Constantly pushing boundaries and challenging the very definition of metal, Between the Buried and Me are simply one of the most interesting and awe-inspiring bands working today. It's hard to get me to say anything negative about this immensely talented bunch of dudes and I'm certainly not going to start now with their newest effort, the first in a 2 part concept album, The Parallax: Hypersleep Dialogues. While it's only an EP, (3 songs, which total just over 30 minutes of music, so really it's longer than most grindcore full lengths) it certainly delivers a feisty punch to the gut in such a short amount of time.
I think I've listened to this EP nearly 30 times in the past 5 days, and with each successive listen I am STILL finding new things within each song that I hadn't noticed before. That's one of the things that makes me man-wet about these guys; their layered and multi-faceted compositions surprise me every time I listen to them.
BTBAM have evolved quite a bit over the years, from a fairly straight-forward metalcore band back in the early 2000's, to an unstoppable progressive metal force that has no scruples about genre limitations or elitist badgering. I felt a little bit unsatisfied after their last release, The Great Misdirect; feeling like it was mostly a rehash of the concepts explored on their previous album Colors, which is metal's Abbey Road if you ask me. I feared that with Colors the band had reached their plateau and would never top it, or even equate it. Much to my childish surprise, however, they have definitely regained their footing as musical pioneers with Hypersleep Dialogues.
Where to start? The album opens with a hauntingly discordant piano piece, steamrolling us right into the first crushing minutes of this magnum opus. This is seriously the heaviest music they've made since The Silent Circus, fusing the jaw-dropping intensity with equally heavy epic undertones. As expected though, the heaviness doesn't come without its prosaic melodies and choruses. The clean sung (gloriously shouted?) chorus of "Specular Reflection" is so moving it's almost palpable. Then there's the atonal space riff (which I have decided to call it, for lack of a better description) that flies in at around the 8:00 mark in "Augment of Rebirth", which makes me feel like I'm on the Starship 2000 at the carnival. While it's not necessarily a new tactic in metal or music in general, it's the execution that makes it stand out and it's what BTBAM are so good at as they explore already charted territories in their musical journey. In fact, my girlfriend likened the album to the music in the clown maze at Knott's Scary Farm, which couldn't describe it better. (I'm pretty sure that was Mr. Bungle, but in all honesty BTBAM owe a lot to them anyway.)
It should also be noted that, as always, each member has upped their game with these songs as well. Being a drummer, I of course was first drawn to Blake Richardson's exquisite rhythms that continuously leave my head upside down in awe when I hear the backwards and unexpected beats he comes up with to accompany this prolific music. There's a specific beat in "Augment of Rebirth" that boggles my fucking mind! The alternating bass drum patterns and ghost notes on the snare are fucking inhuman I tell you!
That's not to say that he's the only stand out. I think my favorite aspect of this particular record is Tommy Rogers' vocal performance. While he's always been known for his vocal prowess, he really pushes his voice to the limit with this one, going in directions I've never heard him go, from balls-out guttural screams to high-pitched falsettos within seconds. If I had to choose, I'd say he's the most talented vocalist working in ANY genre right now. The man's really that good.
The guitars and bass are outstanding as well, but I honestly don't have too much to comment about them other than the typical "Paul Waggoner can string a sweeping guitar line together better than a 6 year old Vietnamese kid can sew shoes". Joking aside, I know that he is one of the driving forces behind the band's songwriting and he's once again knocked it out of the park with this one (except for the 2 riffs I swear are exact rip-offs of riffs on Colors, but I suppose it's better to rip-off yourself than someone else).
Overall you would be a fool not to give this a listen; actually more like 2 or 3 since it takes at least that many to fully grasp what's going on here. I always anticipate every BTBAM release with giddy excitement, but I really can't wait to see what part 2 of The Parallax has to offer after getting this small taste. No doubt it will be the best record of 2012.
8.5/10
Track Listing:
1. Specular Reflection
2. Augment of Rebirth
3. Lunar Wilderness
Favorite Song: Specular Reflection
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