Grammy Award-nominated progressive metallers BETWEEN THE BURIED AND ME have released the music video for "The Future Is Behind Us", the latest song taken from the band's new album, "Colors II", which came out today (Friday, August 20) via Sumerian Records.
Director Erez Bader of Silent Flight Productions comments: "'Colors II''s opening track is an invitation for the listener to interpret the album, or rather the entirety of BTBAM's work, however they see fit. As a longtime fan (half my arm is tattooed with 'Parallax II''s artwork) I've always interpreted the first 'Colors' to be about the fading of creativity and originality in our world, and the message that your legacy is defined by the things you've created during your lifetime. It's both a pessimistic view that the world is going to shit, while also being a rallying cry for budding artists to overcome hardships and remind themselves why their work is important.
"The song 'White Walls' closes out the first 'Colors' album, representing both the death of the colors now faded, yet the blank canvas they left behind — an invitation to start anew. This is where my music video for 'The Future Is Behind Us' begins. While the band's mind-blowing performance is front and center, the subtle narrative begins within these quite literal white walls, which in this video I think of as a sort-of temple. The 'sculpture people' as I call them (who represent the first album), congregate at this towering, abstract painting within the white walls; a holy conduit they've sought to undergo a long-awaited dark ritual. Tommy floats past the world, carrying this growing darkness as it blooms around him in the wilderness and is brought into our cities, eventually culminating in the dark sludge that entirely consumes the white walls themselves. Within the darkness, the sculptures birth a child — a creation of their own, and it's released into our world.
"There's a weird transfer of power as a work of art nears completion. It becomes its own author and starts guiding you to its final form; something new entirely. So while I have my own intention behind the video, I'm forced to be cheesy and quote the new record, 'I'm not the writer, it's you.'"
BETWEEN THE BURIED AND ME built its influential 2007 album, "Colors", on an unwavering commitment to artistic integrity. They've only fortified that commitment on "Colors II". The circumstances surrounding both records bear key similarities, yet the North Carolina quintet — Tommy Rogers (lead vocals, keyboards), Paul Waggoner (lead and rhythm guitar, backing and lead vocals), Dustie Waring (rhythm and lead guitar), Blake Richardson (drums) and Dan Briggs (bass, keyboards) — once again stretch the boundaries of their signature sound and heavy music at large.
"Especially with 2020, we really wanted to give it all we could and show the world we're still here," explains Tommy. "That's part of the reason we named it 'Colors II'. We were in a similar spot when we did the first 'Colors'. Back then, we had just gotten done with Ozzfest. We were wondering, 'Where do we belong in this music scene?' We still struggle with that. At both of these moments in our career, we decided to just be ourselves and write the best album we can. We came out guns blazing, and I feel like it's some of our most creative material in a long time."
"'Colors' was very much our attempt at a do-or-die statement," recalls Paul. "We had to establish our identity and be who we really wanted to be in order to have a career. This time around, our industry was shutdown for a year. Once tours were canceled due to the pandemic, we were, like, 'We've got to write a record, and it's got to be good.' We had to do something next level."
"Colors II" track listing:
01. Monochrome
02. The Double Helix of Extinction
03. Revolution In Limbo
04. Fix The Error
05. Never Seen/Future Shock
06. Stare Into The Abyss
07. Prehistory
08. Bad Habits
09. The Future Is Behind Us
10. Turbulent
11. Sfumato
12. Human Is Hell (Another One With Love)
