I'm MCMC and I review cool bands I've seen live. Music and writing are my passion. It's very important to me that talented bands get recognized, so my hope is that people will find new music from this blog while I also get to share and catologue my memories of the incredible shows I attended. I also book and promote with Planet of Sound Promotions. (No pictures are my own unless specifically said to be so.)
For Fans Of: Scale The Summit; The Contortionist; Cloudkicker; The Ocean; Pelican; Plini; Intervals; Between the Buried & Me; Animals As Leaders; chill vibes; guitar shredding; climbing music.
Formed In: 2013
Status: Working on new music, playing shows.
Label: Unsigned
Location: Staunton, Virginia
Atlas Concept is a progressive metal band from the far away land of Virginia. I had the pleasure of helping book them a Long Island date on their tour. Huge shout out to Harold from Fall of The Albatross. Without him, I would have never known this wonderful band exists. You can tell right away from listening to the opening track "Tessellate" that Atlas Concept is a beautiful and adventurous sounding band, with serene but powerful riffs and the perfect bass and drums combo. This debut EP is great for chillaxed background listening, or an epic instrumental theme for those who like to go outside and take music on a journey with them. The progressions and melodies are done expertly throughout the debut EP, but the first song alone displays all the different perspectives the band has to offer us. The second song, adequately titled "Stardust", is a beautiful guitar and bass interlude that leaves as quickly as it arrives. Atlas Concept probably could have put this interlude between every track or made this one ten minutes and I wouldn't have minded either. "Primitive Nuances" starts off slowly, and builds up faster and faster. The guitar work on this track is utterly phenomenal. Atlas Concept may sound a lot like Scale the Summit, but they are by all means, a very original and uniquely expressive band. "Kunai" further backs up my last statement. This track is tense, groovy, and heavy. All of the instruments work together to make "Kunai" as extreme and mathy as possible, replete with catchy riffs. If your head isn't bobbing to this track, then maybe you need to raise the volume. It's super impressive to me that this band would not function as well if there wasn't a good drummer and bassist able to follow the guitar work precisely. This dynamic is changed up completely, when the next interlude kicks in. My statement from before also applies. I could listen to an album of mellow music by Atlas Concept that's how good they are at doing serene music. "Construct" is another track that blends an interesting dynamic of their guitar work and an insane post-rock interlude in the middle of the song. These dudes are seriously great at composing beautiful artistic songs. "Construct" is the album closer, and it fills that role perfectly. Another compliment I want to give these guys, is how well they organized their track list. From start to finish, their debut is fantastic and well-paced. Thanks guys for giving me another incredible album to listen to when I fall asleep, or go on hikes!
I only listened to one track by Atlas Concept before, seeing them live. I just wanted to make sure I liked all the bands I was booking, but I didn't want to spoil anything. They blew me away with an ocean of powerful prog music. I can't think of any band on Long Island that composes music such as they do, so it definitely helped me appreciate how insane Atlas Concept is live. There was no doubt that I would get their music after. I highly recommend catching this band live if they are playing near you, and if they aren't then go download or buy their music and wait until they do, I promise it'll be worth it. I'm definitely waiting to see them again, especially now that I know their music a lot better. One can only imagine how good and epic the next release will be. I have high hopes it'll be as impressive as their self-titled EP. I suspect the new record may even have vocals this time around...
You can listen/download/buy their music on Bandcamp here: https://atlasconcept.bandcamp.com/album/atlas-concept
Make sure you like them on Facebook too, it's a crime they only have 500 likes. Fix that here --> https://www.facebook.com/AtlasConceptBand/
For Fans Of: Giraffes? Giraffes!, Chon, TTNG, Antarctic , +Animals As Leaders , Bangladeafy, A Lot Like Birds, Circa Survive, prog rock, weird math music.
