Between the Buried and Me

Between the Buried and Me is an American progressive metal band from Raleigh, North Carolina. Formed in 2000, the band consists of Tommy Giles Rogers, Jr. (lead vocals, keyboards), Paul Waggoner (guitars, backing vocals), Dustie Waring (guitars), Dan Briggs (bass, keyboards), and Blake Richardson (drums).

Their debut eponymous album was released through Lifeforce Records in 2002, shifting to Victory Records for subsequent releases until 2011. Signing to Metal Blade in 2011, Between the Buried and Me released their first extended play, The Parallax: Hypersleep Dialogues in 2011 and its full-length follow-up The Parallax II: Future Sequence the following year. Their eighth studio album, Coma Ecliptic, was released in 2015.

History

Formation and eponymous album (2000–2002)

The band was formed in 2000 in Raleigh, North Carolina after the demise of the metalcore band Prayer for Cleansing, of which Rogers and Waggoner were members. Nick Fletcher, Jason King, and Will Goodyear subsequently joined on guitar, bass, and drums respectively. The name "Between the Buried and Me" was chosen after a section of lyrics in the Counting Crows song, "Ghost Train":

"Took the cannonball down to the ocean/Across the desert from the sea to shining sea/I rode a ladder that climbed across the nation/Fifty million feet of earth between the buried and me."^[1]

Between the Buried and Me's first release was a three-song demo, containing the tracks "Use of a Weapon", "What We Have Become", and "More of Myself to Kill". These three tracks were re-recorded for the band's self-titled debut album, released through Lifeforce Records in 2002. The song "Aspirations" became the band's first music video. The album was not initially successful but did manage to catch the attention of Victory Records, to which they later signed. Victory reissued the album in 2004 as an enhanced CD.

The Silent Circus, Alaska, and The Anatomy Of (2003–2006)

In August 2003, Between the Buried and Me traveled to Q Division Studios in Somerville, Massachusetts to record their second record, The Silent Circus, released in October the same year. It was later re-released in 2006 with a live DVD of the band's performance at The Cat's Cradle in Chapel Hill, North Carolina on July 17, 2005. Mark Castillo played drums on The Silent Circus, replacing Goodyear.

After the release of The Silent Circus, the band went through numerous members before the current lineup was assembled for their third album, Alaska. On drums, Mark Castillo was replaced by Jason Roe, and later by Blake Richardson. On guitar, Fletcher was replaced by Shane Blay, and later by Dustie Waring. And on bass, King was replaced by Kevin Falk, and later by Dan Briggs. This remains the current lineup.

In the summer of 2005, Between the Buried and Me released Alaska. The album released the songs "Selkies: The Endless Obsession", "The Primer", and "Backwards Marathon" as singles. In the following year, the band released their fourth album, The Anatomy Of, a collection of covers of bands that influenced Between the Buried and Me, including Metallica, King Crimson, Pantera, Queen, Pink Floyd, Earth Crisis, Counting Crows, and Soundgarden.

Colors and The Great Misdirect (2007–2009)

In September 2007, Between the Buried and Me released their fifth studio album, Colors. Band members called it "a 65 minute opus of non stop pummeling beautiful music... we have described this release as 'new wave polka grunge'."^[2] The band also described the album as "adult contemporary progressive death metal".^[3]

On May 31, 2009, the group went into the studio to record their sixth album, The Great Misdirect. They released the single "Obfuscation" on September 29 and the album on October 27.

The Parallax albums and Coma Ecliptic (2010–present)

In early fall 2010, the group confirmed that they were recording an EP, which was cited as being a possible precursor for their next full-length album.^[4] In October 2010, they released a video on their YouTube account with the band in the studio.^[5] In February 2011, Between the Buried and Me stated their move from Victory to Metal Blade Records,^[6] and quickly released an EP entitled The Parallax: Hypersleep Dialogues on April 12, 2011.^[7] In May, Victory Records announced the release of a greatest hits album as a three-disc set.^[8] On January 16, 2012, Between the Buried and Me revealed that work on the full-length second part to The Parallax had begun and was later released as The Parallax II: Future Sequence on October 9, 2012.^[9]

On March 17, 2015 they announced that Coma Ecliptic will be released through Metal Blade Records on July 7, 2015, and released a song titled "Memory Palace". It was later released July 10, 2015.

Touring

In early 2006, Between the Buried and Me was on tour supporting Bleeding Through along with Every Time I Die and Haste the Day. They were also on the Ozzfest 2006 Second Stage.^[10] In late 2006, they were on the Radio Rebellion Tour headlined by Norma Jean.^[11]

In September 2007, after the release of Colors, the band went on tour with Animosity and Horse the Band. Giant (now known as BraveYoung) also supported their shows in the USA. The run concluded with their November 4 appearance at the Saints and Sinners Fest in Asbury Park, New Jersey. In December 2007, they again embarked on a headlining tour, supported by August Burns Red and Behold... The Arctopus. The band were also the main support on The Dillinger Escape Plan's 2008 UK tour. Between the Buried and Me were one of the acts that took part at "Progressive Nation '08", the first in what became an annual progressive music festival, also featuring Dream Theater, Opeth, and 3.

Starting in summer 2008 and continuing in the fall, they performed as a supporting act for Children of Bodom's US headlining tour, alongside The Black Dahlia Murder. In early December 2008, they went on a short 4-show tour around the Carolinas and Georgia (US) with other Carolina-based bands, such as He Is Legend, Advent, and Nightbear. Between the Buried and Me finished a month-long tour of Australia on January 9 with headliners Bleeding Through, As Blood Runs Black, In Trenches and The Abandonment. In September 2009, Between the Buried and Me performed a Canadian Tour with Killswitch Engage and In Flames co-headlining, along with the support of Protest the Hero.^[12]

In early 2010, Between the Buried and Me toured across North America with Cynic, Devin Townsend, and Scale the Summit.^[13] Afterwards, they traveled to Europe supporting Lamb of God, along with Job for a Cowboy and August Burns Red.

In February 2010, Between the Buried and Me supported Mastodon along with Baroness on their US headlining tour. During the summer of 2010, they were on the Cool Tour with As I Lay Dying, Underoath, War of Ages, The Acacia Strain, Architects, Cancer Bats and Blessthefall.^[14]

In February 2011, Between the Buried and Me were confirmed to play at the New England Metal & Hardcore Festival on Saturday, April 16 in Worcester, MA. They will be main support for Hatebreed. In April and May 2011 they will headline a tour featuring Job for a Cowboy, The Ocean and on select dates Cephalic Carnage.

Between the Buried and Me also announced a headline European tour beginning in Paris, France on 2 September 2011 and continuing throughout the mainland and into the UK, ending up in Moscow, Russia on September 30. The tour was supported by Animals as Leaders.

In July 2011, Between the Buried and Me announced their headlining North American tour, "Saints&Sinners Tour" playing throughout November and December with Animals as Leaders and Tesseract. The band created a few medleys just for this tour, and performed songs that they hadn't played in years.

They co-headlined the 2012 Summer Slaughter under Cannibal Corpse with numerous other metal bands such as Exhumed, Job for a Cowboy, The Faceless and Veil of Maya, followed by a co-headlining tour through Europe and UK with Periphery and The Safety Fire.

They also to toured Japan and Australia with Animals as Leaders in November 2012.^[15]

Starting in February 2013, they toured with Coheed and Cambria.

In fall 2013 they embarked on The Future Sequence Tour, where they played The Parallax II: Future Sequence all the way through. Support was provided by The Faceless, The Contortionist, and The Safety Fire.

On February 14, 2014, It was announced Between the Buried and Me would record, and release a live album for The Parallax II: Future Sequence, playing it in its entirety with additional instruments, including a saxophone, percussionists, flute and a string quartet. The release, titled Future Sequence: Live at the Fidelitorium, was released September 30, 2014.

Musical style and influence

Between the Buried and Me's general musical style has been stated by critics to be primarily a blend of progressive metal,^{[16][17][18][19][20]} technical death metal,^{[16][18][21][22]} avant-garde metal,^[23][24] and metalcore,^[25][26][27] along with various musical styles: "One minute the band may be playing thrash metal and the next they're flowing into death metal growls and thick guitar riffs... the metal take on things can seemingly change in a flash as lead singer Tommy Rogers fleshes out his vocals and utilizes the keyboards to create something that sounds more like it should be on a Smashing Pumpkins album".^[27]

On the band's cover album, The Anatomy Of, the band pays tribute to many of their diverse influences, including Metallica, Mötley Crüe, Queen, King Crimson, Soundgarden, Faith No More, Pantera, Pink Floyd, Depeche Mode, Earth Crisis, and The Smashing Pumpkins.^[28]

Band members

Timeline

Discography

• Between the Buried and Me (2002)
• The Silent Circus (2003)
• Alaska (2005)
• The Anatomy Of (2006)
• Colors (2007)
• The Great Misdirect (2009)
• The Parallax: Hypersleep Dialogues (2011, EP)
• The Parallax II: Future Sequence (2012)
• Coma Ecliptic (2015)

Other projects

• Tommy Giles Rogers has an electronica side project named Giles. A music video for the song "Slumber Party" is featured on the DVD that is included on the re-release for Between the Buried and Me's second album The Silent Circus. Rogers also released a solo album on February 1, 2011, entitled Pulse. The album is credited under the name Thomas Giles. Also, under the name Thomas Giles, he released "Modern Noise" in November 2014.
• Dustie Waring and Blake Richardson are members of the deathcore band Glass Casket.
• Rogers and Jacob Troth run a clothing line named Jacob Rogers.
• Dan Briggs and members of Fear Before and Abigail Williams are members of an experimental supergroup named Orbs.
• Shane Blay is now in the bands Oh, Sleeper and Wovenwar and formerly of Evelynn.
• Dan Briggs, along with Walter Fancourt (Casual Curious, Brand New Life) and Matt Lynch (Eyris) are members of a progressive rock/jazz fusion band named Trioscapes who are also signed under Metal Blade Records.
• Jason Roe is now in Society's Finest and formerly in Everlynn.

References

External links

• Official website