Band: Between The Buried And Me
Album: Colors Live
Genre: Metal
Label: Victory

Tracks:
1. Foam Born [A] The Backtrack
2. [B] The Decade of Statues
3. Informal Gluttony
4. Sun of Nothing
5. Ants of The Sky
6. Prequel To The Sequel
7. Viridlan
8. White Walls

If progressive metal band Between the Buried and Me’s album Colors were a painting, it would most likely be the Sistine Chapel, or the Mona Lisa, or Starry Night, or pretty much all three rolled into one gigantic super masterpiece painting. For any regular fans of the versatile BTBAM, this information is not new, as Colors was released over a year ago in September 2007. However, Colors_LIVE was just recently introduced by the band, an audio recording of a concert they played in Nashville, Tennessee on August 2 earlier this year.

Between the Buried and Me’s set consisted of the eight songs in order from the Colors album. After listening to it through, I realized that I didn’t even need to download the new live version of the album. The band delivers dead on performances, nailing all the transitions from song to song and even matching the exact times on most of their songs to the recorded version. Unfortunately for me, this leaves me with nothing to talk about how their live show differentiates, which is rubbed in by the fact that I didn’t even get to see them in person. (Alas, I missed a tour they were on with Children of Bodom, the woes of being a vehicle-less freshmen at State) But on the upside, I can talk about this: If a live album sounds just as good as the original recording, then we know what kind of caliber band we are dealing with here: A sick nasty one, to put it as professionally as I can.

BTBAM’s ability as musicians isn’t as much writing ridiculously epic songs as it is writing a ridiculously epic album. Each and every song flows from one to another, and along the way the music changes moods to keep you in through the long haul (three songs clock in at over 10 minutes). It would be terribly inaccurate to label BTBAM just metal, as their influences and sounds incorporate just about anything. Indeed, everything from the jazzy interludes heard in “Sun of Nothing” to the rootin tootin’ little ditty played near the end of “Ants of the Sky” can be heard as a part of Colors_LIVE, and all are executed perfectly. The memorable moments are all here, like the amusing “La La La” part in the “Sun of Nothing” and the exotic drum intro and outro for “Informal Gluttony.”

Besides their little detours into experimentalism, BTBAM’s metal style also varies. The album shifts many speeds, with high gear often resulting technical chaos, a blistering, thrashy attack complete with blazing fast guitars and crashing drums, like the beginning of “The Decade of Statues.” No matter what pace BTBAM goes at, the guitars are a work of art, reaching a level of complexity that position axemen Paul Waggoner and Dustie Waring as outstanding all around guitarists.
BTBAM Colors_LIVE is also memorable for its amount of melody. The piano played acappello performance by frontman Tommy Rogers in the album opener “The Backtrack” indicates this, as well the memorable conclusion of “Sun of Nothing.” (‘I’m floating towards the sun….the sun of nothing’) I also like the chord progressions in “Prequel to the Sequel” that help shape the song and give it a real Dream Theater-feel.
I honestly don’t know what else to say. Colors, whether it is live or not, is still fantastic. The live version is perfect down to a tee, and Rogers’ vocals do not weaken during the performance. I would most likely recommend getting the DVD as well, even though I have not seen it. Let me make this clear: You are letting your ears down every minute you do not acquire this music. Make it happen. 

*Written By: Jacob Kanclerz*
Grade: 9.5/10

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James Shotwell

James Shotwell is the founder of Under The Gun Review. He loves writing about music and movies almost as much as he loves his two fat cats. He's also the co-founder of Antique Records and the Marketing Coordinator for Haulix. You should probably follow him on Twitter.

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