“BETWEEN THE BURIED AND ME ARE THE LEBRON JAMES OF METAL”
Tuesday, October 27th, 2009 at 4:00pm by Vince Neilstein
Our inboxes are aflutter with fans celebrating today’s release of The Great Misdirect. Mostly they range in tone anywhere from “jizz” to “splooge” but never anything less. Here’s a sample, sent in by MS reader Patrick Dorsey:
Hello, Axl and Vince. Longtime reader. First-time e-mailer. After hearing The Great Misdirect, I wanted to shout it from on top of a mountain. But I don’t have a mountain. I have you guys at MetalSucks. So here goes: Between the Buried and Me is the LeBron James of music right now. This is not hyperbole. That is all.
Can’t say I disagree with Partick’s assertion, but for me the verdict on this record is still up in the air. I’m currently just getting started on spin number 3. I mean it’s brilliant, there’s no doubt about that… but a record this dense takes MANY, many listens to fully internalize and it’s going to be a while before I decide how this one stacks up against the band’s prior work and if/how it marks a progression in their evolution.
Until then, smoke ‘em if ya got ‘em… this one’s a doozy for sure.
-VN
Usually smoking makes it possible for me to pull apart a record in one listen at the force of three listens. Haha.
Between the Boring and ZZZZZZZZZ
YES SIR I AGREE FUCK ME SUM BETWEEN THE GAY AND ME!!!! THEY ARE BORING AS FUCK!!!!
I never thought I would agree with this statement until I heard the new album.
BTBAM blows unimaginable amounts of cick.
I can’t believe people are supporting me, I thought this site was filled with BTBAM lovers
My day just got better
you are all dumb
Don’t see how I’m dumb, give me Atheist or Cynic any day over this disorganized snoozefest
Athiest…meh…got bored of them almost ten years ago.
atheist fucking blows. same shit over and over and over again. cynic is where it’s at though. btbam own both of them though.
I highly disagree with that comment. Plus I can’t stand LeBron James
BTBAM does not equal Lebron. maybe Ben Wallace, they are good at what they do but it is mostly worthless.
if any band = Lebron it’s Mastodon.
Mastodon is so elemental….they would have to be the basketball itself.
I just got home from picking up my copy, and am almost done with my first listen (5:00 left in Swim to the Moon).
I must say I’m thoroughly confused. But in the good way. The way I was when I first listened to Colors, or the first time I was introduced to Opeth.
This thing sure is going to grow on me and I doubt I’ll be listening to much else the next few weeks.
Swim to the Moon is sick.
I really don’t understand why this band receives so much hype and adoration. Ok, yeah, they’re technical as hell and generally write super long, complex, drawn out songs. To me, it all sounds very empty of emotion, as if the band attempts to be as technical as they can possibly be for technicality’s sake. With a band like Opeth, I can hear and feel the emotion behind the music; not so much with BTBAM.
Don’t get me wrong, I can appreciate this band for what they do, their musicianship, and their skill, I just don’t think they are quite deserving of all the immense respect they get. Eh, to each his own.
To add to my previous comment, I posted similar thoughts regarding Baroness and the hype their new album has been receiving; later, I went back and gave it another few listens and began to understand the direction and meaning behind their songs. That said, I have listened to “Colors” a number of times and I can see the appeal, it just isn’t something I find myself coming back to.
I’ll give the new one a chance and see how I feel. From what I’ve heard so far, though, it’s pretty much the same type of sound as their last one so I don’t forsee it changing my opinion of them much.
Re: Baroness
There have been plenty of occasions when I didn’t give a band a fair shake initially only to discover later that I had indeed been missing something. Sometime it’s actually nice to be proven wrong.
The meaning behind their songs is sometihing like: “Let’s write this superlong song with so much technic on it that nobody is gonna understand what the fuck is going on…oh, and it’s gonna be so long that by listening to the last ten minutes of the song you’ re not going to know if you’re still listening to the same song or the same band or the same genre or maybe if the music player has evily mixed some of the songs… and the song is not gonna be progressive: it’s gonna be pro-progressive metalcore so that we can declare to be a superserious ultratechnical band and still have a huge impact on the scenecore.
That’s pretty much it.
I prefer Glass Casket to BTBAM…..
Glass Casket FTW! :-)
Yeah Glass Casket is pretty hard man.
