If I told you that Between the Buried and Me lifted its name from a lyric in a Counting Crows song and left it that, you'd probably get the wrong idea. The North Carolina-based progressive-metal quintet likely isn't the first thing you'd associate with the sensitive alt-rockers best known for hits like "Mr. Jones" and "Round Here."
The band even recorded its own version of Counting Crows' "Colorblind" for the album "The Anatomy Of." That album also includes covers of songs by Metallica, Smashing Pumpkins, Pantera, King Crimson and Pink Floyd, which maybe paints a more complete picture of Between the Buried and Me.
That still doesn't peg an altogether peg-aphobic band. In an email sent while the group was on tour in Europe, vocalist and keyboardist Tommy Rogers explained that the wide range of styles and influences keeps the band stimulated. "I just think the older we get, the more things we want to try. If we recreated the same record over and over, it would get boring for us and the listeners," he wrote, noting that it's something that comes naturally. "We never sat down and said that we need to do this and this on a record. We just start to write and those ideas flow out."
Still, the differences between the band's self-titled debut in 2002 and its most recent work are stark. While always noted for writing technically demanding music, the short, bruising blasts found on those first couple of albums don't share quite the same head space as the conceptual bent of albums like "Colors" or "The Great Misdirect," where song lengths regularly crest the 10-minute mark.
The band hinted at some of that evolution with a 2005 album called "Alaska."
"We had just got three new members in the band, and it was a very new starting point for us," Rogers wrote. "We had no idea what the future would hold, and I love that feeling personally. The term 'Alaska' I assume was written down because I think of it as a place that is new, inviting, beautiful, and for me a place I wanted to go."
Six years later, the band is making its first trip to Alaska.
"The main goal is to hopefully put on a good show for the crowds," Rogers said. "Other than that, I'm really looking forward to just sightseeing and looking around the city."
The title track will likely be the only "Alaska" song played in Alaska, and that might be because the scope of the band's sound has expanded quite a bit in those six years. It might also be because recent tours have found the band playing its latest release in its entirety.
Released earlier this year, "The Parallax: Hypersleep Dialogues" is considered an EP even though it carries a 30-minute running time. It's also the first of a planned two-album conceptual suite, with the second part being an as-yet untitled full-length.
The EP introduces two characters living on different planets and pondering their existences, though it's not immediately clear how it all relates or even what's really going on.
"We don't know specifics yet, but we plan on revisiting some musical themes for the next record," Rogers wrote. "As far as lyrics, we are going to finish the story (however the hell that's going to pan out) and start to really explain the lives and connections the two characters of the story share."
Musically, "The Parallax" is as expansive as anything the band has released, opening with an intro reminiscent of a '60s sci-fi movie score before plunging into full-throttled hard-core. Along the way the band shifts through odd meters, counterintuitive twists and spacey segues -- basically a meaner sounding Rush or Yes.
So while Between the Buried and Me is only now making its way to Alaska, the band's come a long way since "Alaska."
By Matt Sullivan
Anchorage Daily News