Album Review: Between the Buried and Me - Automata I (2018)
I first stumbled upon Between the Buried and Me back when I used to buy random metal albums on a regular basis. My choices were based mostly on packaging and artwork and after coming across its pristine digibook with standout astral artwork, The Parallax II: Future Sequence was no exception to that rule. Despite the alluring presentation it was an album left forgotten amongst a stack of new purchases and it went unheard for some time. I quickly forgot all about BTBAM (that’s an acronym not a name for a useless telecom helpline assistant) and It wasn’t until a chance hearing of the track Mordecai, from 2003’s The Silent Circus, at a late night party that I was reminded of their existence. It was, to my ears at least, a revelation. Mordecai is an almost 6-minute long monster track that dropkicks you in the face with an incredibly punishing but addictive first couple of minutes. The song contains multiple changes of pace, structure, timing and vocals and begins as a super heavy, super fast, hardcore thrash machine before melting into a post-harcore-esque melodic behemoth. After hearing this I was in deep. Proverbial deep.
Fast forward a few weeks and I came across The Parallax II once more and I made the connection. This is THAT band!? Needless to say it didn’t spend much longer unheard. I’m not going to get too bogged down in this album because explaining how good it is would take up the entire article. It’s a sprawling, dense, futuristic, spectral, creeping, brooder of an album with many of the features present in Mordecai but it’s also much more ambitious in its structure and genre changes. This is unsurprising given that The Silent Circus was released close to 10 years earlier. BTBAM have clearly nailed their formula since then. Not convinced? I recommend you listen to tracks 1 to 5 on Future Sequence in a single sitting with no distractions and I think you’ll understand. It’s also worth noting that TPII:FS is a concept album but I won’t pretend that I actually pick up on the themes as it’s more the experience of the music I’m here for, not the story or narrative. Their next album, 2015’s Coma Ecliptic, also a concept album, is very good too but isn’t quite as essential in my mind.
After 3 years of waiting, imagine my excitement when the band announced they would be releasing new album Automata later in 2018. It would be another concept album but this time released in two halves, with Part I set to be released in March and Part II to follow in the summer time. Alongside this announcement they released a video for album opener Condemned to the Gallows thus beginning a salivation process gone unsated until Automata I’s release.
Condemned to the Gallows is an opener that pulls together all of the elements from The Parallax II and Coma Ecliptic that I love. It features super heavy growled vocals over crunching riffs, melodic vocals over spectral landscapes, bizarre changes of direction and pace and yet it still manages to remain cohesive. It’s genuinely BTBAM at their best and to be honest this is how I’d describe the whole album. Granted this statement comes from the perspective of someone who hasn’t delved extensively into the band’s back catalogue but all I’m saying is that here we have a band at the absolute peak of their abilities.
Being only half an album, Automata I is just 6 tracks long but despite that it still clocks in at 35mins which is longer than many full albums (Turnstile’s Time and Space is only 25mins for goodness sake). If you still think that’s a bit short then, similarly to Turnstile’s album, the musical diversity on offer here is a real embarrassment of riches so it shouldn’t matter to most. I’ve talked about Condemned to the Gallows but what about those other 5 tracks? Well they’re truly stunning. House Organ has a murky, grimy, riff beast intro which combines with organ synths and snarling vocals to great effect before ending as a Queensryche-style epic. Yellow Eyes is almost 9mins long (but somehow still not the longest song on the album - that honour goes to Blot) and has some really great moments, not least the vocal hooks such as “why have I created this world for me?” and “inner working dissect, common phase neglect, I am tangible with no logic”; short throwaway moments that have a lasting effect. Millions begins quite subdued but spreads its wings and soars before dropping away once more. It’s also the softest and most expansive track so far. Gold Distance is the shortest track at 1min 2secs and serves as an instrumental soundscape leading into final track Blot, an already gargantuan ten and a half minute voyage. It opens with a very eastern inspired instrumental before bursting into a stabbing off-key guitar lick which I absolutely adore and gratefully it’s repeated later in the song. Blot is essentially a showcase pulling elements from all the earlier songs into a single organism and a great way to end the first half of the album, leaving you both satisfied but hungry for more.
If you’re a fan of progressive metal then this album is most definitely for you but the harder, heavier and more cacophonous moments may drive many away. I urge you to give Automata I a listen, it's an album I can’t help but recommend. Roll on Automata II.
Automata I is available on all your usual streaming platforms. As always, if you like what you hear, support the band by buying their album and going to their shows. I missed out on seeing BTBAM a couple of years ago but I hope to see them the next time they're in Scotland.
