THE ANATOMY OF...

I acquainted myself with this band's music through a friend of mine who made me listen to some of the tracks from their 2005 record called Alaska. My friend considered them to be a promising young act that still haven't really found their musical direction. I certainly agreed with him on that issue because at that particular point it felt as though Between The Buried And Me had great instrumental skills and lacked a sense of direction in the songwriting department. This basically meant that my proper album introduction would have to wait until something more substantial would come out of all this talent.

At the time that The Anatomy Of... appeared on the store shelves I didn't even make the connection to the band I previous heard but the cover art definitely caught my eye. I looked at the back cover of the album and noticed quite a variety of song titles that I knew and loved so much. That was also when I finally remembered who Between The Buried And Me were and felt that all this was just too much of a coincidence to ignore.

The album's first two tracks aren't that spectacular because the low guttural vocals make Blackened sound a bit like a parody of James Hetfield's vocals and although the cover of Kickstart My Heart is passable I just don't like this song to begin with. Day I Tried To Live on the other hand is definitely a fresh take on this somewhat stale Soundgarden composition which incidentally also kicks off my favorite part of this album!

The cover of Queen's Bicycle Race really shows how versatile Between The Buried And Me could actually be and things got even better with Three Of A Perfect Pair! It was a very proper pick of a King Crimson track which suited their style and I applaud the band for not going for a more obvious choice of a cover title!

It's usually impossible to make a cover sound as good as the original especially when it comes to Pink Floyd, but that is exactly what Between The Buried And Me manages to pull off with this version of Us And Them! It really shows the level of detail and determination that the band has put into these performances and although some of the later covers don't measure up to the bar set by these four particular tracks I definitely think that they gave a solid performance on this record.

The Anatomy Of... proved to be a great introduction to what this promising young quintet was capable of! All they needed to do now was to transform their inspirations into some great original material and judging by their next release the band didn't disappoint!

***** star songs: Us And Them (7:52)

**** star songs: Day I Tried To Live (5:28) Bicycle Race (3:09) Three Of A Perfect Pair (4:11) Territory (4:50) Little 15 (4:31) Cemetary Gates (7:05) Colorblind (3:47)

*** star songs: Blackened (6:40) Kickstart My Heart (4:55) Geek U.S.A. (5:25) Forced March (3:52) Change (4:07) Malpractice (4:02)