BTBAM Stands Out Again With Its Latest LP, ‘The Blue Nowhere’

By: Philip Sayblack

Every end has a new beginning.  For Between The Buried and Me, the end of the North American leg of its “Blue Nowhere Tour” means time to rest here at the end of the current year while also looking forward to the tour’s European leg this winter.  The next leg of the tour, which is in support of the band’s latest album, The Blue Nowhere, is scheduled to launch Feb. 19 in London, UK.  The forthcoming tour is scheduled to run through March 18 in Prague, Czech Republic.  It includes stops in cities, such as Milan, Italy; Helsinki, Finland and Paris, France.  In other words lots of audiences across Europe and the United Kingdom will get to hear music from the band’s new album this winter.  For everyone else, the album is available now through InsideOut Music.  Released Sept. 12, the 10-song, 71-minute record is one of the most notable of this year’s new hard rock and metal albums as well as overall albums.  That is evidenced in large part through its truly unique musical body, which will be examined shortly.  The lyrical content that accompanies that aspect plays its own part in the record’s bigger picture and is certainly worth its own attention.  The same can be said of the record’s production, considering how much is going on in each composition.  This will also be discussed later.  Each item noted is an important part of the whole in its own right.  All things considered they make The Blue Nowhere in whole, one of the most unique of this year’s new hard rock and metal offerings, as well as new overall albums.
The Blue Nowhere, the latest album from Between The Buried and Me, is one of the most unique new additions to this year’s field of new hard rock and metal albums and to the year’s field of new overall albums.  The term unique is meant here in the most complimentary fashion.  That is because musically speaking there is little to nothing else out there like The Blue Nowhere from any other band out there today.  From the beginning to the end of the hour-plus record, the band blends so many influences, once again for a presentation that is its own work.  Throughout the course of the record, audiences can hear influences of Dream Theater and Devin Townsend alongside The Browning, Opeth, and even John 5, believe it or not.  The whole of that conglomeration makes for a musical presentation that, simply put, must be heard in order to be fully appreciated.  To that end, it forms a solid foundation for the album.  This is nothing new for BTBAM
Building on the foundation established by the musical content is the album’s lyrical content.  The lyrical content presented throughout the album leaves for plenty of room for interpretation.  From one song to the next, the lyrics are written in what feels like purely metaphorical language.  Front man Tommy Rogers is even cited as stating in an interview that the album’s lyrics are “journal entries, fleeting and introspective thoughts – chaotic at times depending on the music.”  That is definitely the case.  At one point, for instance, Rogers writes in ‘Psychomanteum,’ “Time is the chemical/The addiction/Green somewhere/The death is a teaching throughout all of me/Time is the chemical/The addiction/Green somewhere/The death gives meaning/blue is everything.”  This is definitely some fluid, stream of consciousness style writing.  He continues in the song, Sit with yourself in  silence/You can hear electricity/Their lives/Un/La Mort/Coil.”  The song goes on in similar unique fashion from here and even before.  Simply put, this is an example of content that really leaves listeners thinking. 
In another case, a song, such as ‘Absent Thereafter’ shows that metaphorical approach just as much as it states in the lead verse and chorus, “A pyramid of minds stare toward the stars/O, geometric, organized polyhedron of secrets and deceit/The human forms/Moon shows its gleam/Lights up this hopeless, wide-eyed crowd/A circular pattern/Not moving/Alone, but together/the stars stand still for the first time/For the first time in history/This place is the plan?/La-di-da-di/The wind seems/Seems to have stopped/The sounds erase/A spaced glitch/Full stop.”  He continues, “Into our void/I join and gaze above/Slowly/The bodies around me start floating/Oh baby/let me see you fly/Entwined and in sync/I’m sheltered/So sheltered and separate/Calloused, circular misery.”  Once again here is full on metaphorical language.  The rest of the album follows in similar fashion.  To that end, the writing in this record is as unique as its musical counterpart.  To a point, this does leave the possibility of hurting the record because of the lack of accessibility, but in the bigger picture, that the writing style and lyrics are sure to get people thinking is as much a positive as the thought and engagement that the album’s musical arrangements are sure to generate.  To that end, the writing enhances the album’s presentation that much more.
Putting the final touch to the album’s presentation is its production.  The production is so important because of each arrangement’s intensity both in terms of overall composition and sound.  There is so much going on in each of the album’s arrangements, from the dynamic changes to the stylistic and even time signature changes.  It means that the absolute utmost attention had to be paid to every minute detail.  The attention paid to even those tiniest of details resulted in an impact that expertly balanced each musician’s performance, with each musician’s work complimenting that of his band mates from beginning to end.  The positive aesthetic impact of the production pairs with the impact of the truly unique musical arrangements and the equally unique lyrical content to make the whole, a presentation that stands so starkly against the rest of this year’s new hard rock and metal albums, and albums in general.
The Blue Nowhere, the latest album from Between The Buried and Me, is one of the most outstanding musical works released so far this year.  It is a presentation that unquestionably holds its own against its counterparts in this year’s field of new hard rock and metal albums, and even overall albums field.  That is due in no small part to its featured musical arrangements.  The arrangements featured herein cross so many genres, blending them in a way that makes the works incomparable to anything else out there.  The lyrical content that accompanies the album’s musical arrangements is sure to engage audiences in its own right.  That is because of its purely metaphorical approach.  It leaves so much room for interpretation.  The record’s production puts the finishing touch to its presentation.  That is because of the effect that it has, aesthetically on the album.  Each item examined is important in its own way to the whole of the album.  All things considered they make The Blue Nowhere one of this year’s most unique new overall albums and new hard rock and metal albums.
The Blue Nowhere is available now.  More information on the album is available along with all of BTBAM’s latest news at:
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