| CD REVIEW Underoath |
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Band: Underoath 2010 has been a very challenging year for Underoath. With the departure of musical mastermind and drummer Aaron Gillepsie, Underoath was due to look for a new drummer, who was found in Daniel Davidson. Ø is the fifth album of Underoath and totally different from their previous ones. There still is a perfect combination of the clean vocals versus the screams, but the sound of Underoath on Ø is darker and heavier than on any other previous album. Still, if you listen very carefully, you’ll discover some kind of melody underneath it. The band immediately sets this tone with the opening songs “In Division” and Catch “Myself Catching Myself”. They sound very complex, but behind the wall of sound, there is some kind of structure which forms the melody. In “Paper Lung”, the third song on Ø, the drumming is fantastic. It forms the basis of this track. It even makes me think of Deftones. “Illuminator” immediately kicks in hard and sounds very dramatic. “Driftwood” and “Reversal” are very alternative and you could even think they form some sort of interludes. The vicious “Who Will Guard The Guardians”, really grabs you around your throat. It creates such an atmosphere, that your entire soul is captured within this one song. “Vacant Mouth” and “My Deteriorating Decline”, which sounds a lot like Every Time I Die, definitely are the most melodic tracks on Ø because of its punk edges. Underoath has really expanded their musical borders. It must already have been very hard to capture this ‘new’ atmosphere on an album, let’s wait for the live shows now. The band will gain plenty of new fans with this album, but I’m afraid they’ll also lose some, which would be a shame for such a creative piece. 85/100 Nick Tronckoe. |
