siLLy puPPy After “The Silent Circus” there was a mass exodus of band members leaving only Tommy Rogers (vocals and keys) and Paul Waggoner (guitars) as original members. On ALASKA the third release of BETWEEN THE BURIED AND ME, Dan Briggs replaced Jason King on bass, Dustie Waring replaced Nick Fletcher on rhythm guitar and Blake Richardson replaced Mark Castillo on drums which would remain the permanent lineup up to the present. While three of the five members are new to the club, i can’t say that there is a substantial change between this album and the last. ALASKA is very much in the style of the two preceding albums with only the ratio of ingredients being shifted around randomly.

The first thing that’s noticeable is that BTBAM are back to putting emphasis on the metalcore elements with their signature progressive magical touches changing things up on a regular basis. While this album pretty much has the same ingredients as the last, there is substantial less sidetracking into totally non-metal genres and the progressive rock, space rock and alternative metal parts play more minor roles. It seems that the band wanted to make the statement that despite 3/5 of the band being newbies that they were intent prove they were keeping the hardcore principles that were laid down in the beginning intact and that the new members had to prove themselves as metalcore behemoths with relentless intensity.

While not much included on ALASKA manages to distinguish it from the previous two albums, there are a few elements that stand out. There are moments of electronica, post-rock (on the short but sweet instrumental track “Breathe In, Breathe Out”) and the finale “Laser Speed” is an instrumental Brazilian bossa nova / samba track that sounds absolutely like nothing else on the album. Overall there isn’t anything new on this one to reel in any fans who weren’t captivated by the first two albums but if you dug those two then this one is a decent followup and somewhat of a bridge between “The Silent Circus” and “Colors” in that it does manage to refine the disparate elements in a somewhat more organized fashion but more often than not this is an extreme metal earache inducing monster fusing metalcore with tech death, alt and prog metal.

topofsm Between the Buried and me shot out a really great one in 2005, defining their more progressive style with Alaska. The album is a great mix of death metal, metalcore, and whatever the hell the band feels like at any given time, including jazz, alternative, synthpop, latin, and ambient. Great creativity on the band's part with this one.

This album can be extremely intense at times. Although metalcore itself is a popular genre and easy to listen to, Between the Buried and Me combines it with a lot of metal styles that may be hard to digest for prog listeners, including death metal and even grindcore (as evidenced in the song "Croakies and Boatshoes". However, prog fans jump all over their trademark genre jumping, as mentioned before.

There are quite a few tracks that are worth listening to on the album. Songs like the opener "All Bodies" and "Backwards Marathon" contain some excellent refrains that will get stuck in the listeners' heads for long periods of time. Other tracks like "Roboturner" and "Croakies and Boatshoes" are full on metal and mathcore assaults. Any prog fan who has listened to the album will ultimately also pick out the track "Selkies: The Endless Obsession", which after a couple minutes of instrumental interplay and tech metal it turns into some beautiful clean guitar solos leading into an absolutely wonderful melodic progression backing it up. Certainly one of the best metal solos in history, even for a relatively recent song.

Overall, metal fans should go nuts over Between The Buried and me's eclecticism and ability to pull different musical styles off in Alaska. And although the band wasn't always focusing on the certain aspect of their music, their uncanny ability to compose beautiful, catchy, and beautiful melodies and harmonies in the albums. Ultimately, the relentless extreme metal aspects of this album may tend to push people over the edge, but otherwise it's a great album.