Between The Buried And Me

No matter what your style or taste in music is, Between the Buried and Me will always have something to offer you. From death metal to emo, they play a wide variety of genres within the time span of a single song, yet their perfection will leave you beaten into musical submission. Increasing in popularity after every show, BTBAM are attracting a much larger fan base with good reason. Not only are their albums amazing, but their live performance sounds next to identical to that of their recordings. Alaska is Between the Buried and Me’s follow up to The Silent Circus, and just like The Silent Circus, it’s spell binding from start to finish. So push play and venture into Alaska.

Alaska starts off strong with “All Bodies”, a perfect example of how Between the Buried and Me git’ it done. The guitar work is loud and fast, with transitions that hit you to help clear cut melodic Tommy Rogers’ vocals before you even realize the change. It’s a perfect precedent for the CD in the whole. This song helps to represent what sets Between the Buried and Me apart from most of the music coming out right now. It tweaks through diverse styles mixing into one song that fits so nicely into this album to create what seems like a perfect puzzle.

In my eyes, the best songs on this album were “Selkies: The Endless Obsession” and “Backwards Marathon.” Both have a good, deep death metal sound that leaks into more melodic rhythm and clear singing. Personally, “Selkies” tops the list of my favourite songs. I heard it on the band’s myspace page before it was officially released and I’ve yet to grow tired of listening to it. Its flawless sound, especially the sweeping techniques, is like no other.

Every song on this album has some sort of meaning or story behind it. The lyrics, unlike a lot of current popular bands, don’t seem just like filler for the music. They have purpose and hard-hitting metaphors inside of each song. Some lyrics go straight forward, while others have a hidden meaning which, after you listen to for long enough, you start to understand – example; the melodic repeating verses in “Backwards Marathon.” Although the instrumentals are just as mesmerizing, the song “Medicine Wheel” also has hidden meanings.

Listening to this whole album from start to finish leaves you not knowing what to think at first, but wanting more. The more that you hear it, the more you realize how unique of a sound Between the Buried and Me have made for themselves. Being a face of bands that make music for the sake of making music, I can personally say Alaska is unlike anything else out there right now.

Between the Buried and Me’s improvement from their self titled release to The Silent Circus was very noticeable, and Alaska from the Silent Circus is yet again in a whole other class. Next to come is a compilation of covers from Pink Floyd to Metallica, but for now, if you haven’t done so already, get your act together and buy Alaska. I give this album a 10/10, which is truly deserved from never having to succumb to ejection from my stereo for a solid two months at the very least.  [ END ]

Track Listing:

01. All Bodies
02. Alaska
03. Croakies and Boatshoes
04. Selkies: The Endless Obsession
05. Breathe in, Breath Out
06. Roboturner
07. Backwards Marathon
08. Medicine Wheel
09. Oprimer
10. Autodidact
11. Laser Speed
12. [DVD]

Run Time: 53:50