Between the Buried and Me - Alaska

Between the Buried and Me
Alaska
Victory Records
Grade: A-

If you thought that 2003’s The Silent Circus was as good as it was going to get from the North Carolina-based Between the Buried and Me, you have just had your hat handed to you by the stunning follow-up Alaska. With some lineup changes and side projects done and buried, BTBAM went back to their NC headquarters with producer Jamie King (and later Matthew Ellard) to unleash their latest vision for the masters. While there is likely some story behind why the record is called Alaska – likely either deep with meaning relatively to the eleven tracks or totally unrelated, something that an interviewer will ask immediately – the opening “All Bodies” is set to rip your ass out. If every song on Alaska traveled the same path as this opus, this would be the best heavy record of the year regardless of future, unknown recordings. “All Bodies” begins as just attacking metal of ordinary ilk and as the band begins the multi-segmented starts-and-finishes something strange begins to occur. That strangeness comes in the form of this creep to an eclipsing melodic section that is just amazing and can only be referenced to early Cave In sequencing. “All Bodies” proceeds into a keyboards and screaming section and without doubt you declare that you love BTBAM. Unfortunately, the following “Alaska” and “Croakies and Boatholes” doesn’t offer the same assault on the senses – but they aren’t half-bad as hardcore/metal songs. Leave it to the next long track “Selkies: The Endless Obsession” for the brilliant riffing and unconscious section movement to draw you back to admiration. You may want to push to the side the borderline lame singing half-way through “Selkies: The Endless Obsession,” but the song ends with another dazzling display of guitars. After the segway “Breathe In, Breathe Out,” BTBAM drill more grindcore into your brain on the apropos-named “Roboturner.” “Backwards Marathon” again comes close to being lame as they introduce soft vocals that almost show space rhythms, but just almost. “Medicine Wheel” is some nice instrumental filler, before the riffing attack comes back on the gorgeous “The Primer.” Although “The Primer” may fall to too much grind, the incorporation of rock riffs towards the end will win your pleasure. I’m going to go ahead and say the last track is “Autodidact” as the real last track is the terrible “Laser Speed” – that is most likely included just to get such a response. “Autodidact” itself can bring to mind Dillinger and sits well with the rest of Alaska. Again, for those lapping up the utterances of The Silent Circus you are going to experience uncontrolled urination over Alaska.