ohhhh yes, the new between the buried and me album. when i read news of an upcoming record of one of my favourite bands, i was all over it. pre-order for this new excitement went up pretty early in late april with a release date set for early july. of course i ordered that soon and i opted for the most limited colour way without knowing what it might be in the end. somewhere along the way, emp revealed more detailed informations for the two european colour ways of 'coma ecliptic'.
light blue for the second to rarest colour and gold for the most limited. well, actually i thought the light blue looked better and i fought with myself about if i should rearrange the order. in the end i stuck to my choice and the more i play the record and see the colour spin, the more i love it. works really well with the art work. there is also an u.s. version on clear with smoke vinyl. looks cool, too.
but enough of this uninteresting chatter. let's lay our focus on the essential part of this product - the music. plain and simple: this record is the shit! man, i was a little worried about this album beforehand. 'parallax II - future sequence' was a real good album but at times i felt, it was a little overdone. btbam pressed too much ideas into this seventy(!) minute mammoth piece.
as good as these ideas are, sometimes they were overwhelming. 'coma ecliptic' however is more focused. btbam reduced the duration of the album down to an hour and to eight pieces, excluding intro, outro and an interlude. they also channeled their musical overflow of styles into a more controlled song-writing. it all feels written to the point and even though 'coma...' is as demanding as all btbam stuff ever since 'colors', it manages to be catchy at the same time.
the lyrical concept is outstanding. it's about a person which is falling into a state of coma and is reflecting its path and possible future in several alien scenarios. each song for one scenario. every time it is confronted with the choice of re-entering the real world or going further on the search for a better life. there are different interpretations floating around and i don't go conform with single opinions but i won't bore you with details. get the record and form an opinion for yourself! check out 'coma machine', it's a real prog rock pearl! 200 copies on gold. metal blade. 2015.
by the way, i am already in sheer excitement concerning the 28th of september this year. my first live experience with btbam. can't wait!
