You may belief Louder
Our skilled workforce has labored for among the largest manufacturers in music. From testing headphones to reviewing albums, our specialists goal to create evaluations you’ll be able to belief. Discover out extra about how we assessment.
“Fuck off, I’m full” was a measured response to Between The Buried And Me’s final album, Colours II. The 78-minute opus was a maximalist ode to music’s malleability, sardining loss of life steel, salsa, bluegrass, metalcore, Crash Bandicoot samples and extra inside a prog steel tin. As a thematic sequel to their 2007 breakthrough, Colours, it labored. As a standalone, it excelled.
Positive, it was loads, however every unhinged factor pushed, pulled, complemented the subsequent. Sarcastically described by vocalist Tommy Rogers as ‘“heavy yacht rock”, it helped BTBAM squeeze considered one of their famed ideas by once they thought they had been out of steam.
4 years later, yacht rock’s nebulous traits are not a throwaway joke. They circle the perimeters of The Blue Nowhere’s title monitor and trample onto Issues We Inform Ourselves In The Darkish’s King Crimson-cum-Sure deck, spotlighting Dan Briggs’ showy bass solo. Thus far, so tech-metal-jazz-fusion-space-age-DevinTownsend-whatever.
It’s batshit, bugshit, bullshit. For those who actually dislike the band, it’s utter dogshit. However in the event you’re a paid-up BTBAMphile? Welcome again to the circus – solely this time, it’s much less The Best Showman, extra a carpark funfair outdoors Skegness.
Door #3’s carnival-esque groove, replete with Tommy’s raggedy scatting, feels like Korn going psychological on the dodgems. God Terror, saturated with industrial percussion and compressed riffing, sails for NIN and docks someplace in Pitchshifter’s port.
That’s to not say BTBAM have been utterly blown off track. It’s simply {that a} sizeable chunk of the leftfield pivots really feel wacky and cloying. The random falsetto bark harboured in Door #3 is actively annoying, as is Psychomanteum’s jaunty pierside piano. Most tech-death blasts really feel like ironic jump-scares, skits, fairly than an elite band’s cargo.
Once they hit, although, they’re extra juiced-up than a pint of undiluted Ribena. Absent Thereafter’s heavy steel hoedown exhibits unbelievable craft, funky bass and barn-burning guitar breathlessly Frankensteining 11 minutes collectively.
Waves of orchestration are a welcome shock throughout the album, too. The title monitor’s Devin-ish arpeggios swell into The Blue Nowhere’s cash shot, Tommy crooning the ‘Looking out, misplaced in synthetic’ refrain like Ville Valo chartering a ferry stuffed with sadboys to the Maldives.
Now not anchored to a strict idea, BTBAM had the possibility to create islands, every tune a vacation spot in its personal proper. As an alternative, they really feel bitty, fragmented. The album sways between proggy, off-kilter grandeur and ragtime jestery, not fairly teasing both aspect exhausting sufficient. If you would like the previous, Devin Townsend is accessible for events, funerals and cruises; the latter’s lined by bands like Diablo Swing Orchestra. Nothing right here moors itself near Revolution In Limbo’s euphoric climes or the bends-inducing thrill of Prehistory, each current on Colours II.
That The Blue Nowhere comes from 4 blokes’ brains is objectively spectacular. However for 71 minutes jammed with concepts, there are scant hooks on show. If it’s taken BTBAM this lengthy to look even vaguely rudderless, it’s not less than testomony to their near-perfect catalogue. They’re human, fallible, however by no means boring.
The Blue Nowhere is out September 12 through InsideOut. Between The Buried And Me tour North America from September 14 and the UK/Europe from February 19 2026. For the complete checklist of dates, go to their official web site.
