In 2015, Between the Buried and Me took an even more progressive turn on their most recent LP. Their seventh album, Coma Ecliptic, was released last year via Metal Blade Records and was met with generally favorable reviews. While the band announced a tour coming up this Spring with August Burns Red, we spoke to frontman Tommy Giles Rogers towards the end of the last tour about the new record, solo projects, and the future of the group.
So during this whole tour you’ve been joined by Animals as Leaders, The Contortionist, Haken, Enslaved, Intronaut, and Native Construct, who are all great. Can you share your opinion or relationship with these bands now?
It’s all been a great experience. First tour for this record was with Animals as Leaders and The Contortionist. Both bands, we’ve been friends with forever. The Animals as Leaders guys we’ve known for over a decade now, so it’s always fun to go on tour with bands you’re already friends with. They’re obviously all great musicians as well. This tour, we’ve toured with Intronaut before. They’re a great band and great guys. Native Construct and Enslaved, every night they’re doing really great on stage. We really lucked out; every band has been just phenomenal. It’s cool that even after all these years, we’re still making friends and finding a lot of new talent.
I would say Coma Ecliptic is the most proggy album from you guys yet. Was there a certain event that sparked this change in sound?
I think our music has always been a natural evolution. When I look back, I think each album really represents our band in that moment and how we were writing. Coma Ecliptic really represents a place in time right now. We just wanted to focus more on songwriting and melody and quality over quantity. I feel more proud of this record than I have in awhile. I’m really happy with what we have achieved.
A lot of people were mentioning Queen when writing about Coma Ecliptic. Were they an influence or is there someone else more significant towards inspiration of the album?
Influences are tough because you don’t sit down with the intent of sounding like Queen, Pink Floyd, or Tool. But, all that music that we listen to and grew up on are ingrained and definitely influences us whether we know it or not.
The album also has a very intriguing concept. Care to discuss what inspired this story?
We had written a lot of the pieces already and I was kind of struggling with lyrical content. I came up with a few different concepts and this one seemed to fit the piece the most. It had the vibe of ups and downs and I arranged it in a way so each song could be a different place and world. If the song veered left and turned weird, I could create a world that fit that mood.
It seems lately you guys haven’t been performing some of your earlier albums. Do you feel, at this point in your career, that you are disconnected with past material?
When I do listen back to it, I do really like it all. It’s a part of me and who I was at the time. I wouldn’t say I’m disconnected from it, but it is very different from what we write now. I don’t regret any of it, but I don’t think we will write a really heavy record like that again. The cool thing about us is we never sit down and plan what we want to sound like and what direction the album will go in.
For future releases, do you see BTBAM shifting closer to a progressive aspect rather than death metal/metalcore?
I don’t know, it will be whatever interests us and keeps us excited. There’s really no telling. I honestly have no clue what we’ll sound like in five years.
What does 2016 look like for Between the Buried and Me?
We have a good amount of touring, but that’s about it. We’ll keep supporting the new record and hope to gain some new fans. We have some cool tours on the horizon, which we should be announcing soonish. And some of us have work on other projects.
And speaking of other projects, are there any plans for another solo LP?
Yeah, I’m actually working on some stuff. I’m kind of trying to do a lot next year. It’s still very beginning stages, but I don’t really want to announce anything until I know it is happening.
Any other upcoming things you want to talk about or a message to your fans?
Thank you for sticking around for all these years. We’re very fortunate to be doing this for as long as we have. We can’t say thank you enough.
Intronaut, Native Construct, Enslaved
Between The Buried and Me
