Between the Buried and Me

The name Between the Buried and Me exudes death-metal morbidity, but the North Carolina band grabbed its moniker from a Counting Crows lyric. It's an apt origin for a group that draws from outside influences; BTBAM incorporates jazzy prog-rock interludes and poignant singer-songwriter passages into technical thrashathons. But because the band stretched so far on its three previous albums, this covers record, The Anatomy Of, isn't so much surprising in its selections as it is astonishing in its execution. Between the Buried and Me aim for accuracy rather than reconstruction, recruiting a saxophonist for their serene take on Pink Floyd's "Us and Them" and synchronizing the perkily pastoral group vocals on Queen's "Bicycle Race." Vocalist Tommy Rogers remains too earnest to sell Mötley Crüe's swaggering "Kickstart My Heart," but he hits everything else on the spectrum, from the severe baritone of Depeche Mode's "Little 15" to the breezy tones of King Crimson's "Three of a Perfect Pair." Note-for-note remakes usually trigger a "what's the point?" response, but reverently replicating these wide-ranging works makes more of a statement about the group's instrumental prowess than shoehorning the songs into a metal template ever could.