album review ! :3
underoath - define the great line (2006)
xxherlastwalkxx 11/16/2023
oh boy. oh boy. erin reviewing an underoath album. there's no way this is going to get super heated for no reason.
following up 2004's they're only chasing safety was no easy feat, but i think underoath pulled it off as well as possible. in my mind, these two albums are the two "emo underoath albums," where everything lost in the sound of separation and on is more metalcore with, to quote the real emo copypasta, questionable emo influence. define the great line is kind of like chasing safety's darker, more depressed cousin. safety is edward cullen and define the great line is 2022 batman. lmao. on my first listen to this album, i was actually kind of put off by how much more depressing this one is, like i was so completely obsessed with they're only chasing safety and i guess i was scared by the fact that they weren't as whiny or something. that being said, i think that this is honestly a more impressive album, and i'm going to try to stop the comparisons here because it holds so much merit on its own.
this album, in my mind, is a perfect sort of bridge between their last album (last two if you're not a spencer chamberlain era elitist like i am) and the albums that would follow. it's darker, it's heavier, it's more intense, but it still has a prettier sound and more typical emo characteristics in terms of melody and harmony. that being said, it's pretty hard to compare this album to many other emo bands, i think that underoath has a unique sort of metalcore sound that you don't hear in popular metalcore bands of the time period and it's even harder to compare poppier emo to it. define the great line is arguably the peak of self-hatred as an art form (most of the competition comes from other underoath albums anyway).
personally, i'm not generally the biggest fan of the "angry sad" sound that a lot of heavier emo and metalcore bands tend to latch on to, and while i think that being mad at society and the government and whatever is a staple of punk music and should, if nothing else, be respected in any scene of punk-related music, i think that when that anger is turned inward it makes for more immersive and emotional music. maybe this says more about my mental health than anything, but i do genuinely feel that self-hatred is one of the most powerful emotions that one can have, and especially that one can express artistically. i feel that it's easier to attach yourself to self-hatred in music than it is to feel super connected to other emotions that might be focused on external ideas. and this album does self-hatred incredibly well. i talked about this in my last review, but the part in "returning empty handed" where the breakdown hits and spencer screams "the floor is more fitting for my face" makes me feel things that little other music is able to. and this album is full of incredible lines like that, some of my favorite being "under my desk, this can't be it / i'm only dreaming," "oh god, everything, everything all around me is crumbling at my feet," and "at this rate we can't keep up." every line on the songs like "writing on the walls" and "to whom it may concern" is perfect. the repeated "we walk alone" on the former and aaron's first verse on the latter hit incredibly hard. also, since we're already here, is "to whom it may concern" not the best album closer ever or what? it's so perfect for closing the album, adds some dynamic variation and, of course, is the saddest song on the record. i love how the trope of ending albums with a sad song has transferred over to a genre that's literally only sad songs.
to be more objective, so many elements of the music are just incredibly impressive, even on at surface level. the two guitars, despite often playing different parts, work incredibly well, and stuff like the verses of "you're ever so inviting" decorate the arrangement so nicely where it would've been easy for them to just play power chords instead. and, of course, the duality of aaron's singing and spencer's screaming is wonderful as always, and i think it's really nice to hear spencer start to sing more on this album. he's still mostly screaming, and he did sing on they're only chasing safety, so it's not like the idea was unheard of, but the way the vocals are arranged and the parts that he sings on this album also seem to serve as a sort of premonition for later albums COUGH disambiguation. define the great line is really the best of underoath in nearly all respects. though their sound has continued to change, especially after the band reunited in 2015, lots of the sounds that make lost in the sound of separation and disambiguation such great albums can be traced back, in some way, to define the great line.
i know i know. now's the part where i have to say something negative. the most prominent complain (pretty much the only one) i have with this album, to be completely honest, is that it's not always the most entertaining. which sounds really stupid after i spend three paragraphs praising the album, but hear me out. there are some points on the album where it kind of feels like it gets so dramatic that certain moments can feel a little disconnected from the rest of the song. the one that comes to mind is the last little "black, flash white" verse on "returning empty handed," which feels like a really slow way to end such an otherwise exciting song. and, of course, if you're not feeling particular sad that day, "salmarnir" is pretty long for an interlude track. while i love interlude tracks, and i think that they can greatly enhance the experience of an album, sometimes bands go a little overboard and make a like five or six minute long interlude on an album with songs that are only three or four minutes long on average. i think that if you are feeling it, and i think that this album should be listened to when you're particularly sad or depressed, the interlude is great and the atmosphere it creates fits incredibly well into the album. but the unfortunate truth is that i'm not sad all the time. most, but not all. i think that one of the great merits of good emo is the ability to be both entertaining when you're feeling good and also be intensely emotional when you need it to be. there's a fine line when it comes to experimentation, where being super cliche can get boring but being too experimental... is also boring, just with extra steps. while i would call define the great line neither too cliche nor too experimental, it doesn't deliver in this respect as much as i feel it had the potential. sorry. it's hard to talk about underoath without constantly bringing up they're only chasing safety. the irony of the matter is that while i would tell you that define the great line the best underoath album, if you were to ask me which album i would want to listen to more, i would say they're only chasing safety. maybe i'll review that one soon and elaborate more because i feel like i'm not making sense, but i feel i've talked enough for today. erin out!
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