THE GREAT MISDIRECT

This young band has really turned it up in The Great Misdirect. Colors was, in my opinion, completely amazing. But some parts did seem forced and the feel was somewhat mechanical. Now they've progressed to new heights. Everyone in the band is at the top of their game, including the exceptional drumming and bass section courtesy of Blake Richardson and Dan Briggs.

The album is just starting to sink in for me, but I have somewhat of a grasp of what I can write about the album. It's just that mindblowing.

Mirrors is a wonderful, jazzy and very beautiful intro to the album. Tommy's singing is as clean as ever. And the band is tighter and more free flowing than before. Amazing. (10/10)

In comes the metal with Obfuscation. It is as chaotic as it is calculated and is just really awesome. With little proggy interludes everywhere and a groovy guitar solo, this song is just really killer. (10/10)

Now its at this point when I first listened to these two songs and felt: "Wow. Between the Buried and Me sounds great. Doesn't sound very different from Colors, but it's still REALLY awesome." I didn't think they had progressed too much. They clearly had, but it wasn't until the album came out that I got to hear the rest of the songs off the album.

Boom. Disease, Injury, Madness. Comes in with a ton of crushing riffs. I haven't heard Between the Buried and Me as organized as this. Every fits perfectly. The metal is generally easier to handle. Then the gentle, Pink Floyd section of the song. It's so catchy and flows amazingly. This really showed me Between the Buried and Me's progression. I haven't ever heard them like this before. Then some wonderful acoustic guitar leading to more crushing metal. It's as brutal as it was before, but much more organic. It sounds amazing, not to mention some RIDICULOUS drum fills from Blake. (I'm a prog drummer too, and this guy is insane.) Then a catchy blues rock riff, which by itself could be a song. It's pretty driving and energetic. Then with some crazy vocals and blast beats comes a technical section. The song ends pretty abruptly, but what comes next just really blows my mind. (10/10)

Fossil Genera: A Feed From Cloud Mountain. Piano. FRIGGEN PIANOS EVERYWHERE. This is just completely insane! I can't even believe I'm hearing such a piano driven metal riff. Of course, the catchy boppy stylings of Tommy Rogers. Now this song stays pretty dark and demonic for the most part. I ridiculously brutal breakdown really made the song sound crazy. They sound like Dillinger Escape Plan at this point. But, you can slowly hear the prog creeping on, as it hits you right in the face with some interesting mathy riffs. Then in with some energetic intrumentals. An overall cohesiveness, I'm beginning to hear makes this song what it is. Then a simply amazing driving proggy section before the slow ballad leading to the epic ending of the song, I think I'm sold. (10/10)

The wind is blowing slowly and the desert is dry in Desert of Song. The band's redneck/Counting Crows roots come out, in this lovely ballad, featuring Paul Waggoner singing lead! Wicked. Catchy, warm and filled with thick bass lines. The band really shines when they play a ballad. Incredible. The interlude leading into the next song is very nice. (10/10)

What's that I hear? Percussion? Keyboard layers? WOAH. Kick in the face. The band just hammers away with their fast as lightning prog solos. In fact, it sounds somewhat like Mastodon. The band is tighter than ever, firing on all cannons. Tommy doubling his keyboard over the guitar lines and even having lines of his own. Blake Richardson, is just on fire. Pretty long instrumentals. Now what's this? Who's this guy? This guy is Chuck Johnson, the bass player in Dan Briggs sideband, Orbs. His singing is pretty interesting. The riffing here is pretty wicked as well. The band almost sounds like, Dream Theater. If that's not obvious enough. I found an overall DT influence on the majority of the record. But they go from DT, to Mastodon, to Queen! This band is utter genius! Now with some technically well timed Mastodon like grooves leading into an absolutely ridiculous drum solo. Onto a short little guitar break, comes another ridiculous, well executed exotic sounding riff. Which leads into, solos. And more solos. And uh, well more solos. Even I, a huge BTBAM fan, will admit they were a little self indulgent here. But it really only lasts about 4 or 5 minutes. Then a nice buildup to an absolutely disgusting brutal breakdown. I smell some Coalesce. Then the song finishes strong and abruptly with their opening wackiness. (10/10)

Although they soloed a lot on Swim to the Moon, I can really appreciate the direction the band is taking overall on this album. They are becoming a forced to be reckoned with. I know for a fact there was a decent amount of hype for this record. The band is the best they've ever been. Especially Blake. Oh Blake. He's at the top of his game. His riffs are as complicate and original as ever. The band really shines as a whole on this album. With some organized metal riffs and lots of slow ballads. Absolutely amazing, in terms of Prog, this is my album of the year. All in all, It's in 2nd place. But absolutely amazing. Great for any progressive metal fan, the harsh vocals weren't that bad on this album. GET THIS NOW.

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