COLORS

Being a long time fan of progarchives.com, I decided to finally join the team effort and thought it only fitting to review the album that I have been spinning in heavy rotation for the past two weeks. I had not heard of Between the Buried and Me until their inclusion by Mike Portnoy on the Progressive Nation 2008 tour. So I decided to grab the cd from a local store and give them a try. Almost immediately, I was hooked by their sound and I was able to sit through the entire album in one listen. These guys can really play, and with Colors, they have crafted an excellent modern sounding progressive metal album. The album runs smoothly and each track flows into the next. The musicianship is top notch and production is crisp. It is one of my favorite progressive releases of last year.

Generally, I am wary of metal albums (especially of the extreme variety) that run over 40 minutes, but, this album is diverse enough that it doesn't suffer from its 60+ minute length. The band has a rather eclectic sound and they jump around from blast beats to beautiful melodic sections to even a bluegrass section. It blends very well and makes for quite an adventurous and bold musical statement. I highly recommend this album for fans of progressive metal, especially if you are open minded about extreme metal. This album gets a 5 star from me for being an excellent modern progressive metal album.