I went to high school with glass casket. sick band. I posted “we are gathered here today” as my favorite btbam album in the contest.
Thank you for mentioning this band. I YouTube’d them and I am thoroughly impressed, moreso than the first time I heard BTBAM.
BTW, The Great Misdirect is pretty much a pile of shit, except for “Mirrors.”
Members of BTBAM are part of Glass Casket as well as Prays for Cleansing………
Glass Casket is having a reunion show Halloween with BTBAM, it’s going to be insane.
other than the fact that BTBAM aren’t overhyped douchebags…..maybe they’re the Jordan of metal
overhyped?
I don’t want to get into a basketball nerd-fest, but James is the best player this planet will see for the next 50 years or so.
So, comparing anything to him means that the thing in question is head and shoulders above the competition.
And yeah, I love BTBAM..this new album sounds amazing..they are one of the best metal bands out there. Maybe not the “Lebron James of metal” (or the “Lebron James of music” as the original commenter hyperbolized), but definitely a metal all-star; maybe the Dwight Howard of metal. I will say that as far as prog-influenced metal is concerned, BTBAM and Opeth are the Kobe and Lebron of that game at the moment.
As to anyone claiming BTBAM as “boring,” I am thoroughly confused by such comments. BTBAM are a lot of things, but even if you hate them, they aren’t boring. MAYBE “pretentiious” or “self-indulgent” (although I agree with neither), but boring? I don’t think so. If they are boring, what is interesting and original? IWrestledabearonce? I have only listened to the first few tracks off this new album, but I know that “boring” will not come to mind as I listen to any part of this album.
Paul would be proud, seeing he is also a basketball star
I’d say this album is somewhere between amazing and incredible.
I’m on about listen #5 and the heavy is pretty much what you would expect, but the proggy stuff is just way fucking out there. It’s pretty fucking cool.
The album is good. But the metal to not-metal ratio is like 25/75 respectively. Maybe I should reprase that. 25% shred, and 75% not metal in the least. I’m sure some tool will point out that an arpeggio that is commonly used in metal is on one of the non-distortion parts, blah blah blah….
You know who else writes really complex and technical songs? Radiohead, but they sure as hell are not metal; either is this album.
This has been your motherfucking reality check.
Thank you.
I have friends that love Radiohead and can’t stand this because they don’t like metal. Obviously it’s
pretty metal to them.
Your friends are idiots, and I don’t think the apple falls far from the tree…
I think that expression is meant to refer to a son or daughter but you’re soooo
clever I guess you allready knew that.
This isn’t the 1980’s. There are more sub-genres of metal then there are
lesions on your brain( and that is a LOT). This is America and you are entitled to live in your
own little world where BTBAM is not metal but hey you are all alone there
because I doubt most people would disagree that it is tech-death-prog
metal.
So what’s next? You want to argue about whether the sky is blue? If so,
what color is the sky in YOUR world?
No you are a fool because I used empircal data and statistics to
ascertain the truth about this band. You see I’m a tool and it is not
enough for me to say that I don’t like this band because it is not
g@y enough for my tastes. I need to attack the validity of the band’s
genre instead using percentages pulled directly from my
hemroid-filled butt. I am going to ignore the obvious irony that lies in the
fact that BTBAM has a LOT more in common with metal
then Radiohead but will still compare them on the basis of being
“complex and technical” when the truth is that Radiohead is
not only not technical by pretty much ANY standard but often
times very thematically simple as well. Wow I’m a dumbfuck.
Well anyways BTBAM fans I am sorry. I tried to come off as if
I knew better then everyone else by insinuating you did not even
know what genre you were listening to but instead just made myself
look like a complete tard. I’m going back to listening to my
Ricky Martin/Creed remix which is clearly metal. Fuck BTBAM.
Ive listened to this record non-stop since i got it. To me, its their best by a long shot. Its similar to Colors, but it adds many new things and stands out easily in their catalog while being recognizable as BTBAM. The musicianship is somehow, still improving on all fronts. The album has such a vast range: some parts can be as crushing as any riff off of Alaska, other parts are akin to those “Wtf” moments from Colors (saloon fight part, frenchy part, etc). There are more keyboards, more acoustic moments, and a greater emphasis on dynamics and tone.
