Biography
Between the Buried and Me was founded in 2000 in Raleigh, North Carolina by vocalist Thomas Giles Rogers Jr., guitarist Paul Waggoner, drummer Will Goodyear, guitarist Nick Fletcher (formerly of Empire Falls), and bassist Jason King. The band's name is derived from a section of lyrics in the Counting Crows song, "Ghost Train;" "Took the cannonball down to the ocean/Across the desert from the sea to shining sea/I rode a ladder that climbed across the nation/Fifty million feet of earth between the buried and me."
Between the Buried and Me's first release was a three-song demo, containing the tracks "Use of a Weapon", "What We Have Become", and "More of Myself to Kill". These three tracks were re-recorded for the band's self-titled debut album, released through Lifeforce Records in 2002. The album includes the track "Arsonist", a protest against the beliefs and practices of the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas. The song "Aspirations" became the band's first music video. At the time, the release was not widely known, but did manage to catch the attention of Victory Records, to which they later signed. Victory reissued the album in 2004 as an enhanced CD.
In 2003, the band released their second studio album, The Silent Circus, featuring the singles "Mordecai", "Aesthetic", and "Camilla Rhodes". "Mordecai" was produced as their second music video. The album was re-released in 2006 with a live DVD of the band's performance at The Cat's Cradle in Chapel Hill, North Carolina on July 17, 2005. Mark Castillo played drums on The Silent Circus, replacing Will Goodyear, though for the live DVD Blake Richardson, Dustie Waring, and Dan Briggs had already joined the band, and recording for the third Between the Buried and Me album, Alaska, was already finished.
After the release of The Silent Circus, the band went through numerous members before the current lineup was assembled for Alaska. On drums, Mark Castillo was replaced by Jason Roe, and later by Blake Richardson. On guitar, Nick Fletcher was replaced by Shane Blay, and later by Dustie Waring. And on bass, Jason King (not to be confused with their engineer/producer Jamie King) was replaced by Kevin Falk, and later by Dan Briggs. This remains the current lineup.
In the summer of 2005, Between the Buried and Me released their third studio album, Alaska. The title track "Alaska" became their third music video. The album released the songs "Selkies: The Endless Obsession", "The Primer", and "Backwards Marathon" as singles. Then in the following year, the band released The Anatomy Of, a collection of covers of bands that influenced Between the Buried and Me, including Metallica, King Crimson, Pantera, Queen, Pink Floyd, Earth Crisis, Counting Crows, and Soundgarden.
In September 2007, the band released their fourth studio album, Colors. Band members have said that "it's a 65 minute opus of non stop pummeling beautiful music... we have described this release as 'new wave polka grunge'." The band has also described the album as "adult contemporary progressive death metal".
On November 6, 2008 the song "Prequel to the Sequel" was made available as downloadable content for the video game Rock Band 2, for free download to users who redeemed a one-time use code in new copies of the game. Since then, the tracks "Mordecai", "Obfuscation", "Alaska", "Selkies: The Endless Obsession" and "All Bodies" have also been made available via the Rock Band Network.
On May 31, 2009, the group went into the studio to record their fifth original album, The Great Misdirect. They have described one song as having "a noisy Coalesce breakdown, 3/4 Mastodon groove, 9/8 The Mars Volta, Queen chromatic build up, and Megadeth chorus". Tommy Giles Rogers had stated that they planned to "out do Colors".
In early fall 2010, the group confirmed that they were recording an EP, which was cited as being a possible precursor for their next full-length album. In October 2010, they put up a video on their YouTube account with the band in the studio. January 18 a second teaser with them in the studio was posted.
On February 21, 2011, Between the Buried and Me stated their move from Victory to Metal Blade Records, then quickly released an EP entitled, The Parallax: Hypersleep Dialogues on April 12, 2011. In May, Victory Records announced the release of a greatest hits album as a three-disc set. On January 16, 2012, Between the Buried and Me revealed that work on the part two to The Parallax has begun and it will be a full-length album rather than an EP.
The band's latest album, "The Parallax II: Future Sequence", was released through Metal Blade Records on October 9th, 2012.
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