Review Summary: Between the Buried and Me provide a mixed bag of covers.
Between the Buried and Me are one of my all time favorite bands. Colors is an album that I never get tired of and I absolutely adore Alaska. But one release of theirs stands out to me because it's their only "album" that I'm not 100% sure about. For those of you who aren't aware of what The Anatomy Of is, it's an album of covers that the band recorded to pay homage to the bands that inspired them. On this record they cover songs by prog-rock legends Pink Floyd and King Crimson as well as songs by some heavier bands like Sepultura and Metallica with a few other bands from different genres sprinkled in.
The album opens up with "Blackened" by Metallica and, I have to say, I really like this version. Tommy's growls seem like a perfect fit for the song and the band plays in a way that's fairly close to the original. From there, the band's version of "Kickstart My Heart" by Mötley Crüe kicks in and...it's okay. It's by no means a terrible cover but it's not great. My biggest complaint with the band's version is Tommy's vocals, they don't sound as hard hitting as Vince Neil's on the original track. To be honest, my main complaint with most of the covers is Tommy's vocal delivery. His voice doesn't fit well with a lot of the tracks that he performs clean vocals on, the exceptions being their versions of "Us and Them" and "Three of a Perfect Pair." Songs like "The Day I Tried to Live" and "Bicycle Race," however, fall flat because of Tommy's "poor" vocals. Not to say that Tommy isn't a talented singer it's just that his voice doesn't go with the songs very well. The heavier tracks sound great though, because Tommy is able to utilize his screamed and growled vocals. The rest of the band play their parts exceedingly well on all of the tracks and each song sounds more or less like the original with a hint of added heaviness.
So to wrap this up, The Anatomy Of has some pretty decent covers on it but it's bogged down by some less than stellar tracks and hit-or-miss vocal performances. It's worth picking up to complete your Between the Buried and Me discography but that's about it.
