Underoath - Survive, Kaleidoscope (Album)
» Underoath - Billboard, Vic - Wed, October 1
» Underoath - Arena Entertainment Complex, QLD - Thu, October 2
“Ready, Steve? A-ha. Jesus? Oh-yeah. Well, let’s rooooooock!” Unfortunately, that’s not how the new live CD/DVD from Christian metallers Underoath begins, which proves they aren’t Sweet fans. On the other hand they may be fans of Donnie Darko as the DVD has a disturbing beginning; a young girl is seen lying dead on the floor after committing suicide. Quite a chilling scene. Then before you know it she is resurrected and her head morphs into a rabbit… equal parts David Lynch and street theatre. I am not sure how this imagery is relevant to the band, unless one of their past releases is a concept album about human-rabbit chimeras, but it certainly made for one of the stranger starts to a gig I’ve seen.
The new Underoath release, Survive, Kaleidoscope, is a video and audio recording of the band in their full live glory. Underoath have released some pretty patchy hardcore albums to date, punctuated by some moments of brilliance. Fortunately, the song selection here is judicious and only the best of the bunch are represents. A couple of new tracks are included to spark the interest of fans, and whilst not pointing at a new direction, they certainly maintain the intensity of their previous recordings. Underoath have always been about the musicianship, and it is on full display; the concert captures the band in full flight. The drumming is tight, especially impressive considering the vocal duties he is called upon to do each track. The guitar work by a full Moses look-alike is as always precise, intricate, and breakneck.
Call me crazy but you can hear a lot of The Fall and Pere Ubu in Underoath. It is something about the song structures and the arrhythmic guitar lines. Sure one is an American Christian hardcore band and the other two were British post-punk outfits but if you listen to them side-by-side it is pretty uncanny. You could probably write an extremely dull thesis analysing this connection but I have probably bored you enough already.
The recording quality, both visual and audio, is excellent. The only thing that irritated me with this release is the copy protection on the CD that prevented you from listening to it on the computer. Sure they don’t want you to copy it but it is convenient to listen to it over the computer sometimes.
Survive, Kaleidoscope is a must for fans, and with the excellent track selection, probably one for people wanting their first taste of the band. Excellent hardcore release.
