Underoath – The Place After This One

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There’s something to be said for when a band knocks all expectations out of the park on a late-career masterpiece. Underoath have proven the naysayers wrong once again with the ultra-creative, career-spanning tenth LP called The Place After This One. The record was produced by Danen Reed Rector (Charlotte Sands) and mixed by Matt Huber (Boys Like Girls), and they both do their best in accentuating the key parts of what makes Underoath such an interesting band in the first place. After some lukewarm fan reactions to the direction the band was taking based on the singles they released from this set, this album shows the importance of context. While even I was admittedly a little worried about the direction found on singles like “Teeth,” seeing how the song plays out in the full set on The Place After This One makes a lot more sense and shows that Underoath has plenty of reserves in their creative tank. The album ends up being the band’s best work since Define The Great Line, and another defining moment in Underoath’s discography.

The album opens up with a chaotic blitz of noises on “Generation No Surrender”, which was one of the three singles to be released from the album prior to today’s street date. Spencer Chamberlain laments on the second verse, “Now we’re on our own / And when the lights go out / And it all goes south / What the fuck do we do here / I guess we’ll watch it all burn / Watch it all burn.” The verse vividly matches the album artwork of feeling like we’re all burning up and pondering our next steps in life. Chamberlain is the star of the track with his visceral combination of clean and screamed vocals to evoke just the right emotion in each lyric. “Devil” follows in the sequencing, and it ended up being my favorite song in the tracklisting, with some great back and forth vocals between Chamberlain and drummer/vocalist Aaron Gillespie. The track features some really cool programming/keyboard elements from Chris Dudley, who continues to showcase his key contributions to the band. The song accelerates to the finish line with a breakdown very similar to They’re Only Chasing Safety’s “It’s Dangerous Business Walking Out Your Front Door,” and it plays out like a direct sequel to this classic track from Underoath.

”Loss” features a great dynamic between the verses and the choruses, while Chamberlain and Gillespie continue to trade vocal duties in the best way possible. The first part of the chorus features the lyrics of, “You can pray but you’re always gonna carry the weight / You can beg but you’re never gonna bury the shame / What a waste, what a waste, no we’ll never escape / Yeah, you’ll still be left with / Still be left with loss,” as the band grapples with the complexities of relationships. “Survivor’s Guilt” opens with an abrasive guitar riff from Tim McTague, as he cements his legacy as one of the best post-hardcore guitarists in the scene today, while the rest of the band rallies around the riffs and beats cemented by Gillespie and bassist Grant Brandell. The chorus is a bit bouncy in its delivery, and showcases the band’s willingness to add pop elements to their hardcore sound to keep things interesting.

The programming is especially powerful on songs like the experimental “All The Love Is Gone” that plays out like Underoath taking a stab at NIN-sized arena rock. Gillespie’s great vocal delivery in the chorus of, “All the love is gone / Got a hole in my heart filled with nothing / I can’t breathe cause all the love is / Gone / All the love is gone,” accentuates the point being driven home in the lyrics and pulls on just the right emotions here. “And Then There Was Nothing” features another ultra-interesting, spiraling riff from McTague and provides the perfect canvas for Chamberlain’s mostly-screamed vocals. The song races to the finish line and ends up being the shortest song in the set.

”Teeth”, as I mentioned before, makes more sense in the context of the material around it and comes at the right time in the album sequencing to provide a brief moment of reflection and reprieve from the hard-hitting material that preceded it. The song features some pretty cool lyrical wordplay between the two vocalists, and will likely be a memorable part of the band’s live performances for the foreseeable future. “Shame” opens with a near-tribal beat/sample before McTague provides the riffs to rally his bandmates around, while Gillespie shines on the pre-chorus to chorus blend on, “It feels like falling / Evil you wanted / Bet you feel safe / Carry the weight / One chance and you’re all in / I can’t believe it / You had everything / And all you made was…shame.” The song sounds like a million bucks, and delivers a rewarding moment for longtime fans of Underoath.

”Spinning In Place” continues down the more experimental path, with some cool guitar work from McTague before the chorus opens with, “When nothing makes sense / And everything’s spinning in place / Stuck in the hell that you made / Tomorrow will be better they say / When it’s not, I’ll say it again.” The track is largely about living with our mistakes and wondering how we can recover from a devastating situation. The band takes it all in stride, and delivers another memorable track here. “Vultures” is the lone song to feature a guest spot, which comes in the form of Troy Sanders of Mastodon. The guest spot seems natural in its construction, and Sanders meshes well with Underoath in this situation.

”Cannibal” finds Gillespie/Chamberlain pondering different questions as they sing, “What if I learned to hate? / What if you learned to fight fair? / What if you didn’t make me feel like a criminal? / Look in the mirror, you animal / What if I learned to care? / What if you didn’t use me? / What if I didn’t bite my tongue? / You cannibal / I can forgive but I won’t forget this.” It makes for another well-constructed song in the sequencing of The Place After This One and shows that the band is no stranger to taking the right calculated risks to advance their artistic prowess.

The epic album closer of “Outsider” relies mostly on clean vocals in the approach, before later in some vocal effects at moments to add to the mystique of the song. The closing lines of, “If I’m being honest, honest here / If I’m being honest, I’m on the run,” leave a haunting final reminder of the way that life can be going great one second, and soul crushing the next. Underoath continue running towards their long-term goal of world domination on The Place After This One, and leave the door wide open to the realm of possibilities of where they will go next.

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