Venue: Vienna (Wien) / Szene / Austria
Date: Monday, 30.09.2019
The time had finally come for American prog titans Between The Buried And Me to step up as a headliner with a proper full-length set. The quintet took a bold gamble this time around, hitting the road with no support acts. They’d announced a two-set show covering material from every album — an unmissable night for any fan, and given the sheer intensity of their music, one that promised to be unforgettable.
The show was booked into the Szene, a smaller room than the well-known Arena. But a band like Between The Buried And Me can’t exactly fill a hall built for a thousand people — the music itself isn’t made for the masses. The turnout was decent enough. The venue was solidly filled, just not packed to the walls.
At quarter past eight, Between The Buried And Me took the stage and made the sensible call of opening with Astral Body from Parallax II: Future Sequence. It’s a solid opener — a bit shorter than their average, but more than enough to warm things up, and it immediately hints at just how skilled BTBAM are as musicians. Then came the transition into Lay Your Ghosts to Rest, and that’s where things kicked into proper BTBAM territory. Long, complex, and chaotic, the track twists and turns in all the unpredictable ways you’d expect, stacking genre after genre into a single song to show exactly how intense these guys can get.
From there it was a jump back to something considerably older. The band played the title track from Alaska, which came out in 2005 — a time when BTBAM were still evolving. The elements of chaotic hardcore were still front and center, but the push toward something more progressive was already obvious. That chaotic hardcore side got a full airing with More of Myself to Kill, recorded for the self-titled debut back in 2002 — a track that, as vocalist Tommy Rogers pointed out, is nearly 20 years old. A very different-looking BTBAM from the one most people know today. The modern version of the band came right back in the very next song, The Coma Machine from Coma Ecliptic (2015) — the same blend of calm and aggressive, but the guitars are no longer aiming for chaos; there’s more melody now. Then another throwback to the chaotic era, Mordecai from Silent Circus (2003), where the band already showed a bit more of their melodic side, particularly through guitarist Paul Waggoner.
To close out the first set, the band played two tracks from The Great Misdirect. That album picked up where Colors (2007) left off — still the definitive BTBAM milestone and a landmark record for progressive metal as a whole. They moved from the more restrained Mirrors into Obfuscation, which got a big reaction from the newer fans in the crowd. And with that, the first set wrapped up. BTBAM had made it clear their form hadn’t slipped at all, and expectations for the second half were sky-high.
BTBAM’s chemistry is still at its absolute peak. The members are locked in tight with each other. Tommy Rogers, handling both keyboards and vocals, combined his guttural screams with clean singing to drive home just how many layers this music operates on. Guitarist Paul Waggoner reeled off solo after solo without ever tipping into excess — his melodies feel purposeful, never forced. On the other side of the stage, Dustie Warring laid down a rock-solid rhythmic foundation and threw in a few solos of his own, with the interplay between him and the rhythm section clearly on point. Dan Briggs added another dimension to his already-standout bass lines by occasionally jumping on keys as well. And drummer Blake Richardson is by now one of the most recognizable names in progressive metal — rhythmically bulletproof, equally at home at blistering speeds, with blast beats showing up on a pretty regular basis.
The second set opened more quietly with The Black Box before shifting gears into the aggressive Telos. Again the band leaned on the Parallax album, which brought them a wider audience thanks to its release on the well-known Metal Blade label. Telos sent the crowd straight into the pit — a good chunk of people in the front rows started throwing themselves around to the brutal music, until things settled down, as you’d expect. But what’s also well-known about BTBAM is their love of a good suspense build. They steered Telos into Bloom, where they pull out full-on surf rock elements. Another unexpected turn — and here you just have to tip your hat, because BTBAM are genuine masters of their craft with an absurdly wide musical frame of reference.
The second set leaned heavier on newer material. The band also zeroed in on their then-current album Automata, running through the core of it pretty much in full. The complex, sprawling The Proverbial Below led into Voice of Trespass, one of the band’s most daring tracks in recent years — BTBAM weaving swing elements into their own style. Definitely another inspired combination, and it quickly became the highlight of the night. But even then, it wasn’t over — despite the band already having well over two hours under their belts.
After a short break, BTBAM came back for the encore, delivering Selkies: The Endless Obsession from Alaska. It’s one of their signature tracks — progressive through and through, and standing out above all for the outstanding solo work from Paul Waggoner at the end. But of course they’d saved the best for last. Nothing from the legendary Colors had been played yet. And finally, as a closer, they gave us White Walls from that very album — a long track, yes, but one that contains everything BTBAM are about: the aggression, the dreaminess, the unpredictability, and at the end an extraordinary solo from the guitar duo Waggoner/Warring to bring a two-hour-plus setlist to its close.
With a setlist running over two hours, Between The Buried And Me delivered an excellent cross-section of their entire career while showcasing incredible tightness and extreme stamina. The show ticked boxes that a lot of fans had been waiting on for a long time, and in doing so, proved that they can be a genuine benchmark for other bands to look up to.
author: Primož Novak
photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
