Live Review : Haken + Between The Buried And Me + Cryptodira @ Academy 2, Manchester on March 24th 2023

Well, it's all happening this evening at the student’s union. In the main Academy, the regions punk pensioners are on day release from their respective nursing homes in order to witness the umpteenth miraculous resurrection of Stiff Little Fingers. Upstairs in the pokey Academy Three, Indie upstarts The Rolling People are repackaging Britpop for the next generation and downstairs in the club Academy…. Well to be honest I'm not sure what the fuck is happening downstairs, but it has attracted a gaggle of younglings young enough to be my grandkids, in various states of undress and off their tits on Ketamine. It's a rare beast when the metal crowd is the normal bunch, but those of us winding our way up to the old debating hall for a Haken and Between the Buried and Me double-header seem positively conservative in our attire compared to some of the revellers cavorting around the building.

Live Review : Between The Buried And Me @ Academy 2, Manchester on October 9th 2019

This is hardcore prog metal gigging, not for fair-weather fans that once saw Dream Theater at Download and rather liked that 'Pull Me Under' song. Advertised as an “Evening with”, its two sets format and nearly three hours in length makes it a gift to long standing Between The Buried and Me fans and frankly inaccessible to everyone else. Essentially this unashamed celebration of what makes Between the Buried and Me so wonderful and intriguing, is firmly for the initiated (there is not a person in the room that doesn’t know every word and every chord).

Live Review : TesseracT + Between The Buried And Me @ Academy 2, Manchester on November 28th 2018

Welcome to Clash of the Titans: the polyrythmic, ever shifting time signatures edition. If you like your metal complex, intelligent and highly technical then this is probably the finest double header you will find. First out the gates are Between the Buried and Me and without wanting to get a reputation as the reviewer always moaning about the sound, Tommy Giles Rogers Jnr's vocals are just about audible. Now usually this would annoy the hell out of me but, truth be told, I would be gushing lyrically about Between the Buried and Me even if our Tommy did his entire vocal delivery via the medium of mime.