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There's something a bit different about Between the Buried and Me's third full-length, Alaska.
Unlike the band's first two efforts, and especially The Silent Circus, Alaska is relatively easy to listen to. Despite its abundance of grinding, non-stop drumming, all-over-the-place, metallic guitar riffing, abrupt tempo shifts and throaty screams, Between the Buried and Me has further embraced their progressive, ethereal side and written an album that truly flows. This is not the average technical metal record. As scathing as it can be, and often is, Alaska is a developed album; not a mere collection of wildly acrobatic songs.
Between the Buried and Me has always distanced their music from that of the technical metal pack by fusing the genre's abrasive nature with confident melodies and progressive tendencies. Alaska is undoubtedly the band's most daring album to date. The melodic singing is wide spread and varied, delicate instrumentation comprises more of the album's duration, and guitarists Paul Waggoner and Dusty Waring freely roam the pastures of progressive string plucking and solos. The rhythm section, which now features Glass Casket drummer Blake Richardson, expectedly adapts to the increased experimentation, and even fills out the jazz song that closes the record with natural ease.
Alaska's long songs are typically the standouts on the album. Not so much because they are long, but because the band obviously poured much effort into writing them. The opening song, "All Bodies," is an ideal indicator of Between the Buried and Me's skillful craft -- the song shifts between starkly contrasting parts, including melodic choruses, progressive, instrumental segments, chaotic metal accented by symphonic keys and a power metal-like ending. "Selkies: The Endless Obsession," "Roboturner" and "Backwards Marathon" all follow in similar suit and feature some of the effort's most memorable moments. Even the band's standard fare has been stepped up. "Croakies And Boatshoes" is among the band's heaviest songs, while "The Primer" is superbly pieced together and fueled by a dangerously powerful guitar lead.
Being that lineup changes have plagued Between the Buried and Me, it's rather surprising that Alaska marks such a decided improvement over the band's previous works; namely The Silent Circus. To be sure, this 54-minute affair is easily some of the best and most expansive material that the growing technical metal community has produced. As long as Between the Buried and Me holds onto their core songwriters, they'll likely begin to horde the attention they've deserved since the beginning of their explosive career.
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