Despite feeling a bit too unsurprising and safe—not to mention brief—to really rival its masterful precursors, Automata I is still a knockout effort that proves once again why Between the Buried and Me is the superlative act of their particular style.
Automata I was a superb sequence, no doubt, but Automata II is a downright masterpiece. Exploding with captivating melodies/lyrics, vibrant antics, genre-splicing resourcefulness, and remarkable cohesion and consequence, it exemplifies perfectly what makes Between the Buried and Me so skillful, striving, and singular.