Underoath - Voyeurist (January 14, 2022) Album • Page 45

After watching the first episode of the documentary, it seems pretty obvious to me that the whole “I don’t want to scream” is a part of the entire power struggle detailed between Spencer and Aaron. I watched the three-hour livestream the band did for Dismabiguation last year and Aaron mentioned that Spencer texted him during the writing/recording process for that album “Why did you do this to me?”

Spencer mentioned that period of time from around 2009 to 2014 was the darkest period of his life and one of his best friends quitting the band and leaving Spencer to write vocals on his own was a difficult experience for him (among many other struggles that Spencer has publicly noted). Then Aaron comes back for Erase Me, but he specifically mentions he didn’t want to “step on anyone’s toes” on that album.

It’s very clear to me he came back and just wanted to play drums on that album instead of creating tension in the band vocally. He just let Spencer do his thing because Spencer had to take the mantle of the primary vocalist after Aaron left in the first place. They even mentioned during the recent documentary that Erase Me was just seeing if they could even still do this as a group.

Then they recognized that one of the big criticisms about Erase Me was that Aaron barely sang on it so Aaron wanted to do that more on Voyeurism, but I’m sure Spencer didn’t want to be put into a box and view as “the guy who just screams,” just as Aaron mentioned he didn’t want to be the guy who just “shows up and play drums.” Spencer pretty clearly didn’t want to be told what to do vocally because he just spent two full albums being the primary vocalist in every way. Now he’s older and maybe doesn’t identify as someone who wants to scream much anymore, but Aaron wants to sing more so it creates a difficult dynamic to work with.

I thought the documentary was interesting, but, man, it was pretty dark. I know Aaron and Tim spoke about how Aaron and Spencer got into a full-blown argument over vocals and their respective roles in the band to the point where they were crying and cursing each other out and shit, and then there’s the part where Tim mentions that Aaron felt just as connected to Spencer’s lyrics because he was there when he had to call an ambulance for Spencer so Aaron felt like he had every right to sing lyrics that Spencer wrote when Spencer wanted to do vocals for everything he wrote.

I don’t know. It was really interesting insight on the writing and recording process of the album, but I did not get the sense that tensions within the band were resolved. Like, they talked about that big fight and then they were like “Okay, let’s do vocals now” and Aaron even mentioned that he’s not sure he’s prepared to ever get into another argument like that with them again. Maybe more light will be shed in the next episode.

With all that being said, Disambiguation is the fucking goat Underoath album. Thank you all for your time.

 

Struggle and strife creates beautiful life.

Tension gave us Voyeurist and I'm happy with that. They as a band seem great now which is all you can really hope for.

 

Jesus Christ the drum groove in the chorus of Numb is the kind of shit that made me want to play drums when I first found DTGL when I was like, 13

 

I was pretty reluctant to check this out based on how much I disliked Erase Me, but this is a really cool record.

 

What livestream is this? I only remember the Observatory ones.

 

They did a bunch of listening parties on Zoom and Twitch where they listened to their albums and answered listener questions in regard to them. There’s a three-hour video of Disambiguation on YouTube that the six current members did alongside Daniel Davison and Matt Goldman

 

re: your second last point. Aaron says in Voyeurist #0 that trust is at an all-time high, and I believe in a podcast a couple weeks back where this fight was first mentioned, he even said that him and Spencer resolved a long-standing tension. Tim also seemed to be leaning pretty hard on the "we're finally communicating like adults" angle in the video. I think they got some stuff out of their systems that needed to come out and recognised the necessity to actually talk about shit instead of letting it simmer

 

I haven’t gotten around to the podcast yet, but it does seem like they’re going in a good direction when it comes to their respect and trust for each other. Hopefully it continues. I don’t know, the documentary just struck me as ominous. Good for them that they’re figuring this shit out finally though

 

aaron did mention that he texts spencer every day and hes the one in the band he's the closest too in terms of friendship, like they're the best of friends and i came away from the interview with the impression that huge, heavy convo/argument/screaming match they had was healthy even if they never want to do anything like that again. while they are being more realistic about the push and pull between the members, it seems that not only is that the best way for them to make top notch underoath music, but they are able as a band and as adults to work things out among themselves and as tim put not hire someone like squire or any producer to essentially play referee. i know someone said earlier they thought it was weird how proud they were of being able to produce themselves but for a band like underoath and the lore surrounding their album recording sessions, i think it is as big of a deal as they make it out to be that there's no one there (besides maybe randy, their manager) to act as a buffer between members when things get heated or tense and for me the proof is in the pudding, voyeurist is an excellent work from a production stand point and its impressive as hell from a sonic standpoint, and given the band's recording history, that they were able to pull it off.

 

Is that JJ guy not there when recording as well?

 

Currently vibing with LITSOS in a big way right now, more than I ever have before

 

yeah but he’s a newer addition to the circle and just engineering I don’t get the impression he would step in if some members were fighting over music stuff

 

Ah, I was under the impression he'd been around a while. Well I guess he has but not as an engineer in specific. Makes sense though

 

I just got my promo code for the Digital Ghost replay (for buying tickets to the tour.) Neat note: you can redeem the code on any of the bundles, not just the single, $15 ticket purchase. I wanted the download too, and the code took off $15 so I only needed to pay the $6 for the download.

 

I kind of overplayed and "wore out" Damn Excuses but man it just hit me again today what a ripping track that is.

The layered vocals on the word "breathe" at 1:10-1:11 ish is such a sweet production move.

Speaking of which...Spencer really likes singing about breathing. We've got Breathing in a New Mentality, Paper Lung, Hold Your Breath, and Take A Breath

 

I don't know how to feel about their "constant pressure/disagreements/butting heads" reasons for success. It seems... toxic? I dunno, maybe I'm reading too much into it. I know Deftones have said similar things to them when it comes to writing, and when one of the songwriters isn't engaged (Steph during Gore, Tim during Erase Me) it throws off the balance entirely.

 

butting heads to make good art isn’t toxic, at least up until the point where it obviously is and that’s when bands implode but it’s pretty common and most people who create or have created art with another person will tell you some push and pull and tension between the creators leads to the best work. it’s not a style that’s for everyone and certainly doesn’t have to be the case but to call that way of working toxic as a blanket statement seems short sighted

 

I didn't feel like I made a blanket statement. I said "seems" right beforehand, and gave an example of another band doing it with success. I do understand that push/pull is what makes a lot of bands tick, but the way it was portrayed in this doc so far, it doesn't seem healthy. That's got a strong IMO attached to it. It's cool if you disagree with me.

 

yeah less the butting heads and more the way the story was told that felt challenging. like getting hammered and have a swear fest in each others faces probably isn't the healthiest way to reach the resolution they found

 

Allow me to introduce you to "The Beatles"

 

Nothing wrong with a little creative tension!

 

White Pony was born out of that sort of tension. So was the Self-Titled album. It can definitely be a good thing.

 

not as much as he likes singing about cycles haha

 

I wasn’t aware the tension started on WP. Though now that makes sense because it’s when Chino started playing guitar.

 

Yep, that’s right.

https://www.revolvermag.com/music/white-pony-inside-deftones-game-changing-alt-metal-masterpiece