Underoath - Voyeurist (January 14, 2022) Album • Page 89

Are you saying it at least almost touches the high of the transition of Returning Empty Handed > Casting Such a Thin Shadow?

 

I've been making a little "best of" playlist as I run through the discography and On My Teeth was the only EM song that made the cut. I'll eventually give the album another listen and pay attention to No Frame more.

Also I should take back my comment calling it a "dud." It's not terrible, its just clearly the bottom ranking album for me.

 

I tried to post that one earlier but the post wouldn't go through. Definitely my favorite from that contest, though this one with 2 singers is a pretty close second

Interesting. To be perfectly fair, my local date was in Albany, NY which is a pretty small area and also has (or had, don't know if they still do because I basically stopped going to local shows) one of the most annoying and judgmental metalcore/hardcore etc scenes in the Northeast. So that probably contributed to it.

I have kind of similar reasons for why I like Erase Me. Like, not in a religious sense, but the whole "moving to a healthier place in life" thing. It came out basically right as I was getting out of an extremely shitty relationship that fucked me up to the point where I basically had to relearn how to be a person again, so that whole vibe of "I've gotten this far on my own and I refuse to let you pull me down anymore" that a lot of the songs had really resonated with me at the time.

 

Today on my drive home I tried relistening to Define The Great Line to see if my feelings on Underoath's discography had changed at all, and I found myself having the same issue I always have.

This is no knock on the band, and I think they're good at what they do, but it's the lack of a chorus. I need that focal point in a song to keep time, to feel the lead up, to hang my hat on, as it were.

Without it, songs just feel directionless and meandering, and it's hard for me to follow along. And there are parts in their songs that feel like they could have been choruses, easy, but they just move on, and the moment is lost and forgotten.

I think that's why I've gravitated to their post-hiatus work.

 

I listen to a lot of music without choruses or hooks so it’s not something that’s ever bothered me much but I definitely had that feeling when I was younger like 12-13 and writing on the walls was everywhere and I just couldn’t get into it. But when I was 16-17 it sort of clicked and by 18 my taste in heavy music was starting to expand greatly and disambiguation was the coolest shit to my ears partially because they either completely abandoned choruses or when they did have them like in division they were so fucking heavy you could barely call it a hook

 

or my absolute favorite underoath song to date in completion has a massive chorus on the front half and it just descends into this ridiculous breakdown on the second half that annihilates the front of the track

 

jeez how good is illuminator. or who will guard the guardians. or catch myself catching myself. or driftwood. disambiguation is a perfect album lol

 

The lack of a chorus makes it really cool to me actually lol I dunno, for a band like Underoath I think they make it work. I'm also someone that is a sucker for a great chorus

The Devil Wears Prada is also another band that I think can get away with a lack of a chorus, really love them too

 

The last 45 seconds of that song is literally my favorite part of any Underoath song. I love how the middle part of the song before it is kinda chill and then it just explodes in those last 45 seconds

 

Yeah that ending is breathtaking

 

really glad Prada is embracing choruses. agree with sentiments that earlier Underoath albums kinda pale without them. the songs are good, but they kind of blend together for me, especially when so many of them are in the same key.

 

I get it, and I think it's great that people can appreciate that kind of music, but I think I'm just not built for it.

Even the proggiest stuff I like I enjoy because there's still a killer chorus to come back to and bring things full circle. I just need it.

 

fwiw, I think there are plenty of memorable hooks in pre-hiatus Underoath music, they just don’t always take the shape of traditional “choruses”, they’re not even always vocal hooks, but I do think a good bit of their stuff has hooks.

 

To be clear, I'm not saying they don't have hooks. I even made sure to point out in my post that there are moments that could easily be a good chorus, if they chose to go that route.

It's the fact that they don't that frustrates me. This is again, not a knock on them so much as my own dumb lizard brain. I need a chorus. I hunger for it, like Galactus.

 

the "uproot the anchor" breakdown in My Deteriorating Incline is the heaviest moment in their catalog for my money

 

god that song rips too. even paper lung the most traditional sounding song on the album goes way harder than your average underoath song

 

It’s too late to pry you away
From the undertow
I watch it take you then I walk away


what a devastating ending to that song

 

My favorite part of disambig was the lyrics - really miss that style from Spence. We still get some gems but something’s definitely been lost there. Metalcore as a whole is really suffering from bad lyricism now imo.

 

I love the disambiguation lyrics to death and they got me through some really really dark times when I was younger but Spencer was in such a bad place during that time so if the trade off is his writing is weaker but he’s actually happy that’s just fine

 

yeah I saw them on the Disambiguation tour too and it was a pretty rough time. they all seemed really burnt out, the sound in the venue was awful and worst of all they opened for fucking A Day to Remember lol

I love that album to death but the energy of that tour compared to the TOCS/DGTL anniversary a few years later was night and day. felt like a completely different band

 

Am I the only one who saw a great disambiguation show in the summer of 2011 with stray from the path and letlive?

 

Yeah that's why it works for me. They have parts that are so catchy they serve as hooks without needing to be repeated. Then the lack of repetition and traditional song structure helps keep the songs feeling fresh and exciting for longer to me.

 

I wish I'd seen them with letlive lmao that sounds lit

 

the bridge in desperate times desperate measures is catchier than any other moment in the underoath discog

GOD WHERE HAVE I BEEEEEEN

 

I skipped my cousins wedding for it and the marriage didn’t last so I won