Off The Record

Most bands fit easily into the label of a genre: He's pop, they're punk, she's rock. Everything fits nicely into a box; the elements of each genre are there and easily definable, and artists use these elements so that there's never any doubt about what they are or what they're trying to be. One has to really try, after all, to mistake smooth jazz for R&B.

But every now and then a band comes along that takes the normal conventions of genre and rejects them entirely, turning the "established order" of music on its head. If someone were to try to organize a personal music library by genre, Between the Buried and Me would leave him or her thoroughly baffled. Technically speaking, Between the Buried and Me is progressive death metal, but to toss the band into a box with other death metellers or prog acts is simply unfair. Boasting tracks that often surpass the seven-minute mark, a Between the Buried and Me song is a multi-genre journey. Though the band is anchored in death metal, its music can, at times, incorporate everything from alternative rock and thrash to elements of bossa nova, jazz, or polka. Between the Buried and Me's technical skill is also unparalleled; each of the band's five members, it seems, are not only experts on their respective instruments, but on music as a whole: Never does a transition seem forced, nor a musical style feel out of place.

Between the Buried and Me saw its start in North Carolina in early 2001, taking its name from a line in the Counting Crows song "Ghost Train." Since then, the band has released four studio albums - with a fifth scheduled for release late next month - as well as a live CD/DVD and an album of covers. This cover album, The Anatomy Of, features a number of songs from bands that have influenced the metal quintet, including Pink Floyd, Queen, Pantera, and Depeche Mode, among others. Between the Buried and Me's most recent release, Colors, was highly acclaimed among critics and fans alike. With each track flowing into the next, the album feels more like a single, 64-minute masterpiece rather than a collection of songs. Colors was also recorded live, in its entirety, in August of 2008, and released as a live album and DVD.

Between the Buried and Me is a musical anomaly. The musicians are talented and technical, their songwriting impressive, and their transitions seamless. While it's difficult to pinpoint exactly what they are is, one thing is certain: they are good.