On New LP, Between the Buried and Me Still Sound Like Between the Buried and Me, ‘Just More Dynamic’
Between the Buried and Me frontman Tommy Rogers has a hard time describing what the band's Jamie King-produced follow-up to 2007's 'Colors' sounds like, and that's fair. But he takes a crack at it anyway.
"It's definitely a step forward for us, I think," he starts. "I don't know ... when we write records, we never want to repeat ourselves, and we definitely have done that. So, I was worried when we started writing this record that we were just going to end up with something that sounds like 'Colors,' and that's definitely not the case."
In fact, Rogers thinks the forthcoming LP, titled 'The Great Misdirect,' is "more dynamic than we've ever been." The band, he says, tried "different things" on this record, resulting in a rather equal mix of "mellow stuff and more intense stuff. It's definitely Between the Buried and Me," Rogers adds. "That's the coolest thing about our records. No matter what we do, it still sounds like us."
Set for release on October 27, 'The Great Misdirect' is six very long songs. The last track on the disc, "Swim to the Moon," clocks in at over 18 minutes. Fans of BTBAM realize this is nothing new, but for first-time listeners, it may be a bit overwhelming. That's cool, says Rogers. Just be patient with it.
"It's a little over an hour of material, and it's definitely a lot of music," he says. "The thing with us is – yeah, we do have long songs, but we just try to never have a lot of filler. Some bands will have long songs, but half of the song will be a lot of filler. On 'Swim to the Moon,' there's no downtime. We try to pack everything with music, because we like to give people their money's worth."
At some point during the process, the band actually scrapped some material because it didn't really sound like they'd made it. "We do a lot of different styles of music, but when all is said and done, we still want it to sound like Between the Buried and Me, and that's all I can say it sounds like ... us. We don't try to plan things, we just write what comes to mind. It's definitely a diverse and very heavy record, with very long songs, as usual."
You can catch the band on tour in the U.S. this fall with In Flames, the Faceless and 3 Inches of Blood. They'll also be touring Canada with In Flames and Killswitch Engage.