''The Great Misdirect'' is the fifth studio album by American

progressive metal Progressive metal (sometimes shortened to prog metal) is a broad fusion music genre melding heavy metal and progressive rock, combining the loud "aggression" and amplified guitar-driven sound of the former with the more experimental, cerebral ...

band

Between the Buried and Me Between the Buried and Me, often abbreviated as BTBAM, is an American progressive metal band from Raleigh, North Carolina. Formed in 2000, the band consists of Tommy Giles Rogers Jr. (lead vocals, keyboards), Paul Waggoner (lead guitar, backing ...

. It was released on October 27, 2009 through

Victory Records Victory Records is a Chicago-based record label founded by Tony Brummel. It operates a music publishing company called "Another Victory, Inc." and is the distributor of several record labels. It has featured many prominent artists including Thur ...

and was produced by Jamie King. Despite containing only six tracks, the album reaches nearly an hour in total time length. The album contains their longest song, "Swim to the Moon", which surpasses 17 minutes. Frontman Tommy Giles Rogers described ''The Great Misdirect'' as "some of the best material we've ever created."

Style

Musically, this album is a continuation of the

technical death metal Technical death metal (also referred to as tech-death) is a musical subgenre of death metal that began and developed in the early- to mid-1990s, with particular focus on challenging, demanding instrumental skill and complex songwriting. Techni ...

and avant-garde metal sound the band is known for.

Background

Between the Buried and Me began recording for ''The Great Misdirect'' during the summer of 2009. On August 31, the band released a four-minute teaser of the album containing various short clips of the album's songs onto their MySpace profile. On September 1, the band played a new song entitled "Obfuscation" as well as "Disease, Injury, Madness" at the Lincoln Theatre in

Raleigh, North Carolina Raleigh (; ) is the capital city of the state of North Carolina and the seat of Wake County in the United States. It is the second-most populous city in North Carolina, after Charlotte. Raleigh is the tenth-most populous city in the Southe ...

. On September 16, " Obfuscation" was streamed live on Victory’s metal focused web platform, VictoryMetal.com. The Great Misdirect debuted at #36 on the Billboard 200. The deluxe edition of the album was released on October 26, it included a "making of" documentary about the album, a walk through of all the band members' gear, and a 5.1 surround sound mix of the album. The name of the record is derived from the last line of the song "Obfuscation". Rogers has stated that the nearly 18-minute-long closing song "Swim to the Moon" is - in some ways - a companion piece to "Sun of Nothing", a song featured on their previous album, ''

Colors Color (American English) or colour (British English) is the visual perceptual property deriving from the spectrum of light interacting with the photoreceptor cells of the eyes. Color categories and physical specifications of color are associa ...

''. This song is the prequel to the "Parallax Saga" following this album, '' The Parallax: Hypersleep Dialogues'' and '' The Parallax II: Future Sequence''. On March 16, 2010 the album was released in a limited edition

vinyl Vinyl may refer to: Chemistry * Polyvinyl chloride (PVC), a particular vinyl polymer * Vinyl cation, a type of carbocation * Vinyl group, a broad class of organic molecules in chemistry * Vinyl polymer, a group of polymers derived from vinyl ...

, limited to 200 copies as clear pink vinyl and 1,250 as clear orange. ''The Great Misdirect'' also features their lead guitarist Paul Waggoner performing opening vocals on "Desert of Song" and Chuck Johnson performing vocals on "Swim to the Moon". A backwards message is included in the song "Disease, Injury, Madness" at 3:17-3:37. It is difficult to hear over the acoustic guitar riffs, but a voice is heard saying "You will sleep with the rest of the non-believers... If you disagree you will sleep... You will sleep with the rest of the non-believers...."

Appearances

The second song "Obfuscation" is featured as downloadable content in Rock Band 2 via the Rock Band Network. It is also featured in the game Saints Row 3 on the radio "Blood 106.66".

Track listing

Personnel

Credits for ''The Great Misdirect'' adapted from liner notes.(2009). "''The Great Misdirect'' liner notes". In ''The Great Misdirect'' D booklet Victory. ;Between the Buried and Me * Tommy Giles Rogers Jr. –

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or withou ...

, keyboards *

Paul Waggoner Paul Andrew Waggoner is the lead guitarist of American progressive metal band Between the Buried and Me. A fan of progressive music, he is heavily inspired by John Petrucci, Pat Metheny, Allan Holdsworth and Steve Vai, amongst others. He former ...

– lead guitar, vocals on "Desert of Song" * Dan Briggs – bass, keyboards, backing vocals *Dustie Waring – rhythm guitar * Blake Richardson – drums,

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Ex ...

;Production *Jamie King –

production Production may refer to: Economics and business * Production (economics) * Production, the act of manufacturing goods * Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services) * Production as a stati ...

engineering Engineering is the use of scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad range of more speciali ...

, mixing, mastering *Justin Johnson – engineering *Brandon Proff – layout, concept design *Chuck Johnson – photography, vocals on "Swim to the Moon"

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Great Misdirect, The 2009 albums Between the Buried and Me albums Victory Records albums Albums produced by Jamie King (record producer)