Formed In: 2014
Status: Just Chillin’ (Pretty sure the drummer is recovering from an injury)
Label: Unsigned
The American Working Class is a duo of math rock wizards hailing from Nassau County, Long Island. Their debut EP Summer Sessions sounds as non-chalant as the title implies. The duo makes music that sounds somewhere in between a jam and written material. The drums and guitar balance each other very well, and the first three songs of the Summer Sessions EP sound like they could all be parts of one song. The fourth song "Ricky Spanish" continues in the same manner, but has a hidden gem in it that sets it apart from the rest. After a pedal interlude, the last minute or so of the song switches gears completely. Short and sweet, but a fun twist for the end of their debut work. This is a cool quick record to pop in.
TAW's sophomore release, is noticeably more mature sounding. From start to finish, there's more variety, and possibly some new influences such as Chon. The guitarist also sings, which changes things even more. He has a unique and soothing voice which fits the band's style well. The audio clip in the first song "About As" somehow manages to fit very well. The outro in the second song is really cool and spacey. I like the band's subtle way of ending that song. The third songs starts with an awesome speech clip, and an excellent groove. Guitar and drums fuse together effortlessly. There's even a mathy-breakdown in this song.
When I saw The American Working Class for the first time, it was at Evolution Sound Stage, and they happened to be the only band I didn't know on the bill. My friend Cody Hosza had them labelled as math rock though, so I knew I'd enjoy them, as well as the fact that they were put on a spectacular line-up with all of my friends (Blueblack, Luke Zwelsky Group, It Came From Space and Animus Apart). The American Working Class certainly did not disappoint. I saw them again a second time at O'briens with a bunch of other experimental and math rock bands. Their drummer was a fill-in, but you wouldn't have known unless you were told so. The American Working Class's music is even more intense and dynamic live. If you like technicality and mellow beauty, I definitely recommend catching these guys when they play their next show. It'd also be interesting to hear what they come up with if they ever do a full-length. I happen to be looking forward to both!
So, I had the opportunity to see Baroness right around the time that I was jamming them hard. Naturally I copped a ticket before even checking out the other bands they were playing with. I travelled to Webster Hall by myself to see them. It was definitely worth it, but they still left me a bit disappointed and upset. Why? Because Baroness hardly played any old music. As is common with my taste in music, my favorite releases are the earliest ones. First, Second, “Third”, Red, and Blue are hands down my favorite releases. Baroness ripped back then. They were sludgy and fast paced, but also melodic and elegant. Their song composition was unpredictable and exciting. In later albums they felt more of a formulaic hard rock band with only hints of the band they used to be. What happened? Maybe the singer can’t do old songs any more because of the growling yells? Maybe they just hate their old music? I have no idea, but the best I got was them playing “Isak” and the instrumental track off of Blue “Ogeeche Hymnal”. The six tracks that comprise the first two EPs have a perfect dynamic, excellent flows and progression, and the most impressive drumming and guitar that the band has shown. Despite this, I wasn’t expecting to hear the two EPs live because of their age, but I did feel insulted that they only played one Red song and one Blue song, yet Baroness played almost all of Yellow & Green and Purple.
Yellow & Green is definitely what I would consider the band’s low point, as that music is essentially progressive dad rock. However, even that album has it’s merit, and it’s still a good album, it’s only ‘bad’ in comparison to the albums that came before it.
Despite their choice for a set list, they did sound tight as hell. It was like listening to the records live, but better. In addition to their sound, they also had cool stage lighting effects. The stage was illuminated by whatever color album the song they were playing was off of. (Red, Blue, Yellow & Green, Purple). There was a point where they started playing a song and the lights were still red-trust me, I was hype- but then I realized it was a song off Purple. The same time that I realized that, the stage engineer did too cause they actually switched the lighting mid-song that time. Talk about a sad face.
Because I try my best to be unbiased, I’m giving Baroness four stars for their live performance, because if you happen to like the last two albums the best, then you were probably having the time of your life. They were energetic and powerful. I’m still glad I got to see them and experience them live. Maybe when I get a time machine I can watch Red Album or Blue Record played live all the way through. That’d be tight.
