Underoath - They're Only Chasing Safety

Reviewed by Andrew Segal

From the initial ear-splitting guitars of Timothy McTague and James Smith, plus the high-pitched screams of vocalist Spencer Chamberlain, you may think you're just in for other nu-metal assault from Underoath which will entail all the songs of a CD meshing into each other with no discernable beginnings and endings from start to finish. But this collection of 10 tracks, coming in at a mere 35 minutes, has a few good surprises which certainly make it merit more than just one listen. Several pieces of intelligent arpeggio chordal guitar work, plus the odd hint of keyboard, drum machine, occasional acoustic guitar and the odd choir appearance largely set it melodically apart from a genre where people are often prone to detuning their instruments as far below concert pitch as floppy strings will let them. Titles such as "I Don't Feel Very Receptive Today" and "I'm Content With Losing" may be seen as a little off-putting (hey, it's nu-metal, they do that!), and there are moments that are a ittle "samey", leaving you wondering if you have accidentally hit the back button on the CD player. However, it's a well produced album that, although at the heavier end of the rock scale, shows more signs of intelligence than the genre is often credited with.