FEATURED CD - Between the Buried and Me : The Great Misdirect

**Duncan Glenday** · 08-24-2014

Per Allmusic:

After Between the Buried and Me pushed metalcore purists away with their most progressive release, Colors, they decided to push even harder for their fifth release. A diverse outing with an unruly amount of genres crammed into only six songs, The Great Misdirect is a highly adventurous, very convoluted, wildly dynamic, and extremely difficult listen. Briggs, Waring, Rogers, Waggoner, and Richardson are in top form, with their script-flipping abilities intact and their technical chops at their most extreme. This is a guitarist's album first and foremost (although bass players and drummers are in for a treat as well), and the playing, while showy, is incendiary. Like a cross between Dream Theater (with whom they toured in 2008) and Dillinger Escape Plan, Between the Buried and Me meld creative aptitude and roaring fury as they skate genres, stapling together speed metal, hardcore, carnival jazz, chamber pop, and a few indefinable Mike Patton-esque styles. "Fossil Genera -- A Feed from Cloud Mountain" fuses loungy Henry Mancini piano with metal guitar and guttural growls in a lighthearted way, but this only lasts for a few minutes; the song takes a dark turn into eight minutes of screaming speed metal before seguing into an epic orchestral outro with syrupy singing by vocalist Tommy Rogers. To fit the many moods, Rogers readily switches moods between painful howls and heartfelt singing (with lyrics mainly dealing with alien abductions, the inner workings of the human brain, and magic), but he passes the microphone to guitarist Paul Waggoner for "Desert of Song," a relatively straightforward acoustic Dirt-era Alice in Chains ballad, which builds to a thick finish. It's merely a breather, however, and after five and a half minutes to recoup, the band goes out with "Swim to the Moon": nearly 18 minutes of unflappable and razor-sharp prog metal -- whirlwind scales, snaking solos, and amazingly intricate rhythm twists -- with hair-raising howls, parted by radio rock harmonies. It's an experience, to say the least. At the same time, The Great Misdirect is the type of overblown record that asks the question, "Is there such thing as being too ambitious?"

http://www.allmusic.com/album/the-gr...t-mw0001334080

**battema** · 08-25-2014

I like these guys, but don't love 'em. The hardcore side doesn't quite do it for me, for whatever reason.

Saw them in the spring and they did put on a terrific show.

**Just Eric** · 08-25-2014

Originally Posted by battema

I like these guys, but don't love 'em. The hardcore side doesn't quite do it for me, for whatever reason.

Saw them in the spring and they did put on a terrific show.

Love these guys, but can recognize the concern with their more hardcore material. You're right, their live shows are fantastic, a great mix of mish and mosh .... metalheads and proggers.

**battema** · 08-25-2014

Originally Posted by Just Eric

Love these guys, but can recognize the concern with their more hardcore material. You're right, their live shows are fantastic, a great mix of mish and mosh .... metalheads and proggers.

The oddball thing is that I do like hardcore...but for whatever reason, BTBAM doesn't quite click for me. They are definitely one I'd encourage the metal-minded proggers to check out. Musically, they are sick.

**mnprogger** · 08-25-2014

I am a big fan, but this was one of the most disappointing albums in recent years. I probably still consider it their worst record. It seems to have too much filler and long-winded redundant sections, which was more or less the polar opposite of Colors.

**Scrotum Scissor** · 08-26-2014

Originally Posted by battema

The oddball thing is that I do like hardcore...but for whatever reason, BTBAM doesn't quite click for me.

I've got the same problem, and it's something I also have with acts like Coheed, The End, Tool and a couple of others; some of the main assets of their expression just don't appear all that convincing. I guess that if you tread the track back to these bands' influences - NoMeansNo, Converge, Shudder to Think, Dillinger E.P. a.o. - you might localize that aching toe.

But I'd like to see them live, oh yeah.

**RealDeal79** · 08-26-2014

I also consider this one a step down from Colors. Lots of ideas but no real focus I thought. They fixed that though with the latest release "The Parallax II." Great band.

**DTA** · 08-26-2014

This is my favorite BTBaM release. Surprised to see that my opinion is not shared by many others! I think it's a huge step up from Colors, which grows tiresome to me right around Ants of the Sky. Swim To The Moon might be my favorite song of theirs.

**Reginod** · 08-26-2014

I have a bunch of BtBaM rekkids. This is one of them. I recall it being pretty cool. They all are, with Colors probably being at the top of the heap.

I have to be in a certain mood to want to hear this band, though, or really any progmetal/hardcore/math/cookiemonster kind of music.

**battema** · 08-27-2014

Originally Posted by Scrotum Scissor

I've got the same problem, and it's something I also have with acts like Coheed, The End, Tool and a couple of others; some of the main assets of their expression just don't appear all that convincing. I guess that if you tread the track back to these bands' influences - NoMeansNo, Converge, Shudder to Think, Dillinger E.P. a.o. - you might localize that aching toe.

But I'd like to see them live, oh yeah.

I understand what you mean. Coheed is another one that I've tried but failed to really appreciate (maybe they need more capes). I actually saw Dillinger Escape Plan a bit earlier this year as well...interestingly enough, they had Shining with them. DEP were great, but Shining absolutely SLAYED. So happy to have finally seen them, albeit a very short opening set.

I recall joking at the time, given the other bands on the bill, that DEP's management meant to book the *other* Shining (from Sweden, perhaps?)...but got the hardcore jazzy one instead

**Scrotum Scissor** · 08-27-2014

Originally Posted by battema

I recall joking at the time, given the other bands on the bill, that DEP's management meant to book the *other* Shining (from Sweden, perhaps?)...but got the hardcore jazzy one instead

Who somehow manage to come across as five times rawer and heavier than that Swedish "metal" Shining!