Reccomended tracks:Tower Falls, Wanderlust, The Sweetest Curse, Jake Leg, Chlorine & Wine.
For Fans Of: Dear Hunter; Neurosis; Isis; Pelican; Rosetta; Russian Circles; Pallbearer; heavier Explosions in the Sky; loops; pedals.
Formed In:2014
Status: Four upcoming shows, and a late September release for the new album.
Label:Unsigned.
-Discography Review-
So, your first impression of Blueblack will be based entirely off of which way you listen to them first. If you listen to their debut record, you will find an entrancing stoner rock album with lots of pedals, loops and distortion. You’ll be sucked into a post-rock vortex and mesmorized by the bleeting guitar riffs and the precise and powerful drums. If you’re looking for bass, you’ve got the wrong band. Blueblack makes it work without a bass player, most likely because they know if they had one, you probably wouldn’t be able to hear him anyway. So, what I love about this record is that every track is memorable. The intro track is exactly that, an intro. It just sets the stage for the musical agression that is to come. “La Bestia” and “On the Moor” are the next two tracks that utilize catchy effects and powerful bridges. The former track “La Bestia” is probably my favorite song on the album. It’s catchy, heavy, and has a great beat and expert pacing. This song live is heavy enough to make me wanna punch people, which is no easy feat for an instrumental band that isn’t just playing a breakdown. The latter track could make a great movie soundtrack, it’s both beautiful and gritty at the same time. The next track is the longest on the album, and it’s very slow. The guitars seem to be reminiscent of classic rock/Pink Floyd here. This is definitely the most post-rock song on the album. But instead of going for a cliche build up, Blueblack opts for a more subtle approach on this song. After the serenity clears, “Horsehead” begins with what sounds like a wah pedal on loop, then they go all out with their pedals and effects. “Mountain And Sea Changing” is an atmospheric experience in the vein of Explosions in the Sky and God is an Astronaut. Its soothing spacey feel passes by very quick, and before you know it, you’re on the last track of the album. The last track isn’t much different than the one that preceeded it. It’s still a cool way to close off the album.
One of my few complaints about this record, is that some songs don’t sound entirely complete or connected with one another. If the idea is to have autonomous tracks, then that goal has been achieved, and that’s why I don’t have this complaint live, but as a record to be listened to from start to finish it’s a little lacking in that department. Also, all of the energy and heavy tracks are in the beginning of the album. I assume this is known, but the balancing still feels a little off because of it. Despite these things that I only care about because I’m analyzing and rating this album, I love this album for how unique it is. I have a wide range of taste, and I still had to ask my friend Gio if he agreed with the bands I put for the for fans of section. The dynamic and composition is great, and the live experience is an incredible one that I’ll get into in a little bit.
Destroy, Blueblack’s sophomore release, starts off on a similar note to the prior album. The opening track, “Anthem” sounds a lot like the first track of the self titled. The biggest difference between “Anthem” and “The Cloudcage” is how much muddier the track is this time around. Between near-sludge guitar tuning and more prevalent drums, Destroy has only just begun with a great start. The next track is “Don’t Call Me Girl” where Blueblack utilizes their abilities to write a catchy and melodic song. This song is so pleasant that I’m sad it wasn’t one of the long ones. Next up is a song with an audio clip played throughout it. While “Branches Broke” probably isn’t a song that could be played live, it does a good job of breaking up the action in the album, and it’s a tranquil and weirdly cool little piece. “Hawkwing” is the next track, and it’s another diverse one starting off with beautiful progressions. The song just gets wilder and wilder with effects, and reminds me of a movie soundtrack once more. It’s probably my favorite song on this record. “Spaghetti Western” starts off sounding like an 80′s movie theme, it has some cool flashy riffs and solid beat. Essentially, the type of stuff you’d expect from the trio. It’s cool how it still has a Blueblack feel to it. “Against Corners” is an exciting track that comes out of nowhere. Unfortunately, its impact on me kind of wears off after a little bit. This track just seems to fail to grab and maintain my attention throughout. I guess you could say it drags a little. Despite that, it’s still not a bad track. The final track “Jump Up Get Down” however, does everything the track before it couldn’t. It serves as an energetic and satisfying finale. All in all, I’d say if you enjoyed Blueblack’s first release, then you’ll be in for more awesome tracks and you shall not be disappointed.
