Album Review: Between The Buried and Me - The Blue Nowhere (2025, InsideOutMusic)
- Stuart Ball
- 4 minutes ago
- 6 min read
Written: 7th September 2025
It has been four years since North Carolina’s Between The Buried and Me released the excellent Colours II, the follow-up to 2007’s Colours. Constructed in a similar way to its predecessor – mostly remotely – The Blue Nowhere – the first album the band have recorded as a quartet - continuing to experiment with styles and blending genres. Although not a fully fledged concept album, The Blue Nowhere does have some common threads weaved throughout, albeit laced with BTBAM’s unique approach. Frontman Tommy Rogers describes the lyrical approach: “Journal entries, letters, fleeting and introspective thoughts—chaotic at times, depending on the music. I feel like this album just exists in a world that's not tied to a storyline. It’s more of a feeling—those moments when you feel alone in the world and you’re reflecting, and in that process you’re finding out new things about yourself and your place in the world. Existing in a space where nobody can find you, as you’re hidden from all forms of reality- that’s The Blue Nowhere.”
First track Things We Tell Ourselves in the Dark takes us on an eight minute odyssey with a mind-bending range of styles that immediately shows us that BTBAM have lost none of their love for experimentation. Within the two minutes, we find hints of 90125-era Yes: funk, a combination of clean and growling vocals and a gloriously catchy chorus, which returns later. Bassist Dan Briggs elaborates, “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. 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.” Throughout the song, the band shifts fluidly between textures and tones like an expert football player rapidly dribbling and confusing his opponent while maintaining total control himself. The explosion of power a little before the six minute mark will delight fans of the band’s heavier moments. Lyrically, the song explores power, ego and illusion, contrasting wealth’s glitter with inner emptiness and cycles of self-deception. Never heard what was said / To weep alone in this racing madness / Bright eyed with power / Prettiest at the ball / Grandest dreams of all. As an opening statement, Things We Tell Ourselves in the Dark is an insight into the confidence that BTBAM exude throughout the album and Dan Briggs’s wish to keep the funk in the track is achieved with ease. A remarkable start.
God Terror fully embraces the industrial aspects of the band’s sound with a wonderfully controlled chaos that threatens to tip into wild pandemonium, yet the band’s precision anchors it. Synthesised guitars, restless keyboards and Tommy Rogers’ antagonistic delivery all merge with majestic power. Within the chaos, there are moments of melody and four minutes in, a short section that becomes increasingly cinematic emerges. This is short-lived however and the aggression returns in force before the instruments finally fall away and the track concludes with something that could easily come from a dark, moody science fiction film.
Third track Absent Thereafter, the origins of which date back to guitar parts Paul Waggoner had starting writing years ago, is a ten minute epic that changes mood regularly and a song Rogers describes as one for the die-hard fans. In many ways, it is the most quintessential BTBAM track on the album. The first two minutes – venomous and caustic – give way to melodic piano and a beautiful vocal section from Rogers. In space, in space, I fear tomorrow / Clashing, clashing with our sorrow / To be nothing / Escaping / Absent thereafter / Full of coil. In turn, this is followed by a celestially radiant solo from Paul Waggoner. Using cosmic and ritual imagery, it questions meaning and humanity’s place within an indifferent universe. Belong, to what end? / Embrace my existence / There is only silence / Embrace my existence. Elsewhere, the band visit genres as diverse as bluegrass, death metal and progressive rock and yet somehow, it all comes together in an eclectic feast of sound. A song I have enjoyed through repeated listens, fans will embrace it due to its vast diversity or dismiss for the same reason. Tommy Rogers comments, “I like to think it takes the listener on an unexpected journey, with ear candy waiting around every corner. It’s a deeper dive into all of the dynamic places you’re taken within The Blue Nowhere!”
Pause – a three minute track – takes us in a different direction once again. Banks of synths swirl and eddy in a darkly ambient manner that creates a distinct sense of unease. Just when we think the track might end, carefully picked acoustic guitar begins and the gentle vocal from Rogers leads us towards more moments of cinematic feelings as if we are floating through space. Even then, the band have the ability to surprise, as the last thirty seconds take a disconcerting turn and vaudevillian motifs take hold. This leads directly into Door #3 which continues to confound any attempt to pigeon hole the band as the vaudevillian combines with belligerent extreme metal and quieter melodic moments.
