BETWEEN THE BURIED AND ME AND A HARD PLACE

Though necessary improvements to the masterpiece that is 2007's Colors are few and obvious, the men of Between The Buried And Me (above, nerds grow your hair long please) still are in a unenviable position. The task of following that bastard would be intimidating to ANY musician. Shit they should've run a contest where any musician or collection thereof could attempt a logical second chapter in the BTBAM saga, which would be released secretly under the band's name like BTBAM presents Snake-Skolnick-Nergal-DiGiorgio-Hoglan's Colors II: Taste The Rainbow. The next volume in the series would be BTBAM presents Colors A Capella by the HooM!-MetalSucks-Metal Injection All-Stud Chorus.

Shit let's get back on topic. The last three songs on Colors are essentially perfect, but beyond that, my hopes for this October's new BTBAM record The Great Misdirect are centered around discipline: cut down on weak riffs (the tunes are nice and long already, no mediocre random shit should be making it past rehearsal); cut down on Patton-isms and Dream Theater-isms (dynamics good, ill-fitting whimsy and/or prog robotics bad); make more frequent use of gifted singer (and his keyboard) and that guitarist who is a surgeon with melodic soloing. And no current events shit. Looking at you, Queensryche and Winger.

The above are all so-called good problems; the band should consider themselves done with the hard part of developing into a real band. They've mastered dynamics and timing (though not arrangement), and their work has soul and identity. So yeah, BTBAM is a rare young band. I know everybody's pumping Suicide Silence down our throats, but this is the band that will blow open extreme music. Then again I've been on a losing streak with bands on the precipice; would-be genre leaders Lush and Monica both stepped back like chickenshits. And of course Metallica that was a heartbreaker. OoooWAFF ta nevuh nevuh la-yand!