-Live Review-
My friend told me that Blueblack was a sick local band. At that point, I am unsure if I had heard of them or not, but they left a lasting mark on me on that faithful night at O’Briens in Coram. They were desribed to me as “that band with a shit ton of pedals” and they did not disappoint on that front. Their set was so heavy and powerful, that I made sure to cop their debut self-titled album. They impressed with me with a tight and loud performance. When I got home that night, I uploaded the album to my crappy Itunes account and listened to it more and more. (I’m also big into CDs so I listened to it a lot in the car as well.) Because of this, the next time I saw the band it was an even better performance because I knew all of the songs. Hearing those catchy riffs and stoic drums come to life again at AMH was great. Showing them off to my friends was cool too. My third time seeing Blueblack was at the Evolution Sound Stage and I still didn’t feel bored or sick of any of the songs, and the new song they played was good too. Blueblack’s Dynamic of heavy and soft is cool live, because all of it is still loud. If I can, I’ll continue to catch these guys whenever possible.
Music aside, I have noticed that the 2nd and 3rd time I’ve seen them, some of my friends have felt distanced by the band’s snarky comments while on stage. I think the sarcasm and wit is part of an act, but also who they are. Essentially, the sole speaker for the band during shows is the drummer Christian Phillips, and he has told me “As a band, we mostly just wanna have fun and make sure that at the end of the night, people remember our music.” I’d say his/their mission accomplished in all cases, but perhaps I should warn easily offended readers just in case their skin isn’t thick enough as well. In the end, Blueblack is here to create and play music, and I have a feeling no matter what anyone feels they’re going to keep doing just that, and power to ‘em for it.
You can buy their debut album here at name your own price, and the new one will be released in late September. Get stoked.
For Fans Of:Dream Theater; Liquid Tension Expiriment; Animals As Leaders; The Contortionis; Cynic; Haken; Devin Townsend; Original Prog; Weird music; Weird interludes; Epic clean singing; Good breakdowns; Technical music; assloads of talent.
Formed In:2000
Status:Touring with August Burns Red, The Faceless and Good Tiger
Label(s):Lifeforce—>Victory—>Metal Blade
-Discography Overview-
Between The Buried & Me’s debut self titled album…here we go. If BTBAM was a swimming pool, this album is where the water was murky as hell. It’s clear that the band wanted to play heavy groove, not unlike some of the Death Metal and Deathcore bands playing around this time. But deep inside this murky pool, we see there is a desire to create Progressive music, although back then you’d have to dive pretty deep to find it. The self-titled album is still a solid release. I firmly believe BTBAM has never released a bad album. From start to finish, the album doesn’t bore despite being packed the hell out with breakdowns. Once we get to “Aspirations”, you get a slight taste of the weird things that BTBAM likes to do with their music. You also get a proggy outro that will truly be a template for them to expand upon later. At this time, only Tommy Rogers and Paul Waggoner were in the band. After about 2004, the present day lineup is finalized and the band becomes notably more prog. As far as heavy albums go, you don’t find much that are better done than this album and Silent Circus. The seeds of something great are there, in “What Have We Become” we hear a riff at the end that sounds like it’s off the TGMD. Once you listen to “Fire For A Dry Mouth” you hear the duo of guitarists shredding just like they will do when Alaska comes by. “Shevanel Cut A Flip” is the finale of this album, and the song that really sets BTBAM apart from any other breakdown using, groove throwing metal band around at this time. Just because the water is murky here, does not mean it isn’t a great place to swim. This album also comes in handy on a gym playlist and is highly reccomended.
