Cries of the Past

To be honest, I'm not a huge fan of this album. I gave it a higher rating simply because if Underoath could return to the past, they might still have the attention of the metalcore community. The way I view the modern Underoath is that they are a band that began to focus on money and fame rather than the music. I've met so many people who never knew a thing about the metal bands I listened to, but when they found out I have this album on my iPod, they automatically recognized the band name. Of course, they didn't recognize the music, but they knew the band name. It truly is sad, in my opinion, when bands change so drastically from what had potential to a complete waste of time. This is where their potential thrived.

The songs in this album have much more to them than Underoath's modern works. There are only 5 songs on this album, yet it clocks in at over 40 minutes in total length. This shows either good songwriting ability or a really bad attempt at making long songs. With this album, I usually end up feeling the first of those rather than the latter. There are several changes throughout the songs, too, which is a welcome addition to the popular metalcore trend to use one incredibly extended and incredibly boring riff per song. There are some very nice keyboard atmospheres that really fit with the low production quality. The atmosphere is dark and the emotions it gives vary from person to person. It doesn't really affect me too much, but I've met some people who say the album sounds "scary." Either way, I like the heavy and dark effects used in the album, which are an incredibly bright form of the band's musical talent compared to their dull works that came much later.

This album may be metalcore, but at many points, it plays like an early black metal album. There are some very dark and somewhat creepy passages accented by tremolo riffs and high shrieks that simply scream black metal. However, there are some somewhat annoying clean parts. They aren't as bad as some modern bands, though. Normally, combining hardcore music and black metal ends up making a disaster (need I mention Abigail Williams, a band with so much potential that simply never hits the mark?). In this case, it works. There are no brutal breakdowns. There are breakdowns, but none of them are chugfests. This is just an example of a pretty decent combination of dark, atmospheric metal with American hardcore music.

There really isn't a lot to say about the individual talent of the musicians. Overall, the album is mediocre. However, for metalcore, it isn't bad at all. There is absolutely nothing groundbreaking about this album aside from the fact that it is one of the few good metalcore albums. It probably will fade out of memory for 90% of the population in a few years as more and more terrible metalcore bands come out. This will always remain a classic, but like with many classics, it only laid a foundation. Unfortunately, most metalcore bands missed the foundation and began building their music on shaky bases.

I was very shocked when I first heard this album about 4 or 5 years ago, which is probably why I gave it a higher rating. I knew about Underoath beforehand. I knew I hated their music with everything I had. The people at my church often listened to bands like Switchfoot and modern Underoath. I hated both of those bands. When I heard this album, I was blown away by the differences. The only thing that is "emo" about this album is the lyrical content. I consider this to be the true Underoath and the modern albums to be a completely separate band. Unfortunately, this album is Underoath's masterpiece. At the rate they are going right now, they will never produce anything as good as Creis of the Past.

Overall, this is a pretty solid metalcore release. It has all of the right elements to be mediocre metalcore and it has some nice additions to make it worth listening to. Is it fantastic? No. Is it groundbreaking? Again, no. It's just a good offering from a once-good band. Take it or leave it at that. This is Underoath's best and they will never reach this quality again.