Between The Buried And Me Enchant Varsity Theater
A balmy saturday evening greeted the progressive metal enjoyers of the twin cities. It had been several (long) years since the veteran progressive metal/jass/disco/swing/whatever north carolinians that comprise Between the Buried and Me graced the stages of the twin cities with their long established and well loved ways. Their latest album “The Blue Nowhere” came out last September, and they’ve been hard at work touring on that material ever since, bringing them to the shores of Varsity Theater this past saturday evening.
Shiny and clean death metallers Fallujah opened the evening. Their brand of sugary-sweet leads over face-melting technicality has progressed over the years to include a lot more dynamics (including a lot more clean vocals from frontman Kyle Schaefer), and that variety was on display with their short but punchy set. They’re space-y, they’re complicated, and their instrumental wizardry is probably second to none in the space, and that came across, breakneck riffs slamming into the crowd as Schaefer bounced between guttural growls and beautifiul melodies. I think probably they have the perception of being a little too “clean” or “pretty” for death metal, but for my money that kind of elitism just stops you from seeing great bands, and Fallujah’s set was a perfect example that you can mix the beauty with the beast and have it be cohesive. Closing with Dreamless’ “The Void Alone” really tied the whole set together, as while they have quite an expansive discography of great material, it was the older albums I tended to connect with more.
Imperial Triumphant were the band I was most excited to see this evening. The New York avant-garde metallers have established themselves in the last decade as being on the forefront of the thinking person’s metal, whether that’s a good or a bad thing (for me, a good thing). Their unique combination of art-deco aesthetics juxtaposed against a maximalist mix of jazz and dissonant death metal creates some of the most unique and forceful soundscapes in modern metal.
I wish I could say the same effect was carried by their live performance, but in all, I found it to be just so-so. Their decadent masked visages meant that since you could not find a conduit of emotion through the performer, you were limited to the function of the music as-is, and I think while it is arresting and riveting as a conceptual listening experience, it is perhaps less riveting and arresting as a live music experience. I felt as though I was constantly searching for a groove to latch onto or otherwise some anchor to ground myself and try to connect with and make sense of. That inscrutability is of course by design and what I value in their music but I found I wasn’t able to enjoy it quite the same way live.
All in all, they played a flawless set of great material from their last album Goldstar, but by the end of their time on stage, I was left wanting something a little more.
Between the Buried and Me took the stage shortly after, and I was catapulted right back into a maelstrom of melody and brutality - in that way, the tour is quite effective in going from progressive music that is married to poppier, appealing aspects, to something completely indecipherable, back to that original mixture. It was my third time seeing Between the Buried and Me, last catching them at Skyway in 2023 for their The Parallax II: Future Sequence tour, and like a fine wine, BTBAM keep getting better with age.
Opening up with a song from the middle of The Blue Nowhere, “Psychomanteum” got the circle pit going immediately, Paul Waggoner’s angular chugging riffs exploding against blast beats and Tommy Rodger’s trademark slightly-robotic growled vocals, but a change of pace wasn’t far behind, as the middle of the song turns into a little bit of a psychop, swingy, heavy affair. The genius of this band has long been their ability to meld a million styles together and execute it well, and that execution lends itself to an incredibly fun and memorable live show, as the push and pull of the above is sort of the name of the game. You’re either hit with a wave of ferocious metal and then undercut by some section that (to the unfamiliar) comes out of nowhere, or the inverse occurs.
The juggling of energies and moods would collapse under the weight of ambition for other bands, but this band has been around a long time, and for money, they perfected it with the first Colors and they’ve just been refining that balance ever since. The mix of heavy, technical riffing, smile-on-your-face dance/swing/something-else interludes, and Rodger’s beautiful singing means there really is something for everyone, and performing live, they really give something to everyone.
They closed out with the 1-2 punch of “Silent Flight Parliament” and “Goodbye to Everything Reprise”, a staggering 17 continuous minutes of music off of the aforementioned Future Sequence. The sheer endurance to be able to close with a 17 minute encore has to be respected, and they really absolutely crushed it.