Silent Circus was actually one of the last BTBAM albums I listened to. I simply did not know it existed until about three years ago. I guess it got deleted from my Itunes. Even still, I didn’t give it the time of day it deserves until writing this review. (Can’t remember the last time I listened to it in full.) Anyway, it starts off right where the debut left off. Heavy, groovy death metal. The first few tracks are pretty much like the second evolved form of tracks from the self-titled album. If you want to write heavy, powerful songs, this album should be your textbook filled with excellent examples on what to do. Once you get to “Mordecai”, things get real. This song from start to finish is one of the sharpest songs on this album. Along with similarities to the debut, BTBAM also has a clear cut backtrack to the first album with a new version of an old song titled “Shevanel Take 2″, which effectively acts as an album interlude.Then it comes right back into the action with “Ad a Dglgmut” which I consider one of the other top-tier songs on the album. The guitars in this song are absolutely on point, and then you have more prog writing and Tommy Roger’s clean vocals as the topping to the delicious death metal dessert. The remainder of the album consists of some cool parts and some more okay parts. After this album, BTBAM gets an updated lineup, and these changes affect them in the best of ways. Prepare for Between The Buried And Me’s beginning of realizing their full potential below!
Alaska starts off with “All Bodies” and right away you can tell this is a new breed of music. The recording quality has improved, and the composition has followed with it. Immediately, “All Bodies” throws some tasteful riffs at you. Then you have the first section of clean vocals that you will want to be yelling at the sky! Then in the bridge before the breakdown more awesome riffs and pounding chugs backed up by orchestral parts. Tommy shows off his range at the end of this song, and it might leave you with goosebumps. This song is such an exemplary BTBAM song, that I can write an entire paragraph on it alone. To me Alaska is the beginning of a new golden era for BTBAM. Here they have a clear cut idea on their songs and what they want to do with them. All of the songs fit perfectly together making this album feel truly coherent and complete. Next up is the title track “Alaska”, which starts off truly shreddy, then it reverts back to the sounds of the last two albums. Tommy’s gutteral vocals in this album definitely sound like they’re from Silent Circus, but the guitars and drums are on a new level. This is the first album with Blake Richardson behind the kit and it shows. Then we are up to “Selkies:The Endless Obsession” or Selfies:The Endless Obsession if you will; and this album starts off sounding even more different than the other tracks. Why is this? I believe this song is a Colors song that didn’t even know it yet. You’ve got a powerful dual guitar intro, that leads into some quiet singing. When we get into the interlude at four minutes in, you’re transcended into a beautiful BTBAM dimension already. You have heard top-tier song writing. A piano brings you back into the action, and the song begins to speed back up again. Instead of another fast paced breakdown, the song simply fades out leaving you wanting more. But don’t worry, you’re not even halfway done yet. BTBAM gives you a peaceful interlude track called “Breathe In, Breathe Out” obviously for you to stop hyperventilating from excitement. Next up is my least favorite BTBAM song ever written. “Roboturner” hurts this album for me in many ways. It starts off good like any other Alaska track, but then it does something I’ve never felt about a BTBAM song…it drags. I’ve never wanted a song by this band to end before I listened to Roboturner. It’s a shame too, because a lot of this song is cool up until the outro. Once you get to 4:26 the song should have ended. Instead it starts back up about 40 seconds after some bass. That’s fine and dandy, but then we have two entire minutes more of the same riff. I don’t know if it’s supposed to be a joke since BTBAM does have a sense of humor and it keeps ending making you think it’s done, but it just isn’t. It can almost be redeemed by the sheer droning on, but I just can’t bring myself to like it. It ruins “Roboturner” for me. The only bright side is the last three seconds set up the next track “Backwards Marathon” which is the longest song on the album. I think “Backwards Marathon” best represents the album Alaska. It’s the perfect mix of heavy and prog music.I also believe it’s the album’s climax. All of a sudden an interlude drops and out of nowhere you’re on a sunny beach. But then it’s starts raining. It’s raiiiiining. It’s raiiiiiniiiing. Like a bass drop BTBAM gets right back into it. After more than 8 minutes, the song finishes up and we move onto “Medicine Wheel”. “Medicine Wheel” starts off sounding like just another interlude, but it quickly proves you wrong. It’s a beautiful song that can and will stand alone, (while playing the part of a second interlude of course.) Alaska continues on this formula, then we have the heavy riff bombardment that is “Primer” and “Autodidact” then the album finishes off with “Laser Speed” “Laser Speed” is my favorite instrumental BTBAM song around, and I think it’s a nice finishing touch on the epic album we call Alaska.
