I can respect this cult-legendary Lakeland outfit’s originality — comparing most current metalcore to Underoath is like comparing Tic-Tac-Toe to rocket science. I can also respect the almost unbelievable success and loyalty the group has won with such an iconoclastic sound. But I’d rather be given a Tabasco colonic than pop one of the group’s albums into my stereo while stuck in traffic. And watching a largely under-21 sellout crowd “sing” along with every tortured howl at last summer’s MySpace-sponsored secret pre-CD-release show was an expectedly alienating (not to mention aurally unpleasant) experience. Does the new generation really think its disenchantment is so new, so completely unprecedented in human history? Yeah, I thought that about my own angst once, too. Welcome to the world. www.underoath777.com.
This article appears in Sep 13-19, 2006.