Revision as of 21:33, 11 January 2009

Between The Buried And Me - Alaska

General Information

Original Author: The Uncreator

Artist: Between The Buried And Me

Album: Alaska

Genre: Progressive Metal

Tracklist

01. All Bodies
02. Alaska
03. Croakies And Boatshoes
04. Selkies: The Endless Obsession
05. Breathe In, Breathe Out
06. Roboturner
07. Backwards Marathon
08. Medicine Wheel
09. The Primer
10. Autodidact
11. Laser Speed

Sound

9 Perhaps one of the most overlooked bands, and maybe even underrated at that, Between The Buried And Me assault you with a progressive onslaught full of heavy, fast riffs, technical guitar wizardry, Beautiful solos, Clean guitar work like no other, Some of the heaviest drumming in a long while, and superb lyrics and vocals.

Guitar

10 BTBAM Guitarist are EXTREMELY diverse in there style of playing. From the progressive sweep section, Heavy melodies, to slow bluesy/ jazzy solos, They cover all there bases better than pretty much any other band out there right now. The song "Alaska" opens up with some melodic sweeping with some very catchy melodies in it, and the next song, "Selkies: The Endless Obsession", to me, Has some of the finest guitar work of the past 10 or 15 years. The song opens up with a classic progressive riff, proceeds through this until about 4 minutes or so, where it just slows down to a beautiful clean guitar section, With an Immense bluesy/ jazz like solo, and the proceeds into one of the catchiest melodies, and then ends it all with a monster melodic sweeping section, Orgasm of the ears

Bass

8 Just awesome, Sometimes its drained out in the mix but for the most part, The technicality of the bass cannot be missed. From its beautiful, and offensively beautiful tone creating an amazing atmosphere in songs like "Breathe In, Breathe Out", "Laser Speed" and "All Bodies" it is just another aspect where complete control and perfection is exercised.

Drums

9 So you want Mike Portnoy technical abilities mixed up with groove based drumming? Well look no further. Everything from Martin Menedez (Opeth Ex-Drummer) style beats on the slow songs, to the super fast and technical double bass prevalent in Death Metal, Its just simply incredible it never lets up, the tone of the double bass is awesome, sounds perfect, Its well blended into the mix so it just makes the song feel like its beating you senseless with awesomeness!

Vocals

9 If one thing amazes me about this band, Its the vocals. From the mid range screams to high screams, to mid range and low range growls, all on top of a beautiful clean voice, its talent perfected. The song "Selikes: The Endless Obsession", Uses this singers talents to its fullest. If you are into Opeth style diversity, then you will love this.

Lyrics

10 Beautifully done, Deep, powerful, resilient, and ever thoughtful, This is without a doubt one of the best writing i have ever seen.

From "Selkies: The Endless Obsession" (Slip into something more comforatble... proceed into space)

Innocent individuals... concerned about nothing but happiness... Progress becomes easy due to this social situation. Unfortunate turn of events... collapse this idea of the childish thought.

No judgment
No judgement towards one another...
No judgment towards one another,
No social status to compare...
All as one...
Market this change...
Exploit the idea of this innocence...
Exploit this idea of this innocent...
God**** television god... corrupt me...
God**** television god... corrupt me...
Separate us... separate us... separate us... separate us...
Groups of difference seems to comfort what we once didn't think of...
This show was in their head for years...
Enjoy this life of wonder and imagination...
For it will be torn down.

You will be torn down...
Time to hate, kill, fight, conquer...
Time to hate, kill, fight, conquer...
This is human life at it's best...
We'll televise this event...
You can learn how to live, breathe...
And finally die.

The sweet relief is a must
We can speak obsession... we can love the endless.

From "Roboturner"
Crush us. Over and over again...
The years have come to this--an improper art form.
Faking our own thoughts and sounds...
Robots crush... death of human-music.

Bright lights fill the sky...
Track us through our fields of money...
The old days seem shit and primitive...
Abduction... control... you write for me. Oh, master...

Master of the machines...
Take this s*** and make it gold. Make my face sparkle with fame...
Master of the machines...
F*** them hard and neglect their thoughts...
They will never see us coming...

No more human voice...
No more human actions...
Imperfect f**** stand in the dark.

Crush us. Over and over again...
The years have come to this--an improper art form.
Faking our own thoughts and sounds...
Robots crush...
Death of human-music.

Counteract this idea of control...
Human emotion can only produce the
Thoughtful...
Finally discovering the idea of perfect harmony...
This is the day we finally make beautiful notes again...
But we will never realize...
A situation so far dead...
Make this a war...
Blood fills the sky...
Drop the deadly dive-bomb...
The end of this outside life.

We will find art again.

From "Backwards Marathon"
The early loves seems to become jaded...
I'm never expecting this...
Glance towards the mirror,
Imagination towards the stars...
The endless desire for my one and only true love...
This will never change I predict...
But I do get tired...
If only they knew what push we have given...
For this music...
This happiness that keeps us all sane...
Cold nights seem to force questions, not wanting to accept these thoughts...
I have worked and will keep working...
To keep the tradition of my one true motive in life...
Music...
My only love...
Once building drum boxes and pretending to be the artist...
I guess I'm here but it feels weird...
So weird...
To know how weird all this can be...
It seems to never work out like I planned...
Like we planned.

One day it will come together...
First place desire in the backwards marathon...
That's all we can ask for...

It's raining...
It's raining...
It's raining...
It's raining...
When the sun comes up, it's still raining.
Slowly grow...
Weeds turn into...
Smiling trance...
Never mentioned.

The early love seems to become jaded...
I'm never expecting this...
Dance for the mirror,
Imagination towards the stars...
The endless desire for my one and only true love...
Dreams won't let go...
Thoughts will not change...
Can't watch it fly away...

Overall Impression

9 An incredible album, Simply beautiful in its performance and execution. Progressive madness, sweeping solos, jazzy solos, bluesy solos, awesome screams, and clean vocals, heavy drums and bass, Just an amazing album through and through.