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)

"The Anatomy of..." serves as a great crossover opportunity for fans of Between the Buried and Me to learn about King Crimson, Pink Floyd, and a few other non progressive bands, and a few bands that are relatively unimportant.

I'm not a huge fan of cover songs, so purchasing this cover album was odd feeling. But it was better than expected. Between the Buried and Me's wonderful musicianship bring otherwise boring songs up a few notches and leave them on a tolerable level. Their cover of "Three of a Perfect Pair" by King Crimson is fantastic, though not far different from the original other than Tommy's voice. The Queen, Soundgarden, and Faith No More covers also stand out and the latter two definitely have been fused with the BTBAM sound (heavy, screamy, etc.).

This album is an interesting listen, but not necessary by any means. "The Anatomy Of..." serves mostly as a fun novelty item from the band and for them to share with their fans the music that motivated them to create the band and make the best music that they could. If you're interested, check it out.

Cover albums are weird. The entire concept of a cover album is weird. Like you enter into a studio and instead of recording original songs, you instead record other people's work. I am not saying covers are bad, it's just weird that bands devote albums to recording covers. It's even more weird when you consider Between The Buried and Me made one. Of all the bands, this one strikes me the oddest to make a covers album due to their style of music. This is a studio album from the band by a technicality so it's not far fetched to review it, I guess.

The first cover on the album is Blackened by Metallica. I am not particularly big on Metallica but this kind of a fun song. This definitely has a Between The Buried and Me flair to it, and I gotta admit it is way better and heavier than the original. It kinda works for this band, so I don't really mind it all that much to be honest.

The next song is Kickstart My Heart by Mötley Crüe. I am just gonna say it, I do not like this kind of hard rock. It's too flashy, and just too head over heels. The cover doesn't really have much flair to it or any additional aspects, it feels like the original song but a little less original. It's just way too in your face for me.

Next up is The Day I Tried To Live by Soundgarden. The harder grunge sound definitely does work well in the style of Between The Buried and Me. It's heavy and has some flavor to it. The thing is I am not that into grunge, like I can listen to a grunge album but I wouldn't call any grunge album an all time favorite of mine. It is a passable song but not one I'd say is an all time favorite, especially as a cover.

After that we have Bicycle Race by Queen. Alright this song is actually great. It's just kinda funny for a prog metalcore band to cover a song about riding a bike from an album with songs called Fat Bottomed Girls and Fun It. Plus it's a Queen song, the worst they can do is Hot Space and that album has Under Pressure on it. It's just something a little silly and I like it because of it.

Next song is Three of a Perfect Pair by King Crimson. I love King Crimson, they are my favorite band of all time so I am pretty happy an equally amazing band would cover a song of theirs, but why this song? It's a good song don't get me wrong but I'd imagine they'd cover something like Red, Larks' Tongues in Aspic Part 2, or Happy With What You Have To Be Happy With, not Three of a Perfect Pair. It might be due to copyright, but even then it's a little far fetched. It's not bad, it is just a very what and why song.

Next up is another song from a pretty amazing Prog band, that being Us and Them by Pink Floyd. Unlike the last song, I can definitely see why they'd cover this one. It's a really good song and definitely a fan favorite for many, plus the original does have a smidgen of heaviness that definitely can be added onto by the song of this band. I am pretty ok with this choice of a cover so no real hard feelings for it.

After that we have Geek U.S.A. by The Smashing Pumpkins. I do not like The Smashing Pumpkins and especially this song. It's that stupid kind of grunge, the type that is just so bland and flavorless. At least this cover at least has a little more taste to it, but even then it doesn't save it from being mediocre. I just do not like The Smashing Pumpkins so this song I feel can be a skipper in most if not all cases.

Next up is Forced March by Earth Crisis. Ok, honestly this really fits well with the sound of the band. The original song is pretty heavy of itself too so making it more refined and modernized with Between The Buried And Me's sound does make it a pretty good cover in my opinion. This album definitely works well when the songs they are covering were also pretty heavy, so point for them for picking and covering a song that's a lot more in their range of capabilities.

Like the last cover, Territory by Sepultura also works well in the style of the band. Basically what I said with Forced March applies to this as well.

Next up is Change by Blind Melon. I do enjoy the calmer songs this band can do so this song isn't bad one bit. It's got this indie rock vibe that I really like and it's definitely a lovely song. It works well here.

The next song is Malpractice by Faith No More. This is a lot more industrial metal than some of the other heavier songs on this album. I am not that well versed in Faith No More, in fact I never heard an album by the band, but this song is pretty good. It's heavy, and some sick drumming, and the slowness of it creates some nice tension. It's not bad at all.

The next track is Little 15 by Depeche Mode. What was once a more synth wave track is now turned into a full blown Prog Metal great. The way it builds up and up into an awesome lead is super good. This is probably the best cover on this album by far due to how awesome it is, especially when the song reaches its climax after Tommy says Little 15 is just the icing on top. One of these days I might check Depeche Mode out cause they might be pretty interesting to listen to.

Next song is Cemetary Gates by Pantera. Like Metallica I do not really have strong feelings for Pantera. I think their songs are fine but they aren't the type of music I go to every waking moment. This song is basically the same to me as Blackened was, it's a good improvement from the original and it kinda works. Nothing more nothing less.

Lastly is Colorblind by Counting Crows. This is a pretty good song to end things on. It's just a small acoustic ballad that's really pretty, and definitely works well in BTBAM style, though I do wish they didn't have drums on this cover since the original worked well enough without them, but that's kinda it to be honest.

This album is weird. It's not particularly bad, but it is just kinda an enigma for me to be honest. It just exists and it's probably the only album by this band that I think if you skipped it you won't be missing out on much, in fact I'd say listen to the original albums these songs are from so you can get the original experience with these songs. I guess if you like cover albums than this album definitely can be a recommendation but as it stands it's just weird and something that I have no real care for.