How anyone can claim there is no emotion in their songs does not make any fucking sense at all..The very first song has more emotion in the first minute than Necrophagist’s career. Is it really fair to compare anyone’s amount of emotion to Opeth’s though? Emotion is their thing.
Im sounding like ive been paid to write this and i dont care, its that good. This album is already invalidating other music in my iTunes on the simple principle of “well now that i have this, why the fuck would i listen to that ever again?.”
“The very first song has more emotion in the first minute than Necrophagist’s career.”
Well, that’s not saying much, as I would say Necrophagist and BTBAM fall into the same category of “being technical for the sake of being technical.” Both bands lack a genuine emotional value when I hear them. As for the comparison to Opeth, why wouldn’t it be fair? Both bands are deemed progressive metal, albeit with different overtones – i.e. Opeth being grounded in the Swedish Death Metal subgenre and BTBAM having their roots in hardcore/metalcore. I simply feel Opeth does progressive the right way and bands like Necrophagist and BTBAM show off their technical prowess without exhibiting any true emotion.
MS just because the music triggers no emotion in you does not mean it has that affect
on everyone.
Exactly
I never said it did. I was merely stating my opinion, hence qualifying anything I said with “my opinion”, “I feel…”, etc.
Wow. An opinion is an opinion and i respect that but i really dont understand how “BTBAM show off their technical prowess without exhibiting any true emotion.”
Different strokes i suppose.
Opinions are never true unless they are mine. This is why I allways end
every fact with “in my opinion.”
BTBAM is NOT metal in my opinion. I have more hemeroids then Bruno in my
opinion. See how that works?
For those who haven’t seen and are excited about the tour with Devin Townsend, Cynic, etc., here are some tour dates thus far:
January 09th Atlanta, GA – The Masquerade
January 11th Houston, TX – The Meridian
January 16th San Diego, CA – House Of Blues
January 17th Hollywood, CA – Sunset Strip
January 20th Denver, CO – Cervantes
January 22nd Louisville, KY – Headliners
January 24th Chicago, IL – House Of Blues
January 25th Cleveland, OH – Peabody’s Downunder
January 28th Boston, MA – House Of Blues
January 29th Clifton Park, NY – Northern Lights
January 31st Philadelphia, PA – Trocadero
February 01st Baltimore, MD – Sonar
February 06th Charlotte, NC – The Fillmore
Haha, more like the Brian Scalabrine of metal.
yes…underrated, important, and integral :)
Who cares about emotion? What’s so bad about listening to music because you like it?
I think I might be listening to records wrong or something. Whenever I put on a BTBAM record, I’m generally blown away by technical ability and all the what the fuck moments on the first listen. Then I get all stoked to show my friends all these sick riffs, and when I listen to it again, it doesn’t have the same effect. Maybe I’m just easily impressed and have no attention span. I haven’t heard this one yet, but I suspect it will be more of the same for me.
Thats how I feel. I bought Colors and loved it, for a good month or two. Now I can’t stand it. I hate his voice. The lyrics at times are too funny. I understand their popularity, etc. But I just can’t listen to this band. I gave “The Great Misdirect” one spin, and found it to be around the same as Colors, except that it is WAY soft. Way too many soft, proggy parts.
If BTBAM are the LeBron of metal, Cannibal Corpse is definitely Shaq.
BTBAM freaking rapes, and I can’t wait to buy this record. If you haven’t seen them live, then you’re missing out. They play every song note for note.
BTBAM is NOT metal. I expertly argued this point earlier.
Right. That being your opinion (which doesn’t make it an actual fact. I don’t give a fuck how much of an expert you THINK you are.)
I’m currently on my second spin, and I’m impressed. I think his has the potential to be their most adventurous effort yet. I didn’t think they could touch on any more musical forays after Colors, but they have. I’m not sure if I like it more than Colors, but Colors took a long time to become one of my favorite albums.
trying hard to like it. just gimme some more time. you know i’m good for it.
I liked Colors a lot. For those who said it was devoid of emotion I point them to the Sun of Nothing or Ants
of the Sky. Besides that these dudes are self-concious and as such don’t take themselves too seriously despite being some of the most talented guys out there so that does not lend itself to emotion all the time. A lot of Colors was tongue in cheek but simaltaneously awesome kind of like Metalocalypse.
