted by blasting drums and harsh, grindcore-worthy pig-squeal vocals.

The mostly instrumental "Selkies: The Endless Obsession," is the record's crown jewel, and is worth the price of admission alone (heck, I'd even say it's almost worth dying for!) It's a VERY docile, ethereal, and mindblowing piece which utilizes fantastic harmonies and melodies throughout. The mazy synthesizers, light-as-a-feather acoustic strums, humming bass line, slow drum beat, and angelic singing at the beginning of the song eventually fade out, and two ultra-melodic and pristine solos become the song's main highlight. The first solo is entrancing, dreamy, jazzy, and all-around amazing, and the second is a spectacular, jaw-dropping, five-string sweep solo that lasts for about a minute and evokes the glory days of Megadeth or Yngwie Malmsteen. These two guitar solos have got to be among the best ever recorded by any band, bar none!

Following "Selkies," "Breathe In, Breathe Out" is a pretty acoustic interlude that continues in the same heavenly melodic vein as that wonderful epic, but the next two bludgeoning tracks clearly show Between The Buried And Me's grindcore influence coming into play. The immensely b-b-b-brutal "Roboturner," scares the listener half to death (its manic guitar shredding, bouncy, walloping drums, and jarring, skin-crawling screams really pin your ears back); and the wild, off-the-map "Backwards Marathon," is bursting with careening leads and positively maniacal vocals.

Then, things briefly slow back down again for some more b-e-a-utiful ambience ("Medicine Wheel"), but tracks nine and ten, "The Primer" and "Autodidact," furiously erupt into scorching, Swedish death metal-tinged onslaughts. Finally, the set closes with another acoustic ditty, "Laser Speed," but this time a rhythmic, Brazilian-sounding drum beat also comes into the mix.

Although several of these songs have a nice, propulsive groove, "Alaska" features too many weird tempos and breakneck rhythm shifts for the album (as a whole) to lock onto a catchy, cohesive groove. Thus, be warned that "Alaska" isn't a typical extreme music album, so it will take several attentive listens to get used to, absorb, and appreciate fully. But don't worry, your patience will surely pay off -- "Alaska" is an exhilarating, captivating, and all-around excellent album with a wealth of contagious material that will stick with you for days. Also, this album proves Between The Buried And Me are definitely one of the best, smartest, and most innovative, realized, accomplished, interesting, and unique metal bands of this decade.

I saw these guys open for Dillinger Escape Plan about a month ago, and they impressed me enough to pick this up. I knew they were good, but man was I in for a surprise.

This band seems to love all the music I do. All the elements of my favorite music are combined into one kick ass metal album, the way they juxtapose all these styles can only be compared to Opeth. On this album you can hear nods to Emperor, In Flames, Opeth, various jazz, King Crimson, some metalcore and Morbid Angel among others. However, this band has most definitely got it's own personality and style, and it comes not in the kind of riffs and melodies they play but more in how they put it together. This band has a VERY original composition style... so many little details, unexpected riff switches, so many sections to each song. It's hard to make sense of at first, but these guys most definitely know what they're doing and the way they put things together DOES make sense, it just requires some active listening (much like Meshuggah... speaking of which these guys can do the polyrhythm thing too).

The production is fantastic, kind of Gothenburg guitar sound.

1. All Bodies (9/10) A 3 part 'mini-epic' beginning with a heavy section that sort of loses its momentum in all of the tempo changes. However, the kick ass chorus melody really fixes things up. The second part 'The Discovery' is VERY Emperor, in other words it f**king rocks. The last part is a reprise of the fantastic chorus. Doesn't flow as well as some of the other tracks, though. I think the song is about the hope that there is an afterlife and that our souls are not 'mortal'.

2. Alaska (8/10) VERY heavy and great for headbanging / moshing but not too much melodic value, aside from the intro. Very strange lyrics.

3. Croakies and Boatshoes (10/10) A gloriously heavy number, the riffs are pure Trey Azagthoth... I'd say this is song is sort of a tribute to Morbid Angel. All heavy like Alaska, but I like it more since it doesn't overstay it's welcome. I think I'd like Morbid Angel more if they were produced this well.

4. Selkies (10/10) Another more epic one, and pretty accurately sums up this band. Intro is stylistically like a lot of melodic death metal, transitions into an original and ominous clean vocal section. Followed by some thrashing parts and then a beautiful jazzy section complete with a blues solo. Think something from Opeth's Damnation.

5. Breathe In, Breathe Out (9/10) Short melodic intro to Roboturner, very relaxing and peaceful. Should have picked a less cliche title for it, although it does fit.

6. Roboturner (10/10) Quite possibly my favorite song on here. The lyrics are heartfelt, tragic and pissed off as hell all at the same time, discussing the abuse of musicians by the industry and society they are a part of. They're screamed over some of the most absolutely frantic and detailed heavy sections I've ever heard, and some truly haunting melodic riffs drive the point home. "We will find art again".

7. Backwards Marathon (10/10) Fantastic. Initial heavy part is quite good, but the song really gets going at the drawn out jazzy section. While Tommy repeats "It's raining", some plain gorgeous chords play over rain sounds. It builds in intensity until the fantastic melodic/heavy ending where the lines "Dreams they won't let go, thoughts they will not change, I can't watch this fly away" are repeated. I believe the song is about how he's always dreamed of musical success, and now that he's here it obscures the music itself and his enthusiasm for it, and that's something that must be fixed. Another very heartfelt one.