Colors is widely viewed as the peak of Between The Buried & Me, and a trademark album in progressive metal. This hour plus long album starts off with a slow piano intro and then breaks out into the fast-paced technical metal you love. There is a perfect transition into “(B) The Decade of Statues”, these songs simply flow right into one another. It’s truly like a modern day Pink Floyd. Right before you hit two minutes, the songs slows down with clean singing and the first of the tasty riffs you’ll hear throughout this masterpiece. A lot of heavy fast paced breakdowns will hit you before you even know it. It’s like “Hey we’re the same band that wrote Alaska but now we’re even proggier.”. At 4:30 you have absolute shredding and then an epic finale to the first real track of the album. Next up is a deep almost tribal song. “Informal Gluttony” starts off with a drum and chant. It’s definitely got a jungle vibe to it. Then powerful bass and a riff almost reminiscent of Ancient Egypt kicks in and the song becomes an extreme metal song with blast beats. More heartwarming clean vocals and more of the things you love in “Informal Gluttony”. If you’ve never listened to the next two tracks on Colors, I don’t think you’re a real BTBAM fan. “Sun of Nothing” and “Ants of The Sky” are some of the best songs ever written by the band. They’re prog classics. When you have a chrous of “la la la” and pounding tidal waves of riffage, you know you’re a unique band. “Sun of Nothing” can pretty much best be described as an epic track. These songs also ensure that BTBAM is a near-impossible band to label musically. They experiment more and more. At this point in the album, if you’re not floating towards the sun, then I don’t think prog metal is for you. In “Ants of the Sky” the band pushes the limits to what they can and cannot do even more. The drums are extra technical, new instruments are played, more cowbell and so on. Then the songs has it’s own interlude within itself. This makes “Ants of the Sky” feel like three tracks inside of one. That final interlude always made me think of chickens chillin’ outside a desolate pub. Creating imagery through music is super impressive. Next up is “Prequel to the Sequel” which goes by very quickly at only eight minutes. I hardly know jack shit about guitars, but the ones in this song are my favorite. I think the heavy riffs are expertly placed, and I think the soloing is beautiful. There are amazing harmonies that soothe the ears. Before you even realize “Prequel to the Sequel” is finished, an amazing bass solo/interlude track calms you down right before the finale. Tracks like “Viridian” makes me sometimes almost wish BTBAM was an instrumental post-rock/math rock band. After that song is done, a remarkable intro guitar lets you know “White Walls” has begun. If you’ve seen BTBAM before, you know very well what’s happening. This song is commonly BTBAM’s closing finale. This song tends to be a fan favorite, because the end is so god damn heavy. I personally, am kind of sick of it since they’ve played it ¾ of the times I’ve seen them. Although, from what I understand, the solo at the end is also as insane to play as it sounds, so I’m sure that counts too. Then, as it began, Colors comes to an end with Tommy’s beautiful piano playing. Your face has been melted, but wait, there’s still more to come.
