Like many long term fans of Underoath, having loved their hits such as Reinventing Your Exit and A Boy Brushed In Red, Living In Black And White off earlier albums They’re Only Chasing Safety and Define The Great Line…
Like many long term fans of Underoath, having loved their hits such as Reinventing Your Exit and A Boy Brushed In Red, Living In Black And White off earlier albums They’re Only Chasing Safety and Define The Great Line; I wasn’t immediately ready to give their new record Disambiguation a warm reception. Since drummer, second vocalist and founding member Aaron Gillespie departed earlier this year – taking his pop sensibilities with him – many wondered what would become of the band. But we were all fools. Fools!
It’s important to remember that Underoath have always been a band, and it was the other long term members that brought the chaotic, dissonant, metal-core mess that defined Underoath’s music. Underoath are united and making great music that’s heavier and more tumultuous than ever, still fronted by the talented vocalist that is Spencer Chamberlain. The band’s 2009 album Lost In The Sound Of Separation marked a transitory period for the group, progressing towards a heavier, less pop-influenced sound, without completely evolving. The album had lacked something essential, a certain unity that Underoath’s aptly named Disambiguation now embodies.
The new record still features the erratic dissonant chord progressions, the odd time signatures, the rumbling bass lines and the assortment of high and low screams that always graced Underoath’s music – but it also delivers some killer metal-influenced riffs. Guttural, booming and thundering they complement the new album’s spooky atmospheric sounds and Chamberlain’s dark, introspective lyrics. Album opener In Division delivers a memorable motif of “reset, rewind,” – but the track isn’t all that flattering of Chamberlain’s clean vocals which, delivered in a gritty tone, seem to drone and drag along during the song’s chorus. Throughout the rest of the album, however, Chamberlain fills his new role as the band’s solitary vocalist well. The song Who Will Guard The Guardians sees him effortlessly interchanges caustic screams with melodious cleans. The track also highlights Underoath’s ability to create light and shade in their music, at one point stripping back to just a slow drumbeat, clean vocals and a picked guitar before pausing to then burst back into the foreground with full force.
Driftwood begins with simulated helicopter sounds, hushed muffled conversation and atmospheric sounds. The eerie track features only breathy vocals and a shuffling drum beat, showcasing Chris Dudley’s electronic finesse, exemplifying new drummer Daniel Davidson’s creativity and providing a break in the album before the heavy onslaught recommences. In the interim of A Divine Eradication and Who Will Guard The Guardians, swirling, echoing calls create a disquietude that intensifies the general mood of the release.
Reversal is a strange electronic soundscape, featuring buzzing sounds like a swarm of locusts, booming bass and crashing symbols as Chamberlain’s vocals, distorted by additional effects, repeats the single line “deviate my life.”
Although many will still long for that delicious mixture of pop and metal-core that Underoath produced on Define The Great Line and earlier releases, it cannot be denied that Disambiguation is a quality record. Quit mourning times gone by, and embrace the now. Disambiguation is indisputably a metal-core gem. Don’t let your grieve shut it out, let it in.
