COLORS

I grew up listening to a lot metal before moving onto progressive rock. During my heavy metal phase, I enjoyed some the great riffs, aggression of the songs and even the strong melodies and progressions, but after a while it got old and cliche; yet this band manages to hold my attention throughout the entire listening experience. The first song I heard from Between the Buried and Me was 'Selkies: The Endless Obsession,' and I was amazed at their use of melodic structure; however, Colors was the first album I had the pleasure to listen to in entirety. I must say that this album completely blew me away! All the intense metal parts are like the classic metal I used to listen to, except amplified to an extensive degree; giving me a sense of nostalgia, but while still keeping everything fresh and new.

In contrast to the heavy, hardcore metal parts, Between the Buried and Me also uses an equal amount of symphonic orchestration, while also employing jazz structures and blues styles. The band knows how to weave you through the dark and then provides you an uplifting moment, pulling you toward the light. The actual song structures are very diverse, yet still uphold structure; if you are familiar and can digest this kind of music. It just takes some good listens to get used to, and then you'll remember all your favorite parts.

I particularly enjoyed the riff in 'Prequel to the Sequel' at approximately 1:25 due to the alternating measures played as such: (4/4, 7/8)x2... then, (7/8, 4/4)x2... only to revert back the previous structure and repeat again. The album really keeps you on your toes thinking about all the musical aspects going on within just a mere 1 minute of music.

This album is a very concept-based album, and the entire thing can be seamlessly listened to as a whole, even though many of it's themes and progressions can be viewed as the individual tracks presented. As with all conceptual and lengthy progressive/art albums, I recommend as viewing this album as 'watching a movie,' and each track is a chapter you'd you would skip to by pressing 'Next' on your dvd remote. If you can keep that in mind, this album is really a 'piece of cake' to listen to.

Even though I don't listen to lyrics very much because I'm more concerned with the instrumentation than poetry, I thought the lyrical content was also very interesting, considering they revolve the abstract concepts and thoughts/ideas that most people don't think about withing their everyday lives, ranging from social fear to environmental issues, and even the acceptance of death.

Overall, the technicality and intricacy of the song structures are well-crafted, and the transitions between the songs and even the individual parts are flawless; I wouldn't want this album constructed any other way. This album is very stylistic and only for the open-minded listener that can handle non-commercial or non-pop cultured song structures. This is truly an experimental art and progressive album and I always speak highly of this one. I can't wait to see what Between the Buried and Me come out with next!