ATREYU – ‘In Our Wake’ REVIEW!

“Everything we do causes a ripple or a wake…It can be positive and good, or it can be fucked up and horrible. However, we are the masters of our own destiny. We want to leave something good behind.”

This statement is a perfect representation of the theme for the newest release entitled ‘In Our Wake’ from metal veterans Atreyu.  We all want to leave behind some sort of legacy, but few are unsure of how we will be remembered when we are gone.  The SoCal quintet has made it a point to direct attention to such uncertainties.

Drummer Brandon Saller elaborates:

“What are you going to leave behind?” asks Brandon. “We named the album In Our Wake’ because a lot of the concepts address this question. There are lyrics about dealing with your own personal demons and darkness. Some of it is about our children, which is who we leave directly in our wake. Others are about the general public and the outpouring of hate and fear — especially in our country. We created something of a concept record without even trying.” Continue reading

Underøath On Dropping Christian Band Label “For Aaron & Spencer Its Freed Them Up To Be A Lot More Honest.”

Photo credit: Dan Newman

 

With eight years having passed since we last heard new music from Underøath, that near decade-length absence weighed heavily upon music lovers’ hearts. When you consider all of the bands that formed using their idiosyncratic power and texture as blueprints (and then hearing those pretenders fail anyway), you can clearly see the hole Underøath left behind. Whatever real-life worries, psychic baggage or other concerns plagued Spencer Chamberlain, Aaron Gillespie, Tim McTague, Chris Dudley, Grant Brandell and James Smith at the time of their 2013 farewell tour, Underøath’s collective consciousness has been fortified by a renewed commitment to their art. And more importantly, themselves. Never was an imposition more on point: On their Fearless Records debut Erase Me, Underøath have added another crucial chapter to their formidable legacy. When the band went in the studio in the summer of 2017 to record their sixth album with producer Matt Squire (Panic! At The Disco, 3OH!3), they knew exactly what they wanted to do as well as what they needed to do. Having already established themselves both as melodic songwriters (2004’s RIAA-Certified Gold record ‘They’re Only Chasing Safety’) and as ambitious power merchants (2006’s stentorian, gold-selling Define The Great Line and its majestic follow-up, 2008’s ‘Lost In The Sound Of Separation’), the evolution detailed on ‘Erase Me’ finds them using the sonic dialects they’ve crafted to reveal where they are now. Continue reading