siLLy puPPy Although their debut album was already a very progressive form of metalcore, BETWEEN THE BURIED AND ME really upped their game on their second release THE SILENT CIRCUS. Part of this was in the drumming duty exchange of percussionists as Will Goodyear parted ways and Mark Castillo joined the noisefest, but the biggest change is in the inclusion of various other metal and non-metal styles to the mix. On this one there are unexpected outbursts of all types of bizarre contrasting genres that can last for a few seconds (like marching band drumming) or go off into a whole lengthy sequence (such as atmospheric indie rock). If that wasn’t enough the music just seems more extreme and the songwriting is better as well although i personally find the debut eponymous release to be of fairly high quality in the songwriting as well, it’s just that the band managed to find new ways to spice up the music and make the tracks stand on their own unlike the debut where the formula became a tad repetitive by the time the end neared.

This is the typically progressive metalcore that BETWEEN THE BURIED AND ME delivers on all their earlier albums but with more weirdness than the debut. There are moments of extreme metal riffs that have the most messed up time sigs possible, moments of the bass slinking up and down the scales like a possessed caterpillar from hell and Tommy Rogers screams like an alien is bursting out of his stomach. This is really as extreme as this type of metal can get and that’s exactly why i like it so much! While upon first listen this may sound like the typical metalcore with a few tricks and gimmicky trinkets thrown in for good measure, the band manages to create a huge variety of riff attacks, bass lines, drum rolls and screaming frenzies with various genre hopping escapes into clean vocal alternative metal, atmospheric space prog reminding me a bit of Porcupine Tree with bluesy melodic guitar solos and then can hop, skip and jump into extreme mathcore such as by headache masters Psyopus.

A giant leap in their technique proved BETWEEN THE BURIED AND ME weren’t just your run of the mill extreme metal band. They display all the fury and energetic prowess of the most hardcore bands in the biz but they equally show off their love of progressive rock and pull it off with ease, both in playing the prog and metal simultaneously and apart. All these meanderings keep the album from getting stale and one dimensional throughout the entire ten tracks. While the tracks can seem jittery and ever changing, the final track “The Need For Repetition” offers a nice groove metal type of riff that repeats and casts a hypnotic spell. One of the things i dislike about this album is that it has one of those annoying pointless hidden tracks after track ten and several minutes of silence which is basically just a rant with some thrash metal and a guitar solo backing up the riffs. Not as good as later albums like “Colors” but still an excellent album for those who like their metalcore decorated with nice proggy frosting.

topofsm Many people are afraid to touch this album, and it seems to be well warranted. A few song samples reveal an abrasive texture with much dissonance and harsh vocals, with little to no melody anywhere. The Silent Circus is ultimately, yes, a deathcore album. But the musicianship is still top-notch and there are spots of beauty all over the place, and the compositions still fit together well, even compared to their later albums.

Mainly the biggest problems with the album are some of the harsh vocals. The growls are typical growled core vocals, while the higher pitched screams are more pain-induced hardcore styles. However, fans of deathcore will probably appreciate the former anyways and fans of bands like Converge will enjoy the latter anyways.

This album is typical of prog metal albums where the long songs tend to be better. The opening two tracks that make up the song "Lost Perfection" are full of interesting riffs and shifting tempi, typical of BTBAM's style. There's still melody to be heard, and a few bluesier metal riffs elsewhere, a treat for those who listen to the album completely instead of dismissing it as a complete mess of dissonance.

People will also point to "Mordecai", which in the first half goes through tech metal acrobatics and deathcore styled crashing atmospheres, but slowly becomes more melodic, until the chords become a sea of harmonies and Paul Waggoner busts out one of his more famous soloes. This track and the two following tracks it segues into feature the most melody on the album, even breaking into conventional songwriting on "(Shevanel, Take 2)".

The other longer song is "Ad a Dglgmut", which opens again with more of the chaos and thrashing found on the the rest of the album, while eventually busting into a calmer section, albeit not as uproariously beautiful as the previous "Mordecai".

The rest of the tracks are shorter and while technically top notch and compositionally solid, may turn listeners away. Though "Aesthetic", a song about the quartet on the Titanic, has some interesting sweeps and some interesting breakdowns. The hidden track, "Man's Land" at the end of the record is also quite worth listening to and is quite humorous.

All in all, The Silent Circus is undeniably a worthy listen. Fans of more abrasive styles will like it, technical metal fans should find it interesting, and Between the Buried and Me fans will find it essential.