Between The Buried And Me

Fortunately, Coma Ecliptic – the seventh studio album from tech metallers Between The Buried And Me – is yet to be pitched to Hollywood heavyweights. Paul Waggoner, the band’s guitarist and founding member, looks back on the lead-up to the album’s release last year.

“I guess us labelling Coma Ecliptic as a‘modern rock opera’ was a little bit tongue-in-cheek,” he says. “It was something we put on social media and it just took off. But in a way, it was the next evolutionary step for the band. In the past we have done both musically and lyrically conceptual albums, this time we just wanted to do something we hadn’t done before.”

Between The Buried And Me are known for their complex arrangements and genre-mashing, and although the idea of a modern rock opera sounds like a throwaway line, it isn’t hard to imagine the band orchestrating such an opus.

“I think it’s just a product of all of us being older and more mature as people and as musicians,” Waggoner says. “We don’t feel like we have anything to prove anymore, so we’re just trying to write the best music that we possibly can and challenge ourselves creatively. We wanted to create something that’s timeless and something that we can be proud of.

“It was really just the next step – it felt natural for us. It wasn’t forced, we just kind of did it and everybody was on the same page.”

Across the Between The Buried And Me discography, elements of science fiction have formulated a good chunk of their lyrical and conceptual themes. However, Waggoner says the recurring sci-fi motifs don’t stem from any particular member’s dedication to the genre.

“The way our music is, [it’s about] the linear nature of our songwriting and the fact that we try to write music that is very dynamic,” he explains. “We feel the sci-fi element fits the music. In some ways, it’s the aural version of sci-fi – that’s how we feel about it.

“Tommy [Rogers, singer] writes all the lyrics and occasionally we all collaborate on what the concept of the album will be, or the general storyline. He often compares the Coma Ecliptic story to something like a Twilight Zone episode, which I think is pretty fitting. We all have a casual interest in sci-fi, not to a tremendous extent or anything like that. We like to think of things like time travel and space travel – I guess that’s something that’s fun to think about and inspires us to write music.”

Since the release of Coma Ecliptic, there has been wide speculation among fans as to whether or not the band will perform the album in its entirety, as has been the method with previous releases. And with an Australian tour set to begin later this month, the question stands.

“We haven’t quite gone down that road just yet,” says Waggoner. “For the Australian tour, we are just going to do a montage of different eras of BTBAM. With the last couple of records, we toured the whole album from start to finish upon its release, but we felt like people didn’t have time to fully digest it. We thought in a live setting it might have been a little overwhelming. For Coma Ecliptic we thought, ‘Let’s just let it be out there for a while, for a good long while.’ That way, when we do decide to play it in its entirety, it is a little more familiar to the crowd. That’s our mentality this time around.”

Joining the band for the length of the Australian tour will be San Diego sonic scientists Chon. Like Between The Buried And Me, they blend an eclectic mix of influences to produce a chaotic and technically proficient sound.

“They’re just one of those younger bands that I think have a unique sound and a unique style, and that’s something we really respect,” says Waggoner. “It’s hard for an instrumental band to really capture the attention of an audience, but I think they just do a good job of writing catchy melodies. Those guys can play, man.”

Our conversation quickly turns to the current state of metal music in Australia and around the world. With the demise of big-time music festivals in both Australia and the US, Waggoner reflects on the future of not only metal festivals, but festivals of all kinds.

“It’s tough, you know; we have a festival here called Mayhem Festival and that one is also no more. I think a lot of times these festivals are really expensive to produce. There are so many expenses – logistics, insurance and paying the bands. It’s just hard to sell enough tickets these days to make it work.

“I think sometimes you just have to take a step back and instead of doing festivals with big lineups and venues, maybe scale it back and make it more affordable for the fans and make it less of a burden for the producers to come up with the overhead.”

[Between The Buried And Me photo by Justin Reich]