Though Between the Buried and Me upped the funk with their first The Blue Nowhere single, the longtime prog unit have now offered up an epically multiversal preview of the upcoming full-length via the second song drop, “Absent Thereafter.”
Contrasting last month’s foot-shuffling “Things We Tell Ourselves in the Dark,” the new tune kicks down the door with panic-swung drums, spidery metal fretboarding and big time roars from Tommy Rogers. But the ten-minute journey also pivots through exquisitely chugged grooves, classic thrash, jazzmodic bass breaks and a Nashville-nasty power-metal mid-section of hickory-sauced guitar-pickin’ and metronomic double-kick.
“To me, ‘Absent Thereafter’ feels like the quintessential BTBAM song – fun, intense, spacy, and still fucking heavy,” Rogers said in a statement. “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!”
Guitarist Dan Briggs added that, to him, the song bombastically brings together a “Van Halen shuffle with Huey Lewis and the News horns,” and adds that the song might make you “break out into a do-si-do.”
As previously reported, The Blue Nowhere is out September 12th via Between the Buried and Me’s new label home, Inside Out Music. An Opaque Custard vinyl version of album is up for pre-order now in Revolver’s shop.
Likewise, Between the Buried and Me recently revealed plans to hit the road on a co-headlining North American run with Hail the Sun. The trip begins September 14th at the Union Transfer in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. You’ll find all of the dates over here.