Underoath

They're Only Chasing Safety (2004)

pwfanatic

The boys of Underoath have solved the puzzle. They have realized that nothing is worse than generic metalcore, and that it is a genre that is becoming over saturated with bands that sound like each other with no distinguishing characteristics. Good job boys. So there they must have been, brainstorming on what could separate them from the rest. Did they decide on becoming better musicians? No. Changing the vocal styles to something other than screaming? No. Not getting too sappy and weak on the melodies? Nope. Rather, they all scrounged together one hundred dollars to go buy a cheap effects generator so that they could slightly pepper some of their songs with little bits of crappy techno sounds. Way to be Underoath, this sounds like a recipe for success.

So, the new effort "They're Only Chasing Safety" opens with the somewhat promising track "Young and Aspiring." At the beginning, it isn't that bad of a song at all. Nice little guitars and everything. Some normal screaming with a little bit of singing mixed in. They do seem to have a knack for layering the vocals quite nicely, and the screaming mirrored against the singing on some of the more melodic parts does work pretty nicely. All in all, the song progresses fairly normally without really jumping out, until, at the two minute mark, the true genius behind Underoath, the man behind the effects board hops in and leaves his mark. After a few seconds of his effort, I leave my mark by skipping the rest of the song.

Not much else needs to really be said about the rest of the album. The vocal strengths remain throughout the album, the guitars have some nice little catchy hooks but are not as complex as they should be at times, and that man with the effects board keeps on forcing himself randomly in. One thing that is for sure about this album, it is weaker than I expected at most times. I was not prepared for so much melody, especially following Underoath's heavy parts. They build the energy, get quite frantic, and then run out of steam and have to recuperate for a minute or so before they can gather up to finish the song. I can really only recommend this album for people that really enjoy mediocre metalcore.