Music, by its very nature, is the dictionary definition of ostentatious. Said band/musician writes a song and thinks ‘I have to share this, so others may gasp at my genius’. The very nature of an ‘artist’ lends itself to an element of the show-off about it. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but when you hear protestations to the contrary, when a band say they have had to release something so the world can be a better place (See Michael Jackson, Madonna, Coldplay et al) you must take said protestations and put them very firmly in a bin labelled bullshit. Now, the reason for this laboured and meandering preamble is, the band up before the court of public opinion today BTBAM, do, for me, take the definition of ostentatious and take it into more palatable directions. This is not meant as a criticism at all. In fact, it’s meant kindly in a ‘doffing my cap’ type of way. Looking for other synonyms for ostentatious so I don’t have to write it again (fail), are the words ‘classy’, flamboyant’ and ‘extravagant’…all words that can be applied to not only the majority of Raleigh, North Carolina’s finest sons back catalogue, but also to this, their new album, a follow up/companion piece to their 2007 album ‘Colors’.
I have history with BTBAM, which colours everything I have just and am about to say. Back in a former life, I was fortunate to enough to review their new album ‘Alaska’ (2005) as well as meet and interview said band, and it was a huge musical turning point not just for the band (the album, not meeting me), but also for me as a music fan. Following their ferocious metalcore inflected second album ‘The Silent Circus’, released in 2003, ‘Alaska’ built on the huge, sledgehammer riffs, barked vocals and double bass drums driven mayhem that had come before, and whilst not quite chucking out the baby with the bath water, you could feel the temperature changing. Softer musical interludes, periods of dappled light and shade to break up the one hundred miles an hour Earth Crisis meets Faith No More in a bar with Soundgarden musical amalgam. It showed that BTBAM could blend musical touchpoints from all ends of the spectrum from Counting Crows though to Cannibal Corpse. And it was this trend that continued to manifest itself throughout subsequent albums and tours that included, as if to illustrate the point, bands as diverse as Job For Cowboy, Lamb of God and Exhumed to Coheed and Cambria, Periphery and Animals as Leaders and managing to co-exist with them all.
As with much of their latter musical output, trying to grasp a central theme is like trying to herd a flock of agitated cats into a bath. Once you feel you have a grasp of what’s happening, it flies off into the darkness, replaced by something else entirely and the same is true here, on this their new album. Segueing from polka inflected, keyboard washes of delicate softness, before jack knifing into blast beats and death metal grunts, before ambling down the yellow brick road to hardcore beatdowns and then back into Dream Theatre/Pink Floyd progressive rock territory. I can see how this album (and the band in general) may not be for everyone. They certainly don’t take the easy route, preferring instead to confound, disconcert and discombobulate. This could, on the face of it, be considered self-indulgent and for some, it won’t matter as to the quality of what’s on offer here from a musical perspective, it will be dismissed as arty farty, muso bollocks for chin stroking tossers and I can understand that. But…if you can cast aside your preconceptions and take time to allow this to settle on you like a fine sea mist or the first dew of a summer’s morning, there are such delights to behold. Take for example ‘Never Seen/Future Shock’ which features some of the most jagged, angular guitar riffs that the band have committed to tape, which then pivots on a bed of electronic drums into lush trad rock middle eight that’s so at odds with that has come before, that it must make sense…right? Same with following song ‘Stare Into The Abyss’ which is so brimming with ideas, that it overflows with ingenuity that coalesces into something quite magical.
There is so much goodness within this album, so many clever, inventive, and skilful musical ideas that it does present somewhat of an overwhelming experience for the listener, which as a result it may well take fifty listens before it makes total sense. BTBAM are a class apart within the scene to which they are often lumped into (progressive metal) in both their playing (obviously exemplary), song structures but most importantly, the ideas that the band have developed and melded into the songs featured here on Colors II. Whilst I am fan of the band, I can see how divisive they can be…BUT… this is a collection of enjoyable, clever, dense, impregnable, blisteringly heavy, genre splitting songs that I will be listening to and enjoying for years to come.
(9.5/10 Nick Griffiths)
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