I sit on the fence with their older stuff because at least in Colors they maintained a cohesive sense of
uniqueness despite a storm of eclectic sounds. Seems the older ones are not quite as good.
I agree with Axl about how dense and textured the new one is and it merits a few listens for sure. So far though I like it.
These guys are who they are and do their own thing in a pretty talented fashion. If you want some emotion I heard Creed’s new album came out the same day so get that instead.
Win.
I don’t get it at all. I’ve listened to Colors a few times over and their music’s alright, but none of it really stuck with me, and I felt as though I had to force myself to listen to it. I also saw them twice last year on the prog nation tour and thought they put on an awful live show. Can someone please explain to my this band is getting the praise that it does?
I had BTBAM fanatic friends a while back and they allways tried to get me into The Silent Circus and
Alaska. I could never get what my friends liked so much. They gave me the cds and they never got listened to.It was because of the Metalsucks review that I even bothered giving Colors a chance. I was
drafting a map at work and listened to the entire album. It really caught with me. I have the Great
Misdirect playing right now and it is as good as Vinnie says
Wait, seriously? Their show was the best I’ve ever seen. =\
they should really come to new york more
+1
+518
Hey I used to live in the 518!
And I just saw on theprp that BTBAM is gonna be in Clifton Park. Yeah buddy!
they’re playing irving plaza in the city on january 30th with cynic and devin townshend project. that show is gonna be badass
Nice I think I might make a drive upstate. I’m going to Albany this
weekend to visit some friends. It’s really chill in that area. Someday
I might even move back.
Chris: That sounds even better since Clifton Park is about 160 miles
away and the city is about 10.
Whoops I was still posting with my “Make fun of builtforsin” moniker.
That’s OK. I really do take it in the rear in real life. I am not offended.
Swim to the Moon alone is better than Colors as far as I’m concerned.
They finally did what I’ve been waiting some time for with this album, and that’s let it flow more naturally.
Aside from Selkies, All Bodies, Alaska, Informal Gluttony, and White Walls, I haven’t really liked any of their material since The Silent Circus, so I was pleasantly surprised by this album.
Quite phenomenal I must say.
I think I would like this band more if they changed their name. That being said, I don’t like this band AT ALL.
I like it better than Colors so far. It feels like the heavy parts and the lighter parts bleed in together smoother.
Did you just call this band a bunch of N-words???
I’ve got all their discs and I love em. I listened to The Great Misdirect in my car today 2x, and I still have a lot more listening to do before I label it as awesome of just good. I must admit I am not a fan of a 17 minute track. I can handle the 8-9 minutes. They could have easily separated some of the songs into 3 different ones, but I guess if that’s what they wanted then fuck it. Still a HUGE fan of Silent Circus, Alaska and Self Titled. I also picked up Clutch’s Strange Cousins From the West today. Pretty solid. Crazy CD booklet.
I grabbed the last copy of “The Great Misdirect” at Best Buy today, so my apologies to whoever missed out as a result. Haven’t listened to it yet. I’m sure I will post my thoughts about it at a later time.
Also picked up Tekken 6. Bring it, bitches!
I didn’t know Tekken was out yet. Doesn’t matter though. Demon’s Souls and Uncharted 2 have my
gaming dollar for the next few months and my attention to for that matter. Shit as much of a blockbuster
as Uncharted 2 is I’ve been really really hooked on Demon’s Souls. This Japanese take on the
Western RPG is phenomonal. RPGOTY.
Do either of you play Uncharted 2 online? If so, add me to your FL: ‘LordBling’
I do L1qu1dSword. I was on for a little bit last night but like I said I play
Demon’s Souls more then anything right now. I plan on playing Uncharted 2
a lot but for now I’m addicted to the other game.
Yeah, Uncharted 2 is badass. Picked that up as well.
Listened to the Great Misdirect yesterday. Initial impression: Holy shit! The album sounds HUGE in 5.1.
After listening to The Great Misdirect 24 times straight through (yes, all 59.5 minutes 24 times), I can accurately say that is one of the best albums I have ever heard. I can understand where a lot of you are coming from in the whole technique/emotion debate. Colors was fabulous musically, but I always felt it was a little lacking in emotion; however Sun of Nothing and Ants of the Sky strike a chord with me, in that regard. I must say that TGM is the best of both worlds…the instruments are uncompromising , but beautiful at the same time. I love the diversity, I can’t stand listening to one type of music for 30+ minutes, and these guys have always satisfied my craving for variability.
