Between The Buried And Me, Haken at The Talking Heads (2015)

The Talking Heads (Southampton, UK)

Between The Buried And Me, Haken

The Talking Heads is a strange venue, tiny corridors, stained glass and a ramped […]

By Jack Webb

• September 17, 2015

The Talking Heads is a strange venue, tiny corridors, stained glass and a ramped standing area. On a pouring wet evening, like tonight, the front car park turns into a river and getting across is like a mission from the Crystal Maze. But enough about the British weather and our odd buildings. BETWEEN THE BURIED AND ME seem to defy all expectations, connecting those in love with Extreme Metal and those who prefer more classical elements. Whilst all the time performing 10 minute plus prog operas that involve astral projection and all other kinds of crazy ass spacey shit, it's awesome.

Openers HAKEN are slightly underwhelming in the grand scheme of things. Whilst instrumentally tight and heart-warmingly atmospheric the stage show itself lacks presence and connection. The out of place acapella choruses seem to try too hard to shove "this is prog metal dammit" down everyone's throats. When HAKEN kick it into high gear they really do, satisfying grooves and impressive keyboard melodies make up for the lack of sheen in their performance. Even if there are many glances between the members that scream "is this right". HAKEN are through and through a band to listen to on album. Where the post production can add to the many flavours on offer. Live however they fail to live up to their expectations.

As soon as "Selkies - The Endless Obsession" kicks in, you know that BETWEEN THE BURIED AND ME mean business, engaging and breaking the invisible barrier between band and audience. The eclectic mix of early 2000's Metalcore and synths never seems to age badly. "The Coma Machine", despite technical difficulties, is the perfect blend of sing along and downtuned heavy beats. Vocalist Tommy seems to get better on each and every album, flawlessly jumping between growled Death Metal vocals and clean atmospheric singing. Finishing with two tracks from BETWEEN THE BURIED AND ME's seminal "Colors" album, namely "Ants of the Sky" and "White Walls", it is clear that this is a band that know exactly what they are doing. Leaving each member of the audience's ears ringing with the immortal words "we will be remembered for this".

*Photography by Tomasz Wrobel

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BETWEEN THE BURIED AND ME encapsulate what Progressive Metal is all about. Multipart narratives and insane riffing, Jack sat down with bassist Dan Briggs to discuss what life is like as a leader of the movement.

Hello Dan, welcome back to the UK. How's it feel to be back on these shores?

Oh it's great man, I can't remember the last time we were over here. Of course we aren't as big over here as what we are in the U.S but it is really nice playing the smaller clubs.

Do you ever get culture shock traveling sound the world?

Not overly in the UK and America, maybe Detroit. But the biggest shock by far was going over to Thailand. It is a completely different lifestyle over there and it took us a while to settle in.

With such a large catalogue of music, Is it ever hard to narrow down to a set of music?

Yeah man. Well we had one set once, I can't remember where it was, but we only had 15 minutes. So we went out and just played "Swim to the Moon". But on this tour we went in knowing that we wanted to play a few songs off of "Coma Ecleptic" and so we built the set around it.

If anyone asks "what Between the Buried and Me should I buy?" 9 out of 10 times it will be "Colors". Do you find that you have to live up to it on every release?

Not at all. Each release is its own piece. And if people dig it then all is well.

With so many different elements of your music, is the songwriting more of a group thing than individuals?

Well each of us may bring an idea to the table. May be finished or it may just be a couple of notes. Then it is worked on. But it is never a "5 cooks at the grill" kinda affair. We try to keep the influences wide whilst still retaining some direction. Which helps if it is only one or a couple of people.

With the insane storyline going between a lot of your albums, was it ever a goal to write such music.

I think it was more that we took the idea and ran with it. "Colors" was lyrically concept. But it wasn't until Tommy (vocals) got comfortable with his story crafting that we really kicked it up a gear.

So what are the next steps?

Well we are going to keep touring the new album, possibly another live album/DVD but that depends on a lot of factors. Obviously I have my side projects and new things are happening there. In fact I have a new project with one of the guys in HAKEN, a full album in fact but we only just met properly today. The power of the Internet eh?

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