Review Summary: Define the Great Line is Underoath's best album. Incorporating many influences from genres such as post-metal, metalcore, and electronica into their post-hardcore melting pot and coming up with an album that is finally worthy of praise.
There are some bands out there that I am just pre-disposed to disliking in some form or another. Even though I’ve listened to them and found some redeemable parts about their music, I still can’t bring myself to actively enjoy them. Bands like The Blood Brothers, Drive Like Jehu, and Neutral Milk Hotel all fall into this category for one reason or another. But before I had even heard some of these bands, Underoath was my target of choice. Subconsciously, I don’t think I ever really allowed them a chance until now. Define the Great Line, as much as it pains me to say it, is a great album with many redeeming qualities, and only a few issues which hold it back from being one of my favorite albums of the past year and nothing holding it back from being the biggest surprise album of the past year.
Right from the heavy, dissonant introduction riff to “In Regards to Myself”, it is obvious this is not the same Underoath that ripped melodies straight out of Taking Back Sunday’s playbook and interjected superfluous and incomprehensible screaming over basic post-hardcore instrumentals. Instead, the band has relied on shifting time signatures, unorthodox song structures, and an all-around heavier, fuller sound (courtesy of Killswitch Engage guitarist Adam Dutkiewicz and original Blue Man Group member Matt Goldman). Sounding more like At the Drive-In with a fetish for later period-Neurosis and Converge, Underoath, for the first time, has actually had quality musicianship that solidly carves them a niche among their peers.
For as much as everyone has improved, drummer/vocalist Aaron Gillespie has definitely come the farthest since their last release, most notably on “Returning Empty Handed” and “Everyone Looks So Good From Here”, offering up plenty of dynamic and hard hitting fills, while providing the backbone that the rest of the band builds off of. Even with this improvement in drumming, his vocals have improved just as much. While formerly relying on an almost cliché pop-punk whine, he has now lost the nasal tone that dominated his previous efforts as the melodic counterpart to lead vocalist Spencer Chamberlain’s extreme vocal styling, and has become more full and distinct sounding than before (see one of the album highlights in “Moving For the Sake of Motion” for evidence). Not to be outdone, guitarists Tim McTague and James Smith both offer up more than to be desired in their guitar work. Dissonant tritons intermingle with truly heavy riffs that wouldn’t sound out of place on some of Converge’s work circa-You Fail Me, and give this album an angular flavor that has been alluded to for some time.
Unfortunately, even with improvement, some members of the band put up lackluster performances in comparison to Gillespie, McTague, and Smith. Bassist Grant Brandell stays relatively unknown through most of the album unless you are really listening for him, which is detrimental to the overall musicality of Define the Great Line. Keyboardist/Synth operator Christopher Dudley tends to be relatively unnoticeable through the album, save for his introduction samples and the background ambient “soundscapes” that show up occasionally through the album. However, both Brandell and Dudley prove to the band’s best asset on “Casting Such a Thin Shadow”, an epic track with a clear Isis influence, lead into by a combination of synths and a throbbing bassline before the hard-hitting apex of the song brings the serenity set by the opening moments crashing down.
However, the lowest point of the album is vocalist Spencer Chamberlain without a doubt. While his seldom-used clean vocals have certainly improved a great deal from the wavering mess that they were on They’re Only Chasing Safety, his screaming, while improved, is still relatively worthless. Complimenting the music well, Chamberlain does offer up a solid range which was previously absent. Going from the low and guttural bellow present on “Everyone Looks So Good From Here” to the Refused-esque yelling of “You’re Ever So Inviting” and the near shriek of “There Could Be Nothing After This”, what he lacks in vocal prowess, he does compensate for in compatibility with the overall sound.
As much as it sucks to have to admit it, the men of Underoath have made a truly great album. Incorporating elements from angular post-hardcore, Botch-style metalcore, post-metal in the vein of Pelican and Neurosis, and adding a touch of electronics has helped them thoroughly establish an identity that they can finally call their own. While the album isn’t flawless, and suffers from a lack of variety in song structures (the whole verse-breakdown style of songwriting is employed perhaps a bit too much), as well as a totally lifeless ambient track in “Salmarnir” and unenjoyable screaming in most cases, it certainly is a major improvement musically and is certainly a step above many of Underoath’s contemporaries in the genre.
Recommended Tracks: In Regards to Myself, Moving For the Sake of Motion, Casting Such a Thin Shadow, Everyone Looks So Good From Here