On to The Great Misdirect we go. More like the Great Misunderstood, this album is easily one of BTBAM’s most underrated, typically only getting love for Swim To The Moon. This album has the least amount of tracks of any album, but that’s not to say it is devoid of content. It is perfectly packed with zero filler baby. It starts off fantasticaly, with “Mirrors”. “Mirrors” is another beautiful, unreal BTBAM track. The drums, bass, guitar, and singing all blend perfectly. It’s sort of hypocritical for them to sing “everyone grows but me” when they grow and progress every single album, rising above other prog bands in the genre seamlessly. From soft and beautiful, we geat the heaviest track on the album, “Obfuscation”. This song, like many others, flies by before you even realize nine minutes have passed by. The interlude at five and a half minutes seems, almost incredibly, as if BTBAM took it straight from their next album The Parallax. It has a real spacey feel to it, with a lot of soloing on the bass and guitar. “Obfuscation” ends like it started, with a lot of yelling parts that compell you to yell back out, thus it is one of the coolest BTBAM songs you could catch live. “Disease, Injury, Madness” starts off very fast, like it’s trying to contradict me and be the heavier song. And maybe, just maybe, in the sense of vocal work it is heavier. It also has an interlude that I feel like BTBAM used to reinspire themselves when writing the Parallax. Unfortunately, it’s as if they’ve fallen into a formulaic pattern, but if you’re not over analyzing song structures, it still sounds great and believable. The background sounds in this song, prod you to remember “Mirrors”. Then when you think the song is done, it starts back up as if the second half were a completely new TGM track. In fact, the only reason why this is still the same song is probably a four letter word. (Prog). After some farm riffs and another solo, the song gets heavy again, interludes, then has a cowbell filled outro that keeps the TGM vibe going. You also get some more LA LA LAs, possibly a nod to Alaska, possibly just some fun lyrics to sing in falsetto. Then the song ends feeding directly to the happy piano intro of “Fossil Genera–A Feed From Cloud Mountain”. This song adds another new genre that BTBAM has used/created and it’s done expertly on this track. The drum fill before the heavy parts is one of the best transitions on the album. The breakdown on this song is also very impressive, because it marks the first time BTBAM ever used a bit of industrial metal on a song. And it sounds amazing. Next is “Desert of Song”, which is just another song used to break up the pacing before the album’s finale is up. Said finale, is also known as “Swim to the Moon”. It’s the band’s longest song to date, a not a single second is boring or misused. The song has a brilliant dynamic and perfect pacing. The drum solo is just whipped cream on top. With this epic track, TGMD is brought to an exciting close.
The Parallax EP: Hypersleep Dialogues was/is for a very long time, my favorite BTBAM release. It’s only an extended play, but the three tracks seemed to represent the culmination of every single thing I love about the band. The heavy parts, the beautiful parts, the instrumentation, the clean singing, the weird proggy parts. Everything. When I went back to this EP to try to dissect it and give it a number score out of ten, I simply had to give it a perfect score because there was nothing that I could find wrong about it. Because of this, I’ll skip the EP summary (and leave the one person who’s read this much of my review most likely out of pure boredom) and move on. If you have never listened to this EP, please do so, just don’t be surprised if the band doesn’t play it live :(
The Parallax II:Future Sequences. The follow up to an amazing EP. It starts off beautifully, with some impressive guitar work. By now, BTBAM can easily create an album where each of the tracks flow into each other, but can also stand alone. I think one of the things that helped me fall in love with this album is how addicting the guitar riffs are. They’re so catchy and they get stuck in your head very easily. Once you get to the chorus in “Lay Your Ghosts to Rest” the riffs get even catchier. That guitar actually brings me joy when I listen to it, and the bass supporting it too. The bass on this album is by far my favorite of all of BTBAM’s discography. It’s so definitive and well done. “Lay Your Ghosts to Rest” is definitely one of my favorite tracks on the album. Even with the circus sounds, but the end is completely unlike anything the band has ever done before, and what’s that, more great bass parts! The Xylofone in “Extremophile Elite” is awesome, and they play that live too by the way. “Melting City” might not start as good as some other tracks, but it just gets better and better. The interlude truly brings you to another world. It could be used as a beautiful theme for discovery in a movie. The second interlude is mostly bass, and it’s just as amazing. Coincidentally this song also has the heaviest breakdown. No wonder it’s my favorite! All in all this album has such a powerful presence, and the shorter tracks are all atmospheric and good at keeping the pacing. “Silent Flight Parliament” is essentially the album’s last epic, clocking in at over fifteen minutes and the longest track on the album. It flows right into the finale, which as always, ends the album on a great note.
