I'm sorry wut. This is wayyyy more polished than early chariot, that stuff was nothing but chaotic guitar feedback (I mean that in an endearing way).
I mean in terms of production not writing, obviously there's barely any guitar feedback here, it just sounds extremely roomy -- to its detriment imo
This podcast was posted the other day but I can't find the original post to quote. #9 - Chris Dudley (Underøath) I'm still early on the episode but it's interesting to learn Chris say they were initially planning on having the new album recorded and at least have a song out by mid 2020 for the Slipknot tour, and that the fall headlining tour would've been in support of it. When COVID started shutting down everything, they pretty much changed their plans. As Chris says, they thought "Do we have to record now?", so they decided to take their time instead. He admits himself that the album that would have come out back then would probably have been different. Tons of things and ideas were scrapped, and they worked on others for a longer time etc. edit: Here you go, later on he says the new album is much heavier than he anticipated, and that he thinks the initial version would've been a lot more rock centric. He describes it as a mix of the heaviness of LITSOS, the melody of Erase Me except Aaron is singing more, and also some out there stuff that is new for them. His favorite songs are part of the latter, and he mentions one of them being a 7 mins and a half long jammy one.
Here's the rumored tracklist: 1. Damn Excuses 2. Hallelujah 3. I'm Pretty Sure I am Out of Luck and Have No Friends 4. Cycle (featuring Ghostemane) 5. Thorn 6. (no oasis) 7. Take A Breath 8. We're All Gonna Die 9. Numb 10. Pneumonia
First reaction to the rumored track list: At first I thought 10 songs was too little, but as long as they are concise and well structured, I think 10 is perfect. Some of the song names sound fake, but No Oasis reminds me of a No Frame pt 2. Take a Breath vs Hold Your Breath. We’re All Gonna Die is kinda cringe. Lastly, if this info is a true leak, we must be very close to album announcement, preorders, and release date.
Not particularly focused on the band only, but I stumbled upon this interesting and nerdy interview with Chris on his soundtracking and production work overall: Chris Dudley of Underoath soundtracks swamps and the apocalypse with KONTAKT | Native Instruments Blog