between the buried and me's the blue nowhere album cover

The 9C Files: Between The Buried and Me’s The Blue Nowhere

This is how I know I’m old: I remember Between the Buried and Me before they were one of the elder statesmen of progressive metal. Those origins of metalcore and slamming death started to evolve almost immediately, and 23 years later here we sit with The Blue Nowhere, an unapologetic progressive metal album that sounds like a rebirth. Their first as a quartet and the first for progressive super label InsideOut Music, The Blue Nowhere stretches into more unexplored sonic territories for the band, getting downright funky and heavy in equal measure. It’s a great rebound after a somewhat lackluster Colors II, and a bold step into a revitalized future.

ChrisNovember 30, 2025November 26, 2025Leave a comment

Dead Brain Cells: Universe (1989)

Sometimes you hear something – usually at a certain age – and it becomes the cornerstone of how you define something. Whenever I thought about my favorite kind of metal music, I always thought musically of Universe, the sophomore and final album by Canadian technical thrash band Dead Brain Cells, more commonly referred to as DBC. It was that aggressive, intricate and twisted guitar work that recalled a more diabolical Fates Warning, and even if my brain wasn’t focused on a particular song, it was focused on the overall vibe, the execution. This, my brain would say to no one in particular, was how I conceived of metal.

ChrisMarch 27, 2025March 27, 20251 Comment

Vinyl

Tool: Fear Inoculum (2019)

Hey…it took Tool 13 years to follow up 10,000 Days, so I figure another six for me to actually get around to really listening to it isn’t going to bother anyone. And honestly, I’m glad for the extra time because all the insane hype and commentary around what Fear Inoculum turned out to be versus was fans wanted it to be was more than a bit distracting and intense. And not just the album: with the rise of YouTube “content creators” it seems everyone has an opinion about the band – they were only good on the EP, they write music that makes you have to “think” too much – I literally just watched a video where that was the complaint. It’s too complex to have any real emotion – that’s another I just saw. I needed to get away from all the rhetoric and just sit back and listen. And guess what? It’s a Tool album, which means for better or for worse to your ears it’s exactly what Maynard, Adam, Justin and Danny wanted it to be. I like it.

ChrisJanuary 15, 2025April 21, 20252 Comments

Vinyl

Blood Incantation: Absolute Elsewhere (2024)

Blood Incantation have forever been the nerdy, brutal darlings of the metal community. Every website and magazine (well Decibel, anyway – are there any print zines left?) fawned over the PR emphasizing the analog recording of debut full length Starspawn, and once Hidden Histories OF The Human Race came out in 2019 it was official: no one made music like this, and the mighty BI were tops in everyone’s books. My take? That “analog” production did less than nothing to bolster whatever chops the band had in both the playing and songwriting departments. Good as those albums may have been, I barely listened once the initial fanfare died down. And then came Absolute Elsewhere, and the newly crowned god of metal production, Arthur Rizk. Uh, folks? That metal community just might be right about this whole Blood Incantation thing…

ChrisDecember 24, 2024December 24, 2024Leave a comment

Vinyl

Papangu: Lampião Rei (2024)

Work has me under the gun so I’m going to cheat a bit to talk about the wonder of progressive/avant-garde/death metal hybrid machine Papangu, whose sophomore album Lampião Rei takes an abrupt left turn from their already weird and wonderful debut Holoceno in 2021. The outfit, hailing from João Pessoa, Brazil are brazen and utterly heartless when it comes to smashing genres together, juxtaposing jazz breaks next to death metal next to traditional Brazilian rhythms and straight up 70s prog from the Canterbury scene. It’s a case of had they gone the full prog route I would have been happy; had they stayed completely metal I would have been just as happy. But in this mixed incarnation I’m bowled over.

ChrisDecember 18, 2024December 18, 2024Leave a comment

CD, Vinyl

King Diamond: “Them” (1988)

“Grandma!!!!!!” I don’t know if there’s a more apt intro for this post, and I don’t know if there’s a better, more hilarious yet awesome intro to a metal song ever. With a new guitarist and bass player in tow replacing his former Mercyful Fate bandmates, King Diamond crafted if not an album for the ages in “Them”, then at least a song for the ages in the immortal (and thankfully captured in video form) “Welcome Home”. This was my first exposure to King Diamond as a kid, my first purchase of his on CD, and then my first purchase when I moved to vinyl. Does it hold up, especially in t he light of having just digested at length both Fatal Portrait and Abigail? Time to find out…

ChrisApril 23, 2024April 22, 2024Leave a comment

Consuming the Tangible

We are what we consume

Tag: progressive metal

The 9C Files: Between The Buried and Me’s The Blue Nowhere

Dead Brain Cells: Universe (1989)

Tool: Fear Inoculum (2019)

Blood Incantation: Absolute Elsewhere (2024)

Papangu: Lampião Rei (2024)

King Diamond: “Them” (1988)