Progressive – Caught in the Crossfire

BETWEEN THE BURIED AND ME
‘The Parallax II: Future Sequence’
[Metal Blade Records]

The Prog Metal warriors, Between the Buried and Me return with a dominating new full length, ‘The Parallax II: Future Sequence‘, in which they truly came, saw and conquered, yet again.

The LP starts off with ‘Goodbye to Everything’, a subtle introduction, acoustic guitars, clean vocals with harmonies, a very peaceful start. This isn’t something they have often done before, but it has you wondering what else is to be expected. Soon enough, we’re back on track with ‘Astral Body‘ which has a more familiar shredy-prog metal feel about it; with soaring clean vocals over some amazing melodic guitar work, this is the definition of what Progressive Metal is. It’s intricately written, and performed by these virtuosos.

‘The Parallax II: Future Sequence‘, has a very ‘Astro Physics’ feel about it, with space aged synth patterns delicately placed in-between thunderous arpeggio riffs. The album is filled with tiny interludes where they drift off into jazz rhythms or an odd clean section, even strange retro computer game style sounds in the midst of growled vocals and pure shred action.

The album is varied in song styles, there are some shorter ones which remain instrumental and melodic, and there are the thunderous tracks such as ‘Silent Flight Parliament‘ and ‘Lay Your Ghosts to Rest‘.

Between the Buried and Me have returned with a great album and potentially one of the best of the year. It slightly different perspective with a somewhat concept feel about it. Not many stand out bands these days in Progressive Metal, but who needs others anyway when there is BTBAM, they more than fill the void. They do Prog Metal so well, there’s no need real to elaborate. Between The Buried And Me are just masters of their craft. All those years listening to bands like Dream Theater has rubbed off on them, with a development of spell bounding musicianship displayed through this album.

Words: Arif Noor

BETWEEN THE BURIED AND ME
w/ Periphery, The Safety Fire
Sub89, Reading
01.10.12

First on tonight’s bill is the home-grown talent The Safety Fire. The London lads play to a fairly full room considering they go on straight after doors. It seems the ever increasing crowd appreciates The Safety Fire’s techy-brand of metal and although not too familiar with the material played before them, the audiences’ reaction to songs taken from ‘Grind The Ocean‘ is positive, a promising sign for a band who are clearly targeting this market. On a completely irrelevant and non musical note, it has to be mentioned that The Safety Fire display facial hair at its finest. Their set was topped off with a glorious array well kept moustaches.

So away from male-grooming and back to music for a second or two, and its now Periphery‘s turn to take to the stage. With much loved drummer Matt Halpern being forced to withdraw from the performance due to a shoulder injury, a massive burden is placed upon the shoulders of Mike Malyan (Monuments) who has to learn the challenging set in 24 hours and perform to a hungry crowd. Well, the boy did good, there were no notable errors and he played with style, stamina and impressive levels of skill. And as for the rest of Periphery, well they owned the stage, it goes without saying Misha Mansoor was effortlessly exceptional and Spencer Sotelo domineered as a front man.

Between The Buried And Me really deserve to be playing to a sold out show but unfortunately the room is now only around three quarters full. Words cannot describe Between The Buried And Me’s levels of creativity, their captivating set travels through an odyssey of technical music; a progressive journey that climaxes with blistering riffs and intense vocals. Combing old favourites such as ‘Disease, Injury, Madness‘ (taken from ‘The Great Misdirect’) along with newer numbers like ‘Telos‘, BTBAM hold the audience in the palms of their hands. The band perform a masterclass, with a level of musicianship second to none.

Words: Emma Wallace