Raleigh, NC's Between The Buried And Me have released their debut Victory album, The Silent Circus. Fittingly, the first track, "Coulrophobia," means a fear of clowns. Maybe it would have been more aptly titled "The Sonic Circus," because there's definitely some musical three-ring chaos going on on this disc; the clowns have taken over, and the Ringmaster has been tossed to the tigers.

Are we listening to a new sub-genre of progressive metalcore? My first thought upon listening to this CD was "So this is what insanity sounds like." Seriously, they go from screaming metalcore to acoustic ballad... in the same goddam song! Vocals sung through a mouthful of marbles, random keyboards and distorted screams... and then a soothing moment claiming, "It all makes sense, we're capable of beauty." But are they? Up and down tempos, indiscernible vocals, and apparently the mindset that 'faster is better.' If this were poetry, it would be prose: minus rhythm and pentameter. In their more lucid moments, such as the melodious transition of "Mordecai" drifting into "Reaction," I really enjoyed listening. Maybe they're trying to be different and interesting. To me it sounds confusing and mismatched. Perhaps it's all best explained in the song "Ad a dglgmut"; "Thinking of the next noise... making up the next noise. Scream loud, loud, loud, loud."

Perhaps I'm too much of a traditionalist. BTBAM have the capability to make beautiful metal if they want to. I'm just not sure that they do.

www.betweentheburiedandme.com