RECORDINGS Between the Buried and Me Automata Part I The progressive metal veterans release their highly anticipated eighth full-length album. Drummer BLAKE RICHARDSON somehow takes it up a notch. Once again Blake Richardson’s fluent, musical playing is rendered brilliantly by producer Jamie King, a mainstay since Between the Buried and Me’s 2005 album, Alaska. The first of a two-volume conceptually themed work, Automata Part I sparkles with crisp acoustic guitar and lush synth textures mixed with the band’s typical grinding, odd-time assault. Richardson’s powerful tom grooves throughout “Yellow Eyes” stick to the shifting guitar punctuations like glue, and his melodic use of tightly tuned toms on “Blot” stand out—though, really, his playing shines on all of the album’s six tracks. Automata Part I will quite possibly be considered the band’s—and Richardson’s—finest work to date. Look for Part II midyear. (Sumerian) Ben Meyer Lewis Porter Beauty & Mystery Let’s not mince words: […]

May 2018 Issue