Warning: This review may contain more band references than any other review ever in the history of existence, but a part of that's because I'm a smartass and this is a nutty record, so stick around. It seems that the always bizarre Between the Buried and Me is back with a new lineup that includes a couple of members from Glass Casket for their next full-length offering of more-than-metalcore-but-still-not-quite-officially-metal, which begins straight away with the six-minute "All Bodies": Initially misleading with its very typical opening slab of odd time signature chugging and rhythmic vocal growls interspersed with the occasional technical death metal riff. But by the time it reaches two minutes in there's enough going on to throw me for a loop with the swell of harmonized singing and virtuoso 80's power metal runs that give way to a thrashy Emperor-esque black metal type of riff complete with lots of guitar/keyboard interplay. Indeed, another "What the fuck!?" moment compliments of Between the Buried and Me. And buckle up, because the title track follows with an intro that might as well be Dream Theater with all of its jazzy drum work and spiraling lead melodies over chunky staccato chords - which they of course go and fuck up by plowing into another stale tech'd out "deathcore" blast with sneering screams and loads of tremolo picking before landing on a groovy chugga rhythm with your usual dose of annoying pinch harmonics tossed in for the hell of it. And, yes, all of this takes place in the first two minutes of a four-minute song (which later proceeds into Candiria meets Meshuggah territory). Confused? You will be. The succinct "Croakies and Boatshoes" sees the band doing their best "Morbid Angel goes metalcore" impersonation before "Selkies: The Endless Obsession" tops seven minutes and opens with a dead on blow of supreme technical metal ala a chunkier Spiral Architect or something like that - sure to have the progressive crowd shoveling their jaws back up from the floor once things shift over into an unexpected surge of almost straightforwardly hardcore-ish power chords and rippingly fast picking patterns. Some of the riffs in this song totally rule, and when they drop down to an Opeth-esque run of piano and acoustic guitars with beautiful singing vocals and bluesy leads towards the latter chunk they've damn near got me groveling and pleading on the ground for them to please, please, please stop the metalcore and just be a metal band! Seriously! If I could wave my magic wand and remove the metalcore junk from this disc, you'd have one of the very best metal records of the god damn year on your hands! But back to reality, despite some crushing midpaced rhythms with raging dissonance, "Roboturner" is far too long for what it offers and need not hit the seven-minute range, and the same can be said for the 8+ minute "Backwards Marathon", though the latter at least opens up into one spacious passage with faint singing and lots of droning guitar work for a powerful build into some Decapitated-esque death metal during the latter half - but these running times are the first indicator of one significant problem to come (more on that later). It's back to bizarro land with the apparent invention of "black power metal" at the start of "The Primer", which at times sounds like Cradle of Filth covering Stratovarius with plenty of Necrophagist stopping by to crash the party. "Autodidact" then cranks out some of the more high quality and energetic technical death metalcore riffing to be found on the disc, so I wish they were reaching that level with this style more often, as generally those runs are leaning towards the weaknesses with these songs. It's not until the piano and clean guitars jump in later that the song really starts to get interesting, as it runs through plenty of video game sounding leads before diving back into the Polish death metal wading pool with plenty of alternate picking fury and what is probably the only sheer chugga chugga breakdown of the whole album. So, how do they end it off? With an instrumental that finds fingerpicked acoustic guitars joined by lounge-y percussive textures and jazzy basslines that might be well suited for an elevator or a cruise ship. Were he still alive, being the big James Taylor fan that he was, my grandfather would be proud. Whew. The recording's not bad at all. Super crisp and fairly clear, with an impressively balanced mix that always makes sure to give the bass just enough room to be heard without losing any of the guitar work. The keyboards tend to be a little hard to hear, but fuck if I care, I don't like most keyboards anyway and I think these cats would be better off without 'em, so... leave 'em as they are, they don't really get in the way right now. I'd like to hear the guitars get a little thicker, it would probably be hard for them to add crunch without losing clarity, but it's been done before, and it would indeed help. For the most part they're on the right track though, so I don't particularly have anything I'd tag a "complaint" in that department. The layout is nice and consistent with nothing but similar textures and text arrangements throughout, so it's basically lyrics and such over imagery that looks like paint and paneling or something. Whatever the case, some of the lyrics aren't really doing anything for me, but you have to look beyond the literal content into the stream of consciousness delivery in some cases, and that's something that I can appreciate: "Ego controlled killing the tables have turned obviously a poor creature of existence - we die one by one we overlooked our control fire swarming, engulfing, transforming human restoration complete... the end." So, that "significant problem" that I mentioned earlier? Yeah, this motherfucker's too long. 11 tracks? Fine. 54 minutes? No dice, man. I could very easily easily do without the final few moments of ambience in the otherwise promisingly chilled out instrumental "Medicine Wheel", and those two lengthy jaunts smack in the middle of the disc could each drop an easy two or three minutes. The little nod to James Taylor that closes the disc is also unnecessary, though admittedly it is enjoyable (that's right, I said it), but... the bottom line is that they need to shave it down a bit. I can't figure this band out. Are they just a wacky bunch o' dudes trying to fuck with people, or are they on the verge of blowing the doors off of metalcore as we know it and causing mass quantities of listeners to soil themselves in the process? Whatever the case, at its best, elements of these songs are unbelievably amazing, while at its worst, it's simply typical and stale. And there are worse places to be, so... I'm giving this one the benefit of the doubt out of respect for their extreme displays of musical proficiency, their insane (if disjointed) creativity, and their ability to actually surprise and impress the shit out of me with some of their writing. Well done.
[Victory]
Running time - 53:50, Tracks: 11
[Notable tracks: All Bodies, Selkies: The Endless Obsession, Backwards Marathon, The Primer]
Victory Records - http://www.victoryrecords.com
