There really is nothing quite like watching one of your all-time favorite bands put on an incredible performance. I got that feeling of bliss for the ninth time last night as Between the Buried and Me performed at the Royale in Boston.
The night got started with Canadian progressive metal act The Kindred (formerly known as Today I Caught the Plague), who had one of the most up-and-down live sets I've ever witnessed. At first, the vocals of Dave Journeaux were kind of off-putting for me and took away from their solid and unique instrumentation. It wasn't so much his voice in general, but certain harmonies and notes were just really grating. However, the last few songs took a turn for the better and I ended up enjoying their set on the whole. "Wolvish" and "Heritage" are catchy as hell with some excellent drumming and keys to sweeten the deal. The Kindred certainly wasn't perfect, but they ultimately made a positive impression on me after a rough start. I'll give their new record, Life in Lucidity, a spin in the near future.
California prog sludge titans Intronaut took the stage next. Being the only other band besides Between the Buried and Me on the bill that I'm a fan of, I was pretty stoked for their set. Like the previous two times I've seen them, Intronaut wholly impressed. Their 30-minute set served as a nice sampler off the two sides of their sound; starting off with older, heavier cuts from their 2008 record Prehistoricisms and 2010's Valley of Smoke before transitioning to the more laid-back material material from their newest record Habitual Levitations (Instilling Words with Tones). The highlight of Intronaut's live performance is seeing their rhythm section of bassist Joe Lester and drummer Danny Walker at work. There are very few people in the entire realm of metal that are as good at their respective instruments as Lester and Walker. In addition to their incredible skill level, these guys have an unrivaled cohesion as a unit that just makes them an absolute blast to watch. The only downside to their set this time around was the poor vocal mix on Dave Timnick's mic. Intronaut's dual-vocal attack is one of their most dynamic elements as a band and when one of their vocalists is border inaudible, it takes away from some of the power of their performance. Sound problems aside, Intronaut put on another great show. I would love to see them play a longer set in the near future.
Deafheaven was up next. These guys released one of the most critically-acclaimed metal releases of the past decade in 2013's Sunbather. I was one of the few people that seemed to dislike Sunbather and Deafheaven in general and my disdain for their music only grew after their performance last night. Their approximately 50-minute set was absolutely tortuous to sit through. Each and every song sounds exactly the same with 5-6 minutes of black metal vocals and blast beats over mid-paced artsy riffing, followed by a 2-3 minute interlude of ambient shoegaze riffing, then a return back to black metal elements of the start of the song. The two vastly contrasting sides of their music just don't gel at all. The transitions are awkward and pretty much only exist to appease the hipster crowd who would never listen to traditional black metal. The jarring transitions aren't the number one thing that irks me about them though; that dubious honor goes to the vocals of George Clarke. In all my years of listening to metal, I can't think of another artist who makes a sloppier attempt at black metal vocals than Clarke. His shrieks are absolutely ear-piercing and reduce me to a combination of laughter and facepalms every time I hear them. Clarke is such a disgrace to black metal vocals that I'm surprised Varg hasn't boarded a plane to the US and attempted to stab him to death. I will admit that there are nice melodies in the ambient parts of their music from time to time, and Clarke is an energetic frontman, but that wasn't even close to enough to save their performance from the depths of unfathomable monotony. I should note that aside from myself and these two dudes standing directly next to me, a majority of the crowd was eating up their performance. So just like with Sunbather, I'm in the vast minority when it comes to the quality of Deafheaven's music. I sincerely don't understand the heaps of praise thrown upon Deafheaven. For my money, they are the most overrated band in modern metal by leaps and bounds, a country mile or any other measure that can be used to express a wide margin.
After Deafheaven wrapped up their seemingly endless set, Between the Buried and Me stormed onto the stage and quickly brought be back to life after being nearly asleep for the past hour. Between the Buried and Me has that rare ability to consistently put on perfect performances every time they take the stage. Their level of musical precision and diversity of the setlists have kept me excited to see them for all these years and last night was no exception. "Foam Born A+B" sent the room into a frenzy right out of the gate with the stirring piano-driven sing-a-long of "The Backtrack" before quickly transferring into the crushing second portion "The Decade of Statues". Out of all the opening tracks I've seen BTBAM play over the years: "Foam Born A+B" is easily my favorite. Following that breathtaking opener, they ripped through a combination of old favorites like "Obfuscation" and "Selkies: The Endless Obsession" as well as material from their latest full length, The Parallax II: Future Sequence, such as "Astral Body" and "Lay Your Ghosts to Rest" (the transition from "Astral Body" into "Lay Your Ghosts to Rest" is absolutely epic live). The two highlights of the show for me however were "Bloom" and "Swim to the Moon". I missed The Parallax II tour in the fall where they played the album in its entirety, so the inclusion of "Bloom" in the set elated me. Just like on record, "Bloom" is beautiful chaos live. At only three and a half minutes long, it's one of the craziest tempo roller-coaster rides in their catalog. "Swim to the Moon" had me equally excited as it's a deep cut from my favorite album of theirs, The Great Misdirect. Though they only a played about eight minutes of the nearly 18-minute long song; they still captured the grand scope and beauty of the track. Unfortunately, I had to leave a bit early in order to catch the bus back home, so I missed the encore of "Sun of Nothing" and most of "Silent Flight Parliament". Aside from having to leave early and this being not amongst the stronger support packages they've toured with over the years, this was one of the strongest performances I've seen from Between the Buried and Me to-date. They're probably due to make a new record soon so I'm glad I relished this final opportunity to see them on this touring cycle for Parallax II and await the release of their new material with bated breath. Thank you Between the Buried and Me for another mind-blowing performance and reminding me once again why heavy metal is my absolute favorite music in the world.
Scores:
The Kindred 7/10
Intronaut 8/10
Deafheaven 3/10
Between the Buried and Me 10/10
Setlists:
The Kindred included:
Wolvish
Everbound
Heritage
Intronaut:
The Literal Black Cloud
Vernon
Harmonomicon
Milk Leg
The Welding
Deafheaven:
Sleepytime Tea
Take Me to the nearest Sleepy's, I need a Temperpedic
Musical Nyquil
Drowsy is My Favorite Pokemon
Between the Buried and Me:
Foam Born A: The Backtrack
Foam Born B: The Decade of Statues
Obfuscation
Astral Body
Lay Your Ghosts to Rest
(Autumn)
Selkies: The Endless Obsession
Bloom
Swim to the Moon (2nd half of the song only)
Silent Flight Parliament (left during this song, assuming the last 2 songs were the same as the rest of the tour)
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