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BETWEEN THE BURIED AND ME
The Blue Nowhere
InsideOut

If you've spent any time at all in a place like Las Vegas and walked around the hotels and the resorts along the strip and Fremont Street, you really begin to identify with THE EAGLES. To take the motel metaphor a little further, we really are all prisoners of our own horror rectangles (our own device!). BETWEEN THE BURIED AND ME return, now, in 2025 with The Blue Nowhere and invite you into its story, into its halls. Surprising to nobody at this stage of their storied career, the band are once again as vital as ever. Welcome, then. Enjoy your stay.

Being a concept piece without being a concept album (look, life is weird), it is not fair to attempt to single out tracks per se. Following the excellent COLORS II is no easy task, but then again, BETWEEN THE BURIED AND ME have a consistent track record of outdoing themselves and everyone else in the process. Surprising, though, is just how dense the entire package of The Blue Nowhere is - the atmosphere is palpable from the first time you hit play, the compositions are positively intoxicating. Again, nothing new here, but just like how water is always wet, BETWEEN THE BURIED AND ME are always, always, a thrill-a-minute ride.

Progressive music is self indulgent, but what music is not? The act of creation is ultimately for the artist no matter the medium and if you can make a living at it then that adds a whole other level of complexity - integrity. If you put out the same album endlessly, you can't win. If you innovate, you have abandoned your core sound and alienated your fans, and again can't win.

The beauty of BETWEEN THE BURIED AND ME is that at a core of stylistic intent, the band has never held true to a core set of sounds outside of being wildly innovative within the heavy music multiverse. That, and being named after a deep cut on a COUNTING CROWS album is just enough wink, wink, nudge, nudge to keep me interested for the last 25 years. But all of that would mean nothing if the music, from the beginning way back then, was not of a caliber that truly has not been touched since these men got into a studio. Too tech to be deathcore, too forward thinking to be prog death but with enough flair to be outside of really any genre box. The RIYL sticker should really read "everything. Literally. It's here."

The Blue Nowhere is not an easy listening experience. There are layers and nuances on display that will demand multiple listens, and an almost scholastic approach. With that being said, BETWEEN THE BURIED AND ME have, again, crafted an album that is arguably timeless. It's also really hard to rate in any sort of objective way - which is not a criticism.

4.5 Out Of 5.0