Between the Buried and Me hotter (and better) than ever

After 10 years as one of the hardest-working bands in heavy music, North Carolina's Between the Buried and Me is finally starting to get its due.

The five-piece has followed an exhausting tour schedule of late and taken big risks with its sound: a shuffle (not without difficulty) between metalcore, deathcore, prog, and more traditional death metal to find that sweet spot that would please audiences while suiting the restless self-conception of the band and its material.

In 2010, it seemed that everything would finally come together for BTBAM — it made a big leap from Victory Records to Metal Blade, a move sure to guarantee more money, bigger tours, and a wider audience. But it wasn't done taking risks; it made the dicey move of making its new label debut an EP rather than a full album, and even more, a concept album, full of abstract, somewhat difficult concepts.

It got its reward with the release of its first full-length for Metal Blade, The Parallax II: Future Sequence. Extending the musical idiom and rock-opera concept established on the EP, it tested the loyalty the band established and was paid it back in spades, becoming the band's best chart debut to date: it broke first-week records all over the place, hitting #22 on the Billboard Hot 200, #3 on the Hard Music Album chart, and #10 on the Indie Retail Album chart.

Parallax II will be played in its entirety at the band's performance at the Austin Fun Fun Fun Fest. It'll be a prime slot for anyone looking to see an adventurous, risk-taking band finally coming into its own.