When one of Dream Theater’s co-founders names your album his favorite of the year you know you’ve made it in the prog metal scene. That was the case for Between The Buried and Me and their album Colors when prog-rock legend drummer Mike Portnoy (along with numerous other publications) named this 65-minute eclectic journey the best metal album of 2007.
It’s not hard to see why. You have metalcore, death metal, speed metal, psychedelia, prog, polka (goddamn polka!), and math metal all wrapped into one tight rollicking package. As you would expect from a prog metal album Colors is chock full of songs with massive dynamic changes, atypical time signatures (often switching signatures mid-song), and a blend of screaming vocals interlaced with cleans. The guitar work here is simply impeccable and interfaces seamlessly with an equally impressive percussion section.
Especially outstanding is the transitions between songs— if you listen to this blind without staring at Spotify it’s nearly impossible to understand where one song ends and the next begins. In other words, Between The Buried and Me has effectively created one cohesive 65-minute experience front to back, the definition of what an album is really meant to be.
Standout Songs: “Sun of Nothing”, “Ants Of The Sky”, “White Walls”
