Tag: progressive metal

The day has arrived! After 109 episodes, we are finally returning to the band that once delivered us the highest rated album of the podcast’s history. Ever since Episode #51, when we saw Godsticks break the mold with The Envisage Conundrum, we’ve been waiting to put their third studio release, Emergence, to the test. Biases notwithstanding, today we’re freezing the fanfare for an objective analysis of what this newly-released and highly acclaimed work has to offer. (Needless to say, if you haven’t yet heard of Godsticks, we’re determined to fix that.) And then, at last, for our topic, we address the elephant in the room: what’s a critic to do when they’re being watched? While many artists are resigned to the fact that all eyes are on their work, a critic’s corner is more ancillary. Looking briefly at the publicist–critic relationship, how can critics keep their real opinions separate from the “business” of it all? More to the point, should they?

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This week we explore the latest work by the progressive rock & metal band, Between the Buried and Me. The album is called Coma Ecliptic. As the title might suggest, the album’s central theme focuses on a man who is stuck in a coma, journeying throgh his past lives. With each song intended as its own Twilight Zone-esque “episode”, Between the Buried and Me has certainly laid out a challenging structure for Coma Ecliptic. Question is, can it sustain itself? Let’s begin the analysis and find out! Afterwards, listen on for a discussion that pits genre-rooted music against theme-rooted music—that is, types of songs that bind their genres together, while at the same time brazenly rising from their genre’s

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