Review Summary: Underoath release a great second ep
After listening to Act Of Depression, I was thinking, what has Underoath got to offer the christian death/metal core scene? It was a dissapointing album to a lot of people and I felt that this album was going to make or break the musical career of the band Underoath. Well after listening to there 2nd album, Cries of the past, I realised this band has got what it takes to survive in this scene.
There are five songs on this album(or ep), and each one is heavy, dark, emotional and intense. The band invites the listener to feel impacted by the sounds of this album, whether it is through the fast paced drumming, emotional vocals, haunting keyboard melodies or breathtaking guitar riffs. The members of this band who recorded this album consist of:
Dallas Taylor: Screaming Vocals, Death Growls
Corey Steger: Lead Guitar
Octavio Fernandez: Rhythm Guitar
Matt Clark: Bass
Aaron Gillespie: Drums
Chris Dudley: Keyboards/Synths
Each band member contributes to the unique sound of this album. Dallas's screams are great ranging from shrieking highs to intesified low growls. Corey's guitar work ranges from generic fast riffing to unbelievebly quick trem picking (he also has 2 solos in this album). Octavio does his job by keeping the basic meldoy through his riffs and trem picks simple and in time with the structure of the song. Matt's bass work is simple and effective and adds as a back beat to create a dark foundation for the guitarists to work off. Aaron's drumming is extroadinary ranging from fast paced drum rolls and fills to generic deathcore beats with double kick rolls and constant symbol transititon to enhance the creativity present in his extroadinary talent and the structure of each song (listen to the start of Giving Up hurts The Most to realise this talent. Chris Dudley does a fantastic job at making the listener feel haunted and provides an alternative to the constant metal for the listener to relax to with keyboard melodies that help the guitarists and Dallas enhance their ability to create an emotional vibe for each song. His keyboard melodies are simple but really effective.
The Last
This song kicks off with an interesting keyboard effect which turns into a guitar trem picking by Corey. It becomes fast paced with every member giving it what they got. It then breaks down into a dark and intensified piece of metal which shows off Dallas's impecible vocal ability. The song then hits a new stanza at about 2:30 which shows the enhancement of the keyboards and guitars working together. This is my favourite part of this whole album from 2:30 - 4 minutes. The song then transitions to a great keyboard melody which is later accompnaied by a slow and soothing solo by Corey. Aaron does a great job at creating an approprate back beat to this section of the song. The song then builds up and transitions to another haunting keyboard melody which ends as an outro accompanied by trem pickings, double kick rolls and outstanding vocals by Dallas. The best song on the album by far.
Giving Up Hurts The Most
The song starts with another weird keyboard effect which sounds dark and mystified. We then hear the incredible fast paced drumming by Aaron, who uses double kicks and symbol transitioning to kick off what is a fast tempo song. The guitars come into it with a well structured riff. At 1:05 the song stops and is followed by a new trem picking riff by Corey. The keyboards come in at about 1:30 and this remains as the basic sound until about 4 minutes. In that time there is a sweet trem picked solo by Corey which sounds great with teh fast drumming and backing riff done by Ocatavio and Matt. The song then stops and we hear Dallas speak for the first time. This is followed by a great guitar riff and keyboard melody. The song then breaks down for about 40 seconds and sets the stage for the final part of this great song. The last 1:20 is really emotional and the drumming from Aaron is simply marvelous. The song ends with a nice outro with Dallas talking again (saying the same thing as before) but this time accompanied by an acoustic guitar. Fantastic end to a really nice and somewhat upbeat song.
Walking Away
This song starts with a Dallas screaming high (with a low growl recorded underneath) and corey playing a sweet riff. This goes till about 30 seconds and the song gets into it with Aaron yelling out in the background Yeeeeaaaahhhhh. We then hear the bass for the first time by itself which sets the structure for the next riff. The song carries on a bit with well timed and well structured drumming. After this we hear Dallas talking again, which accompanied by a fast snare roll and nice bass line. The song builds up again and then transitions to an acoustic section. The acoustic guitar is very intense and fast. Dallas screams over the top then it builds up again. This is repeated again and the next half of the song starts, which consists of riffs and trem picking recycled over and over again. There are no keyboards in this song, but the two acoustics parts played give the listener a nice alternative from the blasted metal. The song ends with Dallas saying YehYah.....he isnt that good at it though. Nice song but it does carry on a bit at the end.
And I Dreamt Of You
This song is really really long. You thought the others were long at 7 minutes, this is 11:23! But it isnt such a bad song and it doesnt really get boring. The whole song consists of fast trem picks and riffage, no keyboards again which is odd because they really enhance the haunting sound and emotion of this album. Drums are great in this song and never get repetitive. In fact this whole album never gets repetitive which is great because Act of Depression had a huge problem with that. This song has a nice acoustic section at about 3 minutes which creates a nice relaxing alternative. The structure of this song is dark fast paced riffs for the first 4 minutes, then it transtitions to an upbeat riff for about 3-4 minutes, which then cascades to a fast paced outro to what is a tiring song for anyone who listens, but not a waste of time for sure. The song ends with Dallas saying I love you, pretty nice ending.
Cries Of The Past
Probabaly one of the best songs ever created by Underoath. The structure is terrific and varies itself a fair amount to keep the listner entertained. Keyboards are the biggest feature of this song, the melodies are intereting and very haunting as they are in the other songs. This song starts with the sound of a car crash and then we hear the first of the keyboards. Dallas then starts talking with the drums hammering away at the tom tom's and ride cymbal. This carries on for about 40 seconds then transtitions to a nice guitar picking with fast paced snare rolls by Aaron. Keyboards maintain themselves and as a foundation to Dallas talking. The song transitions to a girl screaming and we hear the heaviness of the guitars hammer the amps. Dallas starts low growl screaming which sounds fantastic. This carries on till about 2:50 and we then we another haunting keyboard melody which is accompanied soon after by drums and guitars. Aaron uses double kick rolls to maintain the songs metal edge. This carries on till about 4 minutes when Aaron starts playing a fast and creative beat which then breaks into an intense stanza of keyboards, guitars and Dallas low growling. The song carries for a bit more with trem pickings, fast drums and double kick rolls, generic riffing and yesss finally............a breakdown. After this the song goes back to its original style of intense keyboard melodies and fast paced drumming with generic guitar riffing and trem picking. The screams from Dallas for the final 2 minutes of this song are incredibly emotional and are hammered out. The song ends with just Dallas and keyboards which create a harrowing and emotonal finale which involes Dallas screaming his heart out and the keyboards delivering a magnificent melody. A great ending to a great song and a fantastic album.
Cries Of The Past is a unique and terrific album by Underoath which sets the mood as an emotional and intense experience for the listener. You will understand by the meaning of each song that the stylings chosen by each band member simply enhance the story behind each song.
Well I hope these descriptions help you understand the message of this album. It is my favourite from Underoath and is worth listening to if you love the whole christian deathcore/metal scene. 10/10 from me, Cries Of The Past is great. Oh and this is my first review and I have no idea how to write one (I'm 14 aswell) so i don't care about criticism if you choose to. Thanks.