Coma Ecliptic is BTBAM’s most recent effort. The band itself, and ¾ of the members of Cryptodira believe the album to be the best of their efforts.The beginning of the album makes me think of Dream Theater a lot. BTBAM’s has never been shy about their passion for DT but on Coma Ecliptic it definitely shows for better or for worse. (I would think better, but hey it’s subjective in the end.) Even Tommy’s singing on this album sounds completely different. I still like his vocals, but not as much as the cleans on the Parallax series. The piano is tighter than ever though, so daps to my boy Tommy on that. Coma Ecliptic is definitely the weirdest release BTBAM has ever put out. In the sense of experimentation and progression, BTBAM has truly reached a whole new level. That being said, being different and weird doesn’t always mean good, otherwise my band would be touring already, “Famine Wolf” gives me the impression BTBAM wants to try to be Haken pretty bad, which is kind of awesome. They can easily pull it off, like they always have when they took other styles of music, except this time I’m not too certain that they’re truly making it their own. In the end, Coma Ecliptic was definitely an interesting release if not a thrilling one. As always, I’m intruiged to see what the boys will do next.
-Live Overview-
Between the Buried & Me live is a show you don’t want to miss. This band takes music to the next level and their live presentations are no different. With a culmination of raw talent and unbelievable memory, the members of BTBAM play hour long sets at the least for most of their shows. This might sound long, but if you are a fan of the album they are playing it is the very best thing in the world. I haven’t seen too many album playthroughs, but BTBAM does it masterfully. How they can remember their technical parts is impressive enough, how they can play an album all of the way through is an absolutely incredible feat. I’m not sure how many other bands can compete with their god-like stamina.
The first time I was supposed to see Between The Buried & Me, they were set to play at the Crazy Donkey with Job For A Cowboy and The Ocean. I didn’t know The Ocean back in 2011, but I was a fan of JFAC. I came down with a 102 fever and cried because my mom wouldn’t let me go. Yep. BTBAM made me cry. The tickets were given to my friend Quinn Kennedy. Then later that year, BTBAM announced they were coming back to play their new EP Parallax:Hypersleep Dialogues. They came through to Best Buy Theater with Animals As Leaders and TesseracT. It was my first time seeing all three bands and I was very excited. BTBAM played through the EP in it’s entirety, melting faces. They played a special version of Specular Reflection where they extended the interlude. During the interlude the members of AAL and TesseracT came on stage and did a Harlem Shake-like dance. Members were jumping rope, dancing in their underwear and even doing the worm. It was the last day of touring for the trio of bands, so they went all out in a hilariously original display. There was a time where Blake Richardson got off of his drum kit and did 100 push ups while Tommy counted, then returned to his drums and fired off a drum solo.
The second or third time I saw them, they were touring The Parallax II and playing through it in it’s entirety. I doubt I’ll ever enjoy a BTBAM set more than that one. To see each song played in order is just plain perfect. Interestingly enough, the pit was also the wildest. Sweaty prog nerds moshed, and naturally, I had to join them. The people who think that album isn’t heavy enough, should have attended that show. After playing through the album entirely, they still played some hits and a mash up of “Mordecai” and a few other tracks. NYC tends to be the band’s last stop, and they always go hard.
One of the downsides of seeing this band live is the same dilemna plagueing my friends in Cryptodira. Their songs are just too damn long. Not that the fans care, but it ends up limiting the set. BTBAM tends to avoid playing old songs because they claim it gets old fast, but my suggestion would be to play different old songs, instead of White Walls and Selkies a million times. In the end, it is what it is. BTBAM knows how to compose, create, and perform. There are plenty arguements about which album is the best, but in the end I think most people can agree that the band has had a huge influential impact on many bands throughout the country. If you haven’t seen this important band live yet, please do so. Thank you so much for reading, and feel free to say which releases were your favorite in my ask box. :)