Less than a minute long, Mirador Uncoil is a delightfully twisted orchestral interlude that includes ominous piano, clarinet, strings and unusual percussive embellishments before ending with an utterly devastating vocal attack from Rogers. This leads to two back-to-back eleven minute tracks - Psychomanteum and Slow Paranoia. Psychomanteum pushes the boundaries of sonic intensity with one of the heaviest parts of the album forming the opening, Blake Richardson’s spectacular drumming at its most intense. Throughout The Blue Nowhere, there is the feeling that Between The Buried and Me have become even more expansive in their approach. Many of the songs have sections that have the characteristics of sweeping soundtracks, full of drama, atmosphere and storytelling - the conclusion of Psychomanteum being one example.
Slow Paranoia – which features the surprise inclusion of Haken’s Ray Hearne on tuba – initially sprawls like a macabre, vaudevillian thriller with tinges of twisted gothic motifs, eventually becoming more traditionally progressive. Briggs describes how it came together, “I got a love of George Gershwin from my mom and there’s kind of two sides of all the brilliant work he did which is like sweet show tune standards and his piano/orchestral works that get really manic and have such bombastic energy, and ‘Slow Paranoia’ feeds off both those vibes. The orchestral shuffle in the verse is channelling more of the show tune vibe, the sweeping strings and bouncy woodwinds.” A spacious, ethereal section gives breathing space before the final climax. Both Psychomanteum and Slow Paranoia hit hard, sometimes overwhelming the senses during early listens, with so much happening that fully understanding and appreciating them takes time.
The title track is the penultimate song of the album and is going to divide fans like no other. Inspired by classic rock and yacht rock, it is a more reflective ballad that certainly trades on its pop sensibilities. “The Blue Nowhere is perhaps the most glaringly peculiar track on the album, in that it is an exercise in simplicity… something we aren’t exactly known for,” Paul Waggoner says. Following the dizzying complexity of Psychomanteum and Slow Paranoia, The Blue Nowhere does come as something of a surprise but it is a welcome one and gives the opportunity for the listener to take a moment to contemplate everything that has come before and the lyrics contribute to this. It portrays loneliness, searching and self-discovery amid confusion, highlighting time’s transformative power during its luscious chorus. Wander alone / Held by our own / Time... is the chemical / Searching / Lost and synthetic. Those who lean into its changing currents will discover subtle pleasures, quietly resonant and as satisfying as the album’s denser, more intricate tracks.
Beautifully Human – an eight minute closer – is unhurried in its approach, dedicating a quarter of its runtime to an introduction that slowly draws the listener in. “We knew a lot of the songs were dense and intense, so flow was important,” says Rogers. “You need that space to ride out the rest of the album without feeling overwhelmed.” The track stands as the most consistently progressive piece on the album, allowing each member to display their considerable musicality. A soaring guitar solo cuts through the intricate textures, carrying both intensity and grace, while shifting rhythms and subtle dynamic changes maintain engagement, culminating in a finale that feels profoundly nourishing.
At seventy one minutes, The Blue Nowhere is a vast and immersive journey, its sudden shifts in mood and style likely to disorient those unfamiliar with the band. The album does not reveal its depths immediately; its ambitious compositions, intricate textures and sweeping arrangements demand time, patience and repeated listens for it to be fully absorbed. Yet, those who immerse themselves will discover moments of startling intensity intertwined with passages of quiet reflection and unexpected simplicity. “It feels like a natural evolution for the band,” says Rogers. “We are not repeating ourselves. We are lucky to have a fanbase that is along for the ride.” The Blue Nowhere confirms that Between the Buried and Me are a band unafraid to challenge themselves or their listeners, crafting a dramatic, expansive soundscape that lingers long after the final note, refusing to be forgotten. A triumph.
The Blue Nowhere is released on 12th September 2025
Between The Buried and Me online
