THE GREAT MISDIRECT

But then once they make that one, singular defining album, the question then becomes "how do you top that"? And frankly, that's harder than the first question.

BTBAM began swimming the cult tech death underground with furious chaotic shredding, growling and mashing of drumsets with the occasional soft parts thrown in between. They started throwing in more of their what would be signature arpeggios in "The Silent Circus" and "Alaska", the latter of which stirred the hype train a bit. But once "Colors" dropped, the whole game had been changed. Hell, "Prequel to the Sequel" landed on Rock Band! Not many really heavy bands can do that.

So of course, when you release game changing material like that, the question is how you top it. But BTBAM decided otherwise, instead saying "We don't have to follow up Colors", we'll just push our sound in different directions, that way no two albums sound the same."

It's a brilliant strategy, albeit one that's rarely successful, but by the time "The Great Misdirect" came out, BTBAM had already established their sound, while still evolving it from album to album (i.e . "Coma Ecliptic"). "Mirrors" is a slow opener, but not like "Color's Backtrack". There's no real buildup, just a slow, plodding melodic tune, but then "Obfuscation" kicks in and so does the headbanging, and while I don't believe this album is really comparable to "Colors", this song in general I find a lot of connections to "Prequel to the Sequel", the closest you could call "hit songs" of their respective albums. It's a roller coaster of a ride, as almost all BTBAM songs are, but the guitar melodies are really pronounced so that you latch onto them like a safety net. Throw in a heavy hitting chorus, a crazy tension building bridge/interlude/face-melting guitar solo/cacophony-of-endless noise section and you've got a heavy hitter of a statement piece.

"Disease, Injury, Madness" and "Fossil Genera" are all right, similarly composed as before, with chaotic sections with repeating motifs with mellow and melodic interludes and bridges in between, with each song bringing a unique "X-factor", the former being a cool blues rock groove towards the end and the latter bringing a haunting circus-esque motif throughout and ending with a haunting and repeating melody on the finishing chorus.

"Desert of Song" is probably the closest BTBAM has ever gotten to an accessible or daresay, even "pop" hit. It begins almost like a cinematic western tune, featuring a very rare vocal spot from guitarist Paul Waggoner, and quite jarring comparing it to the constant thrash and violent furry of "The Silent Circus" just six years prior. Considering the numerous genres they've sampled and teased even just on this album and "Colors", it's a fresh and unique breath of relaxation from the constant barrage on the ear drums, and yet it still sounds familiar, still somehow quintessential BTBAM. A rare progressive tune that is quite catchy and enjoyable, despite it being somewhat melancholy.

"Swim To The Moon" to me is, not just the apex of the album obviously, but it's crowning achievement. Compositionally, it's a brilliantly structured track, with the opening motif also bookending as its closing notes, while also introducing a breakdown motif that's foreshadowed towards the latter end of the song. It's still just as chaotic as any BTBAM song, but the structuring of the verses and bridges just seem a bit more fluid than say "Disease..." and "Fossil Genera". I'm more likely to skip through those two songs to get to the good juicy bits more than I am skipping through "Swim to the Moon".

As always, it's unique party piece is the little samba breakdown/Blake Richardson showcase roughly six and a half minutes in, but even before that, the saturation of noise give it an epic persona, and the chorus melody is one of the most striking and haunting I think in BTBAM's repertoire. It's short, sweet and simple, but once Tommy Rogers breaks through halfway through the song and it fades away to subtle guitar plucking, the aftereffect is intoxicating. Then a banjo style plucking comes in soon after followed by a furious distorted repetition of the motif. This sequence right here is straight head-banging inducing. It's a completely instrumental spot that showcases the entire band at its absolute peak and fury. I love the counterplay between soft and loud dynamics, which work to an astonishing effect, especially on an album like this where generally everything is turned past eleven up to a thousand. This instrumental section takes up near about four of the nearly 18 minute long track, and it's probably one of the best instrumental metal sections I've heard in quite a while.

Once that fades, the heavy breakdown motif returns in an absolutely crushing breakdown (the distortion is so immense I have no idea what chord it is, besides the lowest). A quick little transition leads back into the thematic western-styled acousitc plucking (complete with some bongos) before the chorus returns in all its glory before signing off just as it began, with the same motif the song opened with 18 minutes prior.

It's a phenomenal juggernaut of a track, one of the most complete in BTBAM history, and one of my most favorite "juggernaut" tracks (tracks I personally describe being longer than 15 minutes). Sadly, while I love the song and the rest of this album, this album has to get a 4 star. I understand the need to continue evolving one's sound so as to not be defined and compared to one singular album, but to me it just doesn't have the grandiosity and enough aural catching oddities that littered "Colors" to such an entertaining and refreshing degree. The only real downside song wise is the middle of "Fossil Genera" that gets so lost in the constant barrage of blastbeats and constant dissonant upheaval that it produces headaches quicker than any other section on this album.

That aside, this is still a great album, a must for any fan of "Colors" or any technical metal. There's still plenty of screaming (something some people were a tad annoyed at with "Coma Ecliptic" at times, myself included), but also plenty of great melodic sections to break up the monotonous (at times) onslaught of arpeggiated riffs and furious blastbeats.

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