In terms of emotion, every song on The Great Misdirect has several areas that actually give me chills- I feel a deep connection with the music and vocals. For those that say they don’t have any emotion, listen to: “More of Myself to Kill”, “Aspirations”, and “Shevanel Cut a Flip” (Self-Titled); “Mordecai” and it’s flow into “Reaction”, and “Ad A Dglgmut” (The Silent Circus); “Backwards Marathon” and “Medicine Wheel” (Alaska); and “Sun of Nothing” and “Ants of the Sky” (Colors). And like I said before, all of TGM has an emotional affect on me.
So, did you stay up for 24 straight hours, or did you break it down into 12 hour sessions?
I’ve been listening to this album 3-4 times a day for the last 6 days. I think at this point I’m qualified to issue my opinion about The Great Misdirect. In my humble opinion, BTBAM peaked as a metal band with alaska. Colors was the opus that put them on the map as next level musicians in my book, but half them featuring their wanking abilities. TGM has probably the most tasteful bass solo I’ve ever heard in my life, and some of the nastiest guitar playing around. However, it’s not as good as colors, it’s not as good as alaska, and as far as I’m concerned, it’s just an album they put out through the course of their career. You wanna talk about career defining albums, lets talk about Fed Through The Teeth Machine.
I was waiting for the album really bad. And since the moment I got it, I can’t recall how many spins there were. It’s a great album, the musicianship and the overall direction of ideas is great. BUT…. it didn’t out-do Colors to my regret. Seems that the guys have put the mark so high with their 2007 album that they can’t jump over it themselves. The good news is that probably no band will be able to pull off something like that in years. Colors simply owned all prog-records of the last decade and will surely be in history, just like Dream Theater’s “Scenes from a Memory”…. But if we take the comparison with DT a bit further, you can clearly see that BTBAM are unfortunately following their steps in terms of development. Not in any way do I want to say that these guys have sold out or lost their talent! On the contrary! But they just peaked with Colors and this record, the Great Misdirect, is shadowed a bit by the epic and grand feel of the 2007 record. Maybe it’s just me, maybe I didn’t get the mood of Misdirect. But I doesn’t make me want to listen to it over and over 5-6 times a day just like I do with colors even now. The guys at BTBAM clearly deserve a big fat spot on the contemporary metal map, prog metal especially. But just like their prototypes, Dream Theater, they risk preserving this spot by putting out OK-ish material for their level another decade, not being able to out-do what they gave us with their first records. Hope I’m completely wrong here! :)
I’ve only heard the single and I love it! I think this band is great and I’m glad to see where they have gone from where they started….I got their self titled album (which is great) but not proggy at all…I love Dream Theater, so these guys are right up my alley!!!!!!!!
I like these guys. However, when I’m in a ‘prog/thrash’ mood, I reach for Opeth or Cynic.
The Great Misdirect is the Dark Side of The Moon of this decade. its fucking brilliant. Colors was the album that finally got me to pay more attention to BTBAM and get into what they were doing, but The Great Misdirect is just so much better on all fronts in my opinion.
I dunno if you mean it’s the Dark Side of the Moon in terms of being great sure but in terms
of actual similarity to Floyd that would have to go to Crack the Skye.
this band rules and so does the new album, their upcoming tour with Cynic and Devin Townsend will be killer
To really get it you must close one eye and step to the side.
You guys must be trippin’
I’d have to listen to their new album to fully judge, but live they were less than impressive.
They seemed to know how to play(+) and were very energetic (+), but their songs went all over the place and were generally a mess. Just when a guitar or keys part had me interested, it changed to something completely discordant.
FAIL.
I feel a desire to throw in my two cents. Why do bands have to release something better than their last record? It’s not a good as Alaska, Silent Circus, Colors, Self Title, blah blah blah. Every record is different, I personally believe all 5 records are not comparable. I would love to know of another band, that puts out as many quality releases as this band has. I mean, there really is no filler, no thrown in ideas, it feels like a jam session with out getting too weird or out there. That is the Great Misdirect, you think we are going this way, and we go that way, you dig this, you dig that, it’s music , its supposed to be all over the place.