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Between the Buried and Me have announced a new album, The Blue Nowhere, out September 12th. The prog-metal vets also shared the video for the lead single, “Things We Tell Ourselves in the Dark.”
Opening with a funk riff and jazz fusion sound, BTBAM bust out the extreme metal and harsh vocals around the three-minute mark, winding through intense prog workouts before pivoting back to the sunny jazz-funk. The rollercoaster eight-minute track is accompanied by an eye-popping Miles Skarin-directed video that features an intense particle simulation that took 17 hours to process and render.
“This track emerged from the maniac genius of [bassist] Dan Briggs,” said vocalist Tommy Rogers in a press release. “The song deals with the dark cloud that is ego, so I tried to vocally approach it with a different kind of confidence than normal, almost like a pop song… even though it takes you down crazy avenues, you can sit back and sing along.”
Added Briggs: “It’s one of the rare songs I started around the bass and that foundational funky idea, while also maintaining a pretty straightforward melodic idea underneath everything, no matter how dense it got rhythmically. I love when we have arrangements that feel like they have a page turn into another dimension, but I thought it was important for this one to feel really seamless as it moved dynamically. Even when it gets heavy, I thought it’d be fun at the core to still feel like it was Prince’s band playing, keeping it funky.”
The Blue Nowhere was produced by longtime collaborator Jamie King and marks the first BTBAM album to feature a dedicated string and horn section. It’s also the band’s first LP since the exit of guitarist Dustie Waring, who at first stepped away from the band amid sexual assault allegations in 2023, before briefly rejoining BTBAM for a festival show, and then parting ways with the group again.
While BTBAM are noted for their many concept albums, the 10 songs on this album function more as standalone compositions, with Rogers describing it as a collection that “exists in a world that’s not tied to a storyline.”
“Journal entries, fleeting and introspective thoughts — chaotic at times, depending on the music,” he said of the lyrics.
You can pre-order The Blue Nowhere via BTBAM’s website. Stream the new song and see the album art and tracklist below.
The Blue Nowhere Artwork:
The Blue Nowhere Tracklist:
01. Things We Tell Ourselves In The Dark
02. God Terror
03. Absent Thereafter
04. Pause
05. Door #3
06. Mirador Uncoil
07. Psychomanteum
08. Slow Paranoia
09. The Blue Nowhere
10. Beautifully Human
English (US) · 