Metal Underground.com

Between the Buried and Me have earned a devout following, and for good reason. Some bands stand on their own merit and can rest on their laurels, simply because their talent is that much greater than most of their contemporaries. This is Between the Buried and Me, with their Pink Floyd-esque metalcore-meets-prog-metal and utter disregard for the standard track lengths and structures.

What the band has brought to the table on their latest album release, “Colors,” is another dose of extremely well-crafted musicianship that ranges from brutal metal riffage to the more sublime instrumentation breaks that they are so well known for. On the whole, it makes for a unique, and at times beautiful, listening experience. The drawback is, while this is the stuff that oft-inspires acclaim of all sorts, Between the Buried and Me’s complicated song-structure also disallows for much of the hand-pumping, sing-along choruses that permeate much of the metal world. It’s a worthy trade-off, though, since metal fans would do well to add such a unique and prominent album to their library.

A track-by-track synopsis is hardly relevant with a Between the Buried and Me album, due to the aforementioned lack of much real song-structure. Instead, it’s best to go into this album with the expectation that you’re in for one long, twisted road that throws so much at the listener, from pianos and light, clean vocals to the more standard metal licks and death growls. At its best, “Colors” is a glorious album that dares the critic to categorize and begs the listener to never hit the skip button. If one track were to summarize the entire album, it might be “Sun of Nothing,” which, at 10:49 in length, wraps Between the Buried and Me’s trademark chaotic riffs, death-vox, clean vocals, and light breakdowns all into one song. The eight tracks range in length from just over two minutes to fourteen minutes, and the album contains one instrumental track, “Viridian,” which is a light-guitar track with haunting melody.

“Colors” is the type of album that warrants a coveted spot in one’s metal library as a full-album listen. It’s not the CD that you’re going to grab for the traditional catchy-riffs and sing-along choruses, but it is the type of album you’ll want to grab when you’ve got some time to spend with some of the best musicianship in the business today.