Between the Buried and Me – Colors II
Release Date: 20th August 2021
Label: Sumerian Records
Pre-Order/Pre-Save
Genre: Progressive Metal
FFO: The Faceless, Sikth, The Human Abstract, Protest the Hero, Devin Townsend, The Dillinger Escape Plan, Dream Theatre, Haken.
Review By: Ryan Shearer
I should probably start this off with an admission of guilt: I’ve listened to Between the Buried and Me before and didn’t ‘get it’. It just didn’t click with me. The 5-piece from North Carolina in the USA have been a mainstay in the progressive metal genre, inspiring the new breed and putting out consistently acclaimed albums, but it just didn’t click with me. I always go in open-minded to these things, but references and easter eggs to the original Colors album from 2007 are going to be lost on me. Alas, Colors II has arrived on my doorstep, and perhaps it is my experience over the past few years exploring the weirder side of metal, or perhaps this album simply rings differently… one thing I am certain of though is that Colors II is fucking excellent.
The sheer diversity of styles on display is staggering. Colors II is exemplary of what modern progressive metal can do when it spreads its wings. A tasty latin section in Revolution In Limbo with a dash of Baroque before the guitars kick back in is a brief taste of the fucking wacky sounds you can experience on Colors II. My first introduction to this album was hearing the lead single Fix The Error which opens with a Gospel track accompanied by Blake Richardson punishing his drum kit; Colors II keeps your attention by constantly throwing curve balls at you like an octopus playing baseball; around any corner there is no limit to where BTBAM could go, and it only makes the music more exciting.
Colors II sounds not only incredibly fun to listen to, but it also feels like BTBAM had an absolute blast writing it. Stare Into The Abyss has some ethereal and grandiose ideas you’d expect on a Devin Townsend record. The Future Is Behind Us has some Dream Theatre-esque rhythmic patterns and kooky melodies, but Prehistory made me genuinely laugh out loud with a section filled with what can only be described as Looney Tunes ACME samples. The 20 years on the scene has taught them an underappreciated but incredibly rare skill: balancing mature & complex song-writing without taking themselves too seriously.
Between the Buried and Me (wish I was getting paid-per-word on these reviews; what a money-maker that name would be) have delivered something consistently engaging that is downright bonkers at times. Every member of the band (and the 3 guest drummers on Fix The Error) hold nothing back. Album closer Human Is Hell turns everyone’s dials up to 11, with drums and guitars taking no prisoners. Colors II is something special and my closing point allows me to shamelessly segue back to my first paragraph: it’s convinced me that I’m now a fan of Between the Buried and Me. I can’t imagine for existing BTBAM followers this is going to cause much controversy, for new fans this is unmissable and for fans in the UK, yes, I share your frustration that the album title is missing the letter ‘u’. 
(4.5 / 5)
