Album Review: Underoath’s “The Place After This One” – Spotlight Report

There’s something about Underoath that just keeps me coming back for more. It might be that they never make the same record twice – they are ever evolving and unafraid of change – or it might be the nostalgia of growing up alongside them, but whatever it is it is absolutely an undeniable fact that they still know how to make a kick ass record.

And speaking of kick ass records, The Place After This One is out on March 28.

The Place After This One is what you’d expect from these guys. But it’s also totally unexpected. It’s an album that will appear to Underoath fans old and new. Underoath is a band that doesn’t follow the trends and it shows – in the best possible way – on this record. They have made one hell of a record by combing some of the most surprising musical elements. Because it’s the band we know and love but in their latest era (sorry, Tay Tay). They’re not the lost young kids they were when Underoath began. They’ve seen things. They’ve grown. And their growth permeates through the very soul of The Place After This One. The record is a mix of sounds that will both be familiar and completely new to the band’s long-term fans. The band themselves have spoken at length about their newer stuff, telling Spotlight Report that their new record feels “more intelligent, more developed, more mature” and after listening to it I couldn’t think of a better way to describe it; it’s their familiar sound but in a more mature way. “Generation No Surrender” in particular sounds like the old Underoath (note the gang vocals) but with a new edge, while “Teeth” is possibly their most experimental song to date. Songs like “Devil” and “Shame” are probably the closest to mainstream songs with catchy hooks, but they never fully cross that line into completely mainstream.

While the lyrics are clearly personal, detailing struggles vocalist Spencer Chamberlain has experienced, the process of creating was a collaborative one. The openness of the writing process has certainly had an impact on the record. As has the band’s unwillingness to bow to expectations.

I know I’m not alone in being excited for what they come out with next. They are a band that just seems to get bigger and better with time – while their early records are iconic and defined a generation, these guys still have so much to achieve beyond the hits that kickstarted their career and I’m appreciating seeing how far the band – and the members – have come from those days.