BETWEEN THE BURIED AND ME – Coma Ecliptic
- Posted on 05-07-2015
Since 2000, Raleigh, North Carolina’s Between the Buried and Me have been cultivating an ardent following as their style morphs everything from metalcore and avant-garde to progressive metal. "Coma Ecliptic" is their seventh studio album, serving up 11 tracks in a 68 minute package that is exhilarating, mind-bending, and further proof that the band are indeed one of the forerunners in progressive music today. Incorporating death growls, multi-part clean vocal harmonies, insane time signature changes and tempo movements, stylistically you’ll hear everything from Faith No More and Queen to King’s X and Metallica, all turned upside down on King Crimson and Pink Floyd.
Those who remember Finger Eleven’s modern rock hit "Paralyzer" may hear a bit of that feel in the opening minute of "The Ectopic Stroll", before the rhythmic, thrashing meets propulsive insanity takes over and vocalist /keyboardist Tommy Rogers strides over the circus-like musical performance in a calm, clear Mike Patton-like manner one moment and then a demented lunatic screamer the next. The softer, shorter "Node" opens in majestic splendor, the guitar lead break near its conclusion sparse and terrific before "The Coma Machine" explodes through insane drum fills and almost The Beatles oriented piano/harmonic verses, snarky one minute and then free-flowing in musical interplay the next. It has to be tricky for the band to know where they can go full bore and when they need to reign things in for hook/melody-sake: "Dim Ignition" at 2:16 has electronica and keyboard parts straight out of the 80’s new-wave scene, while "Turn of the Darkness" uses death inflections and roller coaster instrumental passages that can straddle djent, jazz, and math-progressive concepts.
Bassist Dan Briggs, drummer Blake Richardson, guitarists Paul Waggoner and Dustie Waring along with Mr. Rogers deserve hearty, rapturous applause for writing and executing such thought provoking, mindful songs. "Coma Ecliptic" provides years of intense listening sessions – headphones indeed are required.