Between The Buried And Me
The Great Misdirect

I hate genres that end in -core: Hardcore, Deathcore, Metalcore, etc. To me, they are just trash. But I moderately appreciate one: mathcore. Yes, that genre that combines the highly complex timings of Math Rock with the aggressiveness of Metal. And when it comes to the eclectic Between The Buried And Me, I can't help but give a thumbs up: this bunch of lunatics manages to do everything. I particularly liked their latest album, released in 2009, "The Great Misdirect".

This latest work by the group summarizes all the genres tackled by this curious band. Let's say they don't want to be labeled: they experiment with everything, like Thrash Metal, some jazzy passages, Death Metal outbursts, progressive interludes. It often happens, in fact, that from a metalcore scream, the group transitions to melodic breaks: tell me if this is not a band to admire. It's like hearing Pink Floyd and Meshuggah on the same record. Speaking of individual tracks, there are two completely melodic ones, the initial and melancholic "Mirrors" and "Desert Of Song", which has an incredible ending, with a romantic solo. Both are short, but all the other tracks are really long and complete, like "Disease, Injury, Madness", the best track, or "Fossil Genera - A Feed From Cloud Mountain", which also has a memorable ending, and a jazzy start! "Swim To The Moon", the longest track (over seventeen minutes) is another great piece, which perfectly concludes the album, while the track I only partially liked is "Obfuscation", but only because the metalcore dominates too much.

Tommy Rogers, the vocalist and keyboardist, easily transitions from harsh growl to melody - he resembles Akerfeldt from Opeth -; Paul Waggener delights the listener with memorable solos, see the already mentioned "Desert Of The Song", and he also has an excellent amount of technique. The rhythm section, composed of bassist Dan Briggs and drummer Blake Richardson, is astonishing, solid, at times even jazzy. The album's duration is one hour: someone might say that six tracks lasting a total of one hour are too heavy. And I say that the work, despite its length, is never verbose precisely because of the group's distinctive element, which is the fusion of multiple genres. You never get bored with Waggener's solos or the spectacular bass lines of Briggs. And when Rogers plays the keyboards, he always manages to be very virtuosic.

In describing this masterpiece, I may have fallen into the banal, but I would listen to it for hours and hours. Thank you, Between The Buried And Me, multifaceted heroes.