Artist

Between the Buried and Me

Raleigh, United States • Formed 2000

Between the Buried and Me is a music group from Raleigh, United States, active since 2000. Their discography on Gatefold includes 18 records.

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Albums tracked

108

In collections

2000

Since

Biography

Between the Buried and Me is a progressive metal band from Raleigh, North Carolina, comprised of former members of metalcore acts Prayer For Cleansing and Glass Casket. They have recorded eleven albums in addition to a covers album and an EP. Their style is diverse, with influences ranging from thrash, death metal, jazz, math rock and melodic hardcore, to progressive or experimental artists such as Dream Theater, Mike Patton, King Crimson, Queen, and The Mars Volta.

The Arc of Between the Buried and Me

The pivots — what forced Between the Buried and Me to reinvent.

The Victory Records Grind
After the raw start of the self-titled and The Silent Circus, the band consolidated their lineup and leaned into the maximalism of Alaska. They were still tethered to the Ozzfest circuit and the aggressive marketing of Victory Records, which pushed them as a metalcore act despite the sprawling jazz-fusion breaks and King Crimson worship. This era peaked with Colors, a continuous 64-minute piece of music that effectively killed the 'core' label and forced the entire scene to take them seriously as composers rather than just shredders.
The Parallax Expansion
Moving to Metal Blade changed the scale of their ambition, leading to the multi-album Parallax space opera saga. They started utilizing more external textures, like the guest spot from Mike Lessard of The Contortionist and heavy orchestral layers that hadn't been possible on their earlier budgets. The music became denser and more clinical, trading some of the frantic spontaneity of their youth for a hyper-calculated, cinematic approach to songwriting that spanned across an EP and a massive full-length.
The Automata Experiment
The decision to split the Automata sessions into two separate releases in 2018 was a polarizing move that reflected the changing reality of the streaming era. They focused on shorter, more focused conceptual arcs while leaning heavily into the quirky, Oingo Boingo-esque theatricality that Tommy Rogers had been exploring in his solo work. It stripped back some of the relentless tech-death density in favor of better pacing and more varied vocal performances, showing a band that finally learned when to breathe.

Influences

Dream Theater — The band has cited Images and Words as a massive structural blueprint for how to bridge technical proficiency with melodic hooks. You hear it in the way they use long-form keyboard solos to bridge chaotic heavy sections. It's the foundation for their entire 'epic' songwriting model.
Pantera — They covered 'Cemetery Gates' on the Anatomy Of album, and Paul Waggoner has frequently credited Dimebag Darrell for his approach to lead phrasing and pinch harmonics. That groove-heavy southern metal swing is the only thing that keeps their mathy sections from feeling like a sterile rehearsal.
Pink Floyd — The band's cover of 'Us and Them' and their use of recurring motifs across albums like The Parallax II mirror the conceptual continuity of The Wall. The atmospheric, psych-heavy segues in their mid-period records are a direct lift from Gilmour’s spacey guitar textures. Holy shit, the transitions on Colors are pure Floyd logic.
Faith No More — Tommy Rogers has pointed to Mike Patton’s fearless vocal variety as the reason he felt comfortable jumping from death growls to crooning. The sudden, jarring genre shifts into polka or lounge music are straight out of the Mr. Bungle playbook. It’s the high-art weirdness that keeps them from being a boring genre exercise.
King Crimson — The dissonant, interlocking guitar parts in tracks like 'Informal Gluttony' are built on the foundations laid by Robert Fripp. They’ve referenced the Red era specifically for its ability to be heavy and intelligent simultaneously. It's the intellectual DNA of their rhythmic complexity.