Cries of the Past

Cries of the Past is truly a remarkable album. In the space of exactly one year this iteration of Underoath (Mk. 1), now with a somewhat rearranged line up, progressed and matured their music in such leaps and bounds that in many ways it's hard to believe it's the same band. Then again, many of the hallmarks of their ultimately ill-conceived debut Act of Depression do turn up here; fortunately, they kept all of the positives (and threw in a few new ones too) and chucked out virtually all of the negatives. This is still the work of a very different band than the more famous iterations that would follow, but in contrast to their first volley, they sound focused, hungry, and always striving to push themselves further whilst not stretching things too far. It's one hell of a swansong for Mk. 1, an almost rousing success story told entirely through music, and still to this day the finest album released under this moniker, no matter the personnel behind it.

Of course, one other reason this album is so remarkable to many is simply for being what it is - a Christian metalcore album infused with black and death metal, released under the same name that would go on to be associated with 'A Boy Brushed Red Living in Black and White'. It's the same sort of novelty attached to Act of Depression, though heightened on account of the black metal influences. Being the work of a basically entirely different line up, this radically different sound makes a lot more sense of course. What's far more important is that they do this style *really well* - amazingly well, honestly. Their riffs were solid before but with that injection of black metal tremolo, melody (which also gives the guitar work a sense of vibrancy and colour), and a generally increased focus on the extreme metal side of their sound, they really let loose on the guitars here with amazing riff after amazing riff; these songs are stuffed to the gills with them, and they vary in texture and rhythm frequently. The metalcore/hardcore influences still have a role to play and they do throw in the odd breakdown (the title track prominently features one), though they focus far more on some amazing and well-placed grooves and chugs that vary things up nicely. On the whole the guitars play more active and involved material (the riffs are generally a little more technical) and this calls for a more active drum performance, which is happily the case. Whilst still more on the punkish end of things, the drumming does a good job in helping to create and release tension, involving a lot of double bass, rapid-fire fills and beats (the odd blast, even), and on the whole it complements the riffs very nicely.

The vocals - harsh at least - were one of the strongest elements of their debut and they are actually improved upon here. A pulpy, high but still suitably strong and emotionally compelling scream is what a bulk of the vocals are on this album as before, but complementing them now are a similarly strong set of lower growls that help vary up the performance a fair bit. Clean vocals are still used here and there, though honestly a lot less so (save for brief spoken word monologues on 'Giving Up Hurts the Most' and 'Walking Away', the latter also features clean wailing at the start which actually does work) and mercifully one area they improved upon are the lyrics. They're still of a Christian bent but they take a more soulful, poetic and perhaps 'bleeding heart metalcore angst' approach. That sort of writing still isn't for everyone - I personally find them rather compelling; they feel like a pure and admirable expression of one's faith - but regardless it is vastly preferable to the preachy, ham