Between the Buried and Me are one of the most wildly ambitious bands in modern progressive metal — a North Carolina group who began in metalcore and grew into something genuinely without limits. Lurching from death-metal brutality to jazz, prog rock, bluegrass and beyond, often within a single song, their music is a thrilling, unpredictable ride built on extraordinary musicianship. Few bands have ever shifted gears so often, or so well.

The short version

Formed in Raleigh, North Carolina in 2000, Between the Buried and Me play wildly eclectic, genre-shifting progressive metal. After early albums rooted in metalcore, they found their trademark sound on the landmark “Colors” (2007), and went on to make some of the most ambitious concept records in modern prog — from “The Parallax II: Future Sequence” (2012) to “Colors II” (2021). Led by vocalist Tommy Rogers, they are one of America’s most adventurous heavy bands.

Raleigh: out of metalcore

Between the Buried and Me were formed in 2000 in Raleigh, North Carolina, by vocalist and keyboardist Tommy Giles Rogers Jr. and guitarist Paul Waggoner, both veterans of the metalcore band Prayer for Cleansing. Taking their name from a Counting Crows lyric, they began as a ferocious, technically dazzling metalcore and death metal band, releasing their self-titled debut in 2002. After several line-up changes, the arrival of guitarist Dustie Waring, bassist Dan Briggs and drummer Blake Richardson around 2005 settled the classic line-up — and set the stage for the band’s transformation into one of prog metal’s most adventurous acts.

Genre-shifting prog metal

Between the Buried and Me’s defining trait is sheer unpredictability. Within a single piece they might leap from crushing death metal to delicate piano, from jazz fusion to bluegrass to soaring progressive rock — held together by tight, virtuosic musicianship and a fearless sense of ambition. At the centre is Tommy Rogers, whose voice ranges from clean, melodic singing to harsh screams, set against his own keyboards and the intricate twin guitars of Paul Waggoner and Dustie Waring. Increasingly drawn to sprawling, multi-part epics and full-blown concept albums, they earned a reputation as America’s answer to Opeth — and as one of the most distinctive bands in all of modern metal.

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From the debut to Colors II

Their self-titled debut (2002) and “The Silent Circus” (2003) showcased a complex, ferocious metalcore band already straining at the genre’s edges. “Alaska” (2005), the debut of their classic line-up, pushed further into progressive territory, before “Colors” (2007) changed everything — a continuous, genre-hopping suite widely regarded as one of the greatest progressive metal albums ever made. “The Great Misdirect” (2009), home to the eighteen-minute “Swim to the Moon”, and the sci-fi concept “The Parallax II: Future Sequence” (2012) confirmed their ambition, while the rock opera “Coma Ecliptic” (2015) and the long-awaited “Colors II” (2021) showed a band still pushing relentlessly forward.

Album by album

Eight albums of wildly eclectic, genre-shifting progressive metal. Tap any title for its guide.

The players

Between the Buried and Me’s classic line-up is vocalist and keyboardist Tommy Giles Rogers Jr., guitarists Paul Waggoner and Dustie Waring, bassist Dan Briggs and drummer Blake Richardson — the musicians behind their run of landmark albums. Rogers and Waggoner, the band’s founders, have anchored the group since the beginning, with Briggs and Richardson joining for the breakthrough years. Beyond the band, its members have explored their restless creativity in side projects — Rogers’s solo work as Thomas Giles, and Briggs’s jazz-rock outfits Trioscapes and Nova Collective among them — while Between the Buried and Me have continued to record and tour as one of progressive metal’s most respected names.

Where to start

Begin with “Colors” (2007) — their landmark and the definitive Between the Buried and Me experience, a single, seamless, genre-shifting journey that ranks among the best prog metal ever recorded. From there, “The Parallax II: Future Sequence” (2012) is their most fully realised concept album, while “Colors II” (2021) makes a fine modern companion to the record that made their name. Three albums that capture the band at their most ambitious.

Why they still matter

Between the Buried and Me matter as one of the boldest and most original bands in modern progressive metal — a group who refused every boundary, fusing the heaviest extremes of metal with jazz, prog and the avant-garde into music of astonishing range. Albums like “Colors” reshaped what heavy music could be, inspiring a generation of musicians to think bigger and stranger. For anyone exploring the outer limits of twenty-first-century prog, they are essential listening.

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