8. The Medicine Wheel (10/10) All clean instrumental. Peaceful and amazingly powerful, sometimes plays through my head.

9. The Primer (9/10) Some great leads and such, but no really amazing standout section. Great lyrics again, sarcastic and slightly funny.

10. Autodidact (10/10) Great leads again, complex heavy song. King Crimson-esque middle section, with all sorts of dissonance and prog timing. The ending riff is one of the simplest yet most mosh-worthy things I know of. I saw this firsthand.

11. Laser Speed (8/10) On its own not an original or particularly interesting piece, kind of smooth jazz. However, it's a fitting ending.

Many fans seem to think this album's a dissapointment coming off of Silent Circus, so maybe that one's even better. I'll find out soon. However, I know for certain that this is one of the most creative and interesting metal albums I've heard in a while.

Father & Son exit cabin door and proceed to forest path. A bruised and shaking Mother trails behind...

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Father speaks: Son, what's the matter?

Son: I grow hungry, Father, and more restless each day. But the visions keep coming and the music isn't helping...

Father: Take heed, if you exert these pinned up aggressions into raw musical form, you will expel these harsher feelings, then once again tap your lighter sensitivities

Son: I'm so confused...

Father: Soon, my son, soon...we will exit this hellish pit of misery into an outside world of wonder & amazement, where the skies are filled w/ fleets of chirping poultry -- singing the hymnals of happiness - further urging us to leave our worries in exile and follow them to the promised land.

Mother: pretty little leaves, pretty little bees...please tell me, where are all the pretty little things??

Son: Follow? follow who, Father? There's nothing here but this dying forest in which we live.

Father: The trees that surround us are consuming our every word - enveloping the negative energy that engulfs us everyday as we hopelessly trudge into impending nothingness....as their branches break, so does my heart, for the stems of my life have been severed -- i'm cut off from the world and bleeding profusely...

mother, get the chainsaw -- we have work to do...

Son: Chainsaw? What is that for?

Father: That's between the buried and me.

The advertising had me going, I couldn't wait for this album's release. The explosiveness of "Selkies" and the explosiveness of the commercials had me on the edge of my seat for three weeks before it was released. Of course I was excited, being a BTBAM fan, but this new record seemed so much more promising than their previous efforts. I was proven correct.

One thing that seems to have taken a large step up is the band's musicianship. The guitaring is breathtaking; Paul and Dusty manage to click with new bassist Dan Briggs instantly, as the three of them work as one to write some fantastic licks. Another one that really struck me on this release was Tommy Rogers' new-found vocal range. He strays from monstrous growling to bluesy vocals to throaty screams. Basically, the entire band has managed to come together and work as one sound unit. It's amazing to listen to, and proves to be just the same live.

The fluency and range of this record is what really makes it great in my mind. I love the fact how they give the listeners a breather every three or so tracks, which keeps the album musically interesting and different, as well as showing the bands intense musical ability to be able to stray from writing explosive tech/math metal to ambient/acoustic phrases.

This album is one of the best of this year, standing along side Opeth's "Ghost Reveries" as the year's most influential and refreshing releases in the metal world. A bold statement? Probably, but what this album promises to do to tech-metal will astound people, as they've managed to stretch and break the boundaries of musical experimentation.

This is one of the most important releases of 2005. Don't be left behind.

This is a great album, definitely a contender for album of the year, rock, metal, or otherwise.

With that said, I enjoyed Alaska significantly *less* than The Silent Circus after listening to it about 50 times (and seeing BTBAM live) during the past couple of weeks.

On first listen, I LOVED this album, but once you get past the colorful surface, there's seems to be an underlying *lack* of anything that artistically holds any of the songs (or any of the individual song's structures) together.

The album, while in terms of instrumental technique is phenomenal, just seems way too haphazard/casual in structure and composistion to yield any pleasure from repetitive listenings. Simply put, Alaska lacks any sort of artistic/emotional weight.

My own personal reasons as to why I enjoyed The Silent Circus more than Alaska:

1. The Silent Circus = Drummer's Album (Showcase: Mark Castillo)

Alaska = Guitarist's Album (Showcase: Paul Waggoner)

2. The Silent Circus = Heavy American Grindcore/Hardcore influence.

Alaska = Heavy European Metal influence.

Speaking solely as a drummer, here are my favorite parts of Alaska:

1:07-1:45 into All Bodies - By far my favorite part of the album. Blake (Drummer) and Dusty (Rhythm Guitar) set an absolutely sick groove, letting both Paul (Lead Guitar) and Dan (Bass) accent it with some incredible melodies.

3:13 into Alaska - Chaotic perfection.

2:27-3:08 of Selkies - Blake has come a LONG way from Glass Casket. I love this man's style. Too bad it takes a backseat to Wagonner's playing in way too many songs.

2:05 into Medicine Wheel - Great ambient music. The only soft part of this entire album that I like.

1:09 into Autodidact - Wagonner temporarily goes back to his more distorted (think: Camilla Rhodes) style of playing. Love it.

Favorite Alaska song: Croakies and Boatshoes - an absolute fierce song (although it can't top Ad A Dglgmut as the most aggressive BTBAM song), even better because it lacks the mastabatory scale sweeping that Waggoner has grown too fond of.

A great album that unfortunately only teases, never satisfies. Superficially, you'll be immediately blown away, but as time passes, the lack of any singular artistic focus on part of the band ends up being there biggest strength and weakness.