UnderOath "Lost In The Sounds Of Seperation"

From the ferocious opening of 'Breathing In A New Mentality' to subdued closer 'Desolate Earth: The End Is Here' UnderOath have marked their place as one of the most consistently innovative and emotive heavy bands on the scene today.

Following up an album as visceral and original as 'Define The Great Line' would be a daunting assignment for any band, but UnderOath have created a record which furthers their legacy without simply being 'Define The Great Line Mach II'.

Within the course of 'Seperation' the Oath lay down another wall of Isis ambience meets Botch riff-o-rama sound, similiar to the audio textures presented in 'Define' but with more of an industrial bent (eg. the Nine Inch Nails-esque 'Emergency Broadcast: The End Is Near'). The more noticeable presence of Chris Dudley's keyboards and samples are largely responsible for this vibe, with an almost constant contribution of off-beat backing ambience and occasional reverb-drenched electronics breaks.

Guitarists Tim McTague and James Smith along with bassist Grant Brandell bring a constant wave of chordal noise, dissonant riffing and occasional super-syncopated breakdowns to the table, providing an able contribution very similar to the simultaneously ambient/aggresive parts presented in 'Define'. Whilst these parts do little to highlight any of UnderOath's guitarists particular technical skills they do so to the benefit of the songwriting itself, ensuring songs aren't reduced to the technical wankery which seems to afflict a fair percentage of currently popular metal/hardcore bands (eg. Avenged Sevenfold).

Aaron Gillespie compensates for this lack of technicality with another hyperactive, ridiculously creative performance from behind the kit (witness the start of 'The Only Survivor...), launching furious waves of polyrythmic snare rolls and tom fills into the dense guitar-driven soundscape, lending a genuine feel of urgency to 'Seperation'.

Gillespie's vocal contribution is also of the highest calibre but is much less present than previous UnderOath records, leaving plenty of space for frontman Spencer Chamberlain to viciously exorcise his personal demons in another emphatic, desperate vocal performance. Chamberlain's drug and alcohol problems obviously provide inspiration for a bulk of the album's lyrics (eg. 'Breathing In A New Mentality'), creating a genuine sense of catharsis for many of the tracks and lending credibility to the sheer rage personified by his roaring vocal delivery. Chamberlain's range has progressed several yards from his voice on 'Define' and is light years ahead of the monotone, Dallas Taylor-influenced screaming presented on his first record with the Oath, 'They're Only Chasing Safety'. Chamberlain now presents an impressive array of guttural growls, forceful bellows, throat-shredding screams and even a surprisingly impressive singing voice, proving again why he is regarded as one of the best frontmen on today's international hardcore scene.

All in all, 'Lost In The Sounds Of Seperation' is an impressively creative and well-written record, a necessary statement against the currently blastbeat-and-breakdown obsessed metalcore scene, and manages to transcends the genre trappings of a 'hardcore' band and present a hugely intriguing and emotive selection of songs that defy the conventional standards of heavy music itself. Whilst not being a perfect record (it does get a little slow at about the halfway mark), 'Seperation' is a pretty damn good album and a striking addition to UnderOath's sterling discography.

You like, you'll like:
UnderOath - Define The Great Line
Isis - Oceanic
Botch - We Are The Romans
Norma Jean - Vs The Anti-Mother
Oh, Sleeper - When I Am God

A Day To Remember "Homesick"

Homesick is the most recent effort from A Day To Remember, Floridian purveyors of mosh heavy pop-punk and the 'scene band of the moment'.

ADTR (the acronym they shall be referred to from here on in) made their name with their 2007 record For Those Who Have Heart (FTWHH) which combined, in a fairly novel and enjoyable fashion, equal parts of New Found Glory-esque pop-punk and thundering breakdowns reminescent of bands like Bury Your Dead and Stick To Your Guns. Sadly Homesick presents a lazy and quite tedious successor to FTWHH and makes me wonder exactly why I liked ADTR in the first place.

My main problem with this album is its' sheer lack of originality. Homesick seems to be the elephant burial ground where all the discarded and lonely tracks from the FTWHH sessions have come to die a slow and painful death courtesy of rampant overproduction and excessive beatdowns. All the elements which made FTWHH so much fun in the first place (eg. catchy choruses, clever breakdowns) seem to have been purposefully eliminated in favour of extremely stock pop-punk melodies sandwiched between thick and very frequent slabs of open chord breakdowns. I haven't actually heard a record with this many almost identical breakdowns since the last August Burns Red album, and haven't had the same sense of hearing exactly the same song over and over since, well, the last August Burns Red album.

To top it off Homesick also proudly sports guest vocal appearances from the voices behind fellow vendors of sub-par, dumbed-down mosh music The Acacia Strain, Devil Wears Prada and VersaEmerge. Now whilst the acquisition of scene points is essential for a band like ADTR it seems a little pointless to feature vocal contributions from 3 vocalists who all sound exactly the same as Jeremy McKinnon (ADTRs frontman) anyways. As with every other element of Homesick this seems to be a fairly cheap cash-in by ADTR to appeal solely to breakdown-worshipping, Macbeth-wearing and Oli Sykes-fellating scene kids everywhere.

This cheap cash-in (aka Homesick) will inevitably be a huge hit with kids who spell brutal with two O's and own at least 2 Parkway Drive shirts so I have to commend ADTR for making a record that will make them some serious scene cash, it'd just be nice if they could make some decent tunes for the rest of us over 15s to listen to.

You like, you'll like:
A Day To Remember - For Those Who Have Heart
The Devil Wears Prada - Plagues
New Found Glory - Sticks and Stones
Bury Your Dead - Beauty and The Breakdown
August Burns Red - Messengers

10 Worst Trends In Heavy Music Today

1. Deathcore
I am still befuddled as to why most bands labelling themselves as 'deathcore' think it is both creative and clever to write music that consists solely of 200BPM blastbeats commonly followed by either a 40BPM open chord chugga-chugga breakdown or an excessive sweep-picking interlude (possibly broken up by a few pinch harmonics). Yes, we know that your guitarist can shred and that your drummer can gravity blast at obscene tempos but this doesn't mean you can write a song. Being dynamic does not just mean throwing a breakdown between blastbeats, so go buy yourselves a copy of 'Calculating Infinity' and learn how to write some proper technical tunes.
Bands to avoid: Whitechapel, Winds of Plague, Suicide Silence


2. Avenged Sevenfold
If there is a worse looking and sounding band than Avenged Sevenfold in music today I have yet to discover them (the closest I have come so far is Atreyu). Looking like Motley Crue in this day and age is not cool, neither is sounding like Linkin Park mating with Van Halen and having ridiculous stage names like 'Sinister Gates' has never been (nor will ever be) cool. In fact if Avenged Sevenfold were to suddenly begin dressing like GWAR and play only Nickleback covers my opinion of them would increase a thousandfold.
Bands to avoid: Avenged Sevenfold (duh)


3. Screamo/Electronica
Admittedly I can't claim to despise all the bands currently flying this particular genre amalgamation flag on their respective Myspace pages but when it comes to eclectically mixed genres like this the electronica component is simply not an excuse for crap screamo and boring breakdowns. Screamo/electronica is like pancakes and bacon; sometimes the bacon is nice and crispy and the pancakes nice and fluffy (hello Enter Shikari) and othertimes the bacon is flaccid and flavourless and the pancakes are soggy and taste like balls (hello Horse The Band). Unfortunately this genre is overrun by pancakes that taste like balls and thus I am forced to include it on this list.
Bands to avoid: Horse The Band, skyeatsairplane


4. Excessively slow breakdowns
The same kind of kids that get excited about sludgy snails pace breakdowns are the same kind of kids that go to shows to get 'br00tal' in their Bring Me The Horizon t-shirts, get Hungry Jacks after and stick Coke cans in their stretcher holes until their mothers come and pick them up at 10:30. Not that I have a huge problem with these kids, but they will eventually get the idea into their heads to begin compiling lists of their 'totes fav most brootal deathcore breakdowns eva!' and begin posting these compilations on YouTube (accompanied by extremely amateur Powerpoint presentations featuring photos of circle pits), sparking comment from all their Myspace friends who are ordered to watch these pieces of art via spam bulletins with deceptive, hype-inducing headlines (eg. 'OLI SYKES is totes GAY!). These comments will then lead to a kid with the word 'RAWWWWRRR' in their username getting 'paid out' by another kid with the word 'BBLAAARRRGGGG' in their username because they don't know who The Faceless are and Mr RAWWWWRRR will quite publicly (again via Myspace bulletin) announce that he has begun cutting himself regularly and will eventually off himself entirely. And this is not on.
Bands to avoid: With Blood Comes Cleansing, Annotations Of An Autopsy, As Blood Runs Black


5. Gangsta fashion sense
Whilst I'm not a huge fan of cliche' hardcore fashion (black Macbeths, black cut-offs, Comeback Kid t-shirt, fluoro coloured cap with the brim turned up) I am much less a fan of the gangsta dress style that has emerged from the current 'straight-up' hardcore scene. It seems to me that as soon as you put on a baggy white shirt, flat brim Afends cap and get an X tattooed somewhere on your body you automatically begin thinking that everyone is talking smack about you (and your hood) and that your 'Straight Edge Pride' needs to be defended at every possible occasion (insert instance of four dudes with beards in said white shirts beating the crap out of one 16 year old kid in a Cradle Of Filth shirt because he was drinking a UDL outside a gig).
Bands to avoid: Deez Nutz, Bury Your Dead, Stick To Your Guns, Comeback Kid


6. Feedback as 'art'
As with excessively slow breakdowns, music masked by fierce bursts of feedback is a fairly poor excuse for songwriting and is NOT art. I don't care how many pseudo-Christian poems, images of Gothic statues or artfully-blurred live photos you put in your lyric booklet I won't change my mind. References to the fact that you are 'making music for the sake of music and you just want to make music for people like you and not be famous' won't change my mind either. If you want to make music for the sake of music keep it in your backyard shed so your Mum can tell you to shut up at 7pm every night and you can go sulk in your room and reassure yourself that you are a very misunderstood artist.
Bands to avoid: The Chariot


7. Songs that begin with a breakdown
A hardcore song starting with a breakdown is the equivalent of a gangster rap song starting with a ruff-riding beat constructed of gunshot samples. A hardcore song starting with a breakdown is like a U2 concert starting with Bono giving a speech about starving African children. A hardcore song starting with a breakdown is like a 70's horror movie starting with a teenage couple having sex and then being killed by a masked madman when one of them goes outside to investigate a noise. For a genre that is supposed to be all about passion you would think that artists would care enough about their songs to at least try and write a vaguely original start to a song.
Bands to avoid: Johnny Truant, August Burns Red, Unearth


8. Pig squeals
Who the hell decided that it would be a good idea to substitute already hard to distinguish lyrics in death metal songs for actual animal noises? Will we soon be hearing other barnyard noises in place of actual singing (or growling, whichever way you look at it)? If you're going to pig squeal instead of write lyrics why not get an actual pig to perform vocals for your band instead of you? These are the questions that perpetually plague me when I hear bands like Job For A Cowboy so if someone could pass these on to them that'd be really great.
Bands to avoid: Job For A Cowboy, All Shall Perish, Cannibal Corpse


9. Songs with ridiculously inane names
When I first listened to 'Plagues' by DWP, I was honestly expecting the first track to contain lyrics describing the adventures of some 'Goats on A Boat'. I was quite disappointed when I found the song to be some rambling crap about 'searching for security in tragedy' but I had hope for the rest of the album. Sadly I was just as disappointed with the rest of the songs as I was with the opening track. To collate my disappointments; I did not find out why I shouldn't forget Number Three; pondered exactly why HTML Rulez Dood; wondered who this John was and why I had forgotten his name; got obnoxious when I was told not to Dink and Drance; attempted to spell Crap Without a C (and failed miserably); was confused about what This Song Is Called; felt weird meeting Reptar King Of The Ozone; submitted to the Scorpion Deathlock and discovered That Nickels Is (actually) Money Too and wondered why a user of Australian currency would ever give a crap.
Bands to avoid: The Devil Wears Prada, A Day To Remember


10. Band merch with maritime artwork
Whilst pirates are the rockstars of the ocean (and land) it doesn't mean your cool because you include them in your t-shirt designs. You are not a pirate by association. At least Bring Me The Horizon have a piratey name and vaguely piratey songs ('I Used To Make Out With Medusa') but bands like As I Lay Dying have no excuse for trying to cash in on pirate coolness. Maybe if you were called As I Lay Drowning (In Davey Jones' Locker) I might not have a problem with you putting an anchor and/or a shark on all of your shirts. There are so many different things you could possibly have on a metal shirt that haven't been done yet (ie. I have yet to see a Telletubbie with a chainsaw) and would be 'totz brOOtal' (the Telletubbie again) that bands should really start using their thinking hats and putting some creative stuff on their t-shirts. I mean, deathmetal is pretty much a joke anyways and Cannibal Corpse can get away with actually calling an album 'Kill' so why can't All Shall Perish put a friggin' Telletubbie with a chainsaw on one of their t-shirts?
Bands to avoid: As I Lay Dying, Parkway Drive, Bring Me The Horizon (etc etc etc)

The Gaslight Anthem "The '59 Sound"

The West Virginian rain comes fast and heavy on the cloth top of my Lincoln as I spark a cigarette and push the motor into a roaring crescendo. Getting away isn’t as easy at seems when you dream constantly of what you left behind, but the taste of the open road does its best to soothe my regret. The crackle of the FM radio and Bruce Springsteen provide a bittersweet accompaniment to these thoughts, resonating in the gap left by girls, sleepless nights and too many cigarettes. Every young man thinks they’re a god and inevitably end up hurt when fate tugs their ever-present humanity and reminds them that they do indeed have a heart.

Death isn’t a relevant consideration when faced with the opportunities of youth but every kid does eventually grow-up enough to wonder what song they’ll be buried to and how many of their childhood friends will be there to hear it. Old men should die, not kids who haven’t had the chance to pass their twilight years in a rocking chair listening to the classics and reminiscing of Saturday nights passed.

The rain subsides and I switch off the radio, left with only the hum of the Lincoln and its tales of love lost and backseat memories. It’s always easy to fall in love but much harder to fall back out, even furnished with the promises of freedom projected through celluloid fantasies. John Wayne never stings from leaving the safety of commitment and certainly never regrets his choice. Hopefully redemption will come before the grave when age convincingly argues that the indiscretions of youth can only be attributed to a fairly long learning curve.

The suitcase in my trunk rattles as I pass over an uneven patch of gravel, shuffling about my carefully arranged clothing and personal effects. Despite my increasing age and subsequent maturity I still find myself drawn to living the lifestyle of jeans, leather jackets and hair pomade, resolutely and defiantly unable to accept changing fashions.

The headlights reveal the state marker, ushering me into the potential of new lives forged far from what I should accept as home. Whilst this potential is promising I still doubt that even if I settled here, and became deserving of what I had, that I would ever find myself returning and defeating the self-proclaimed inadequacies in my hastily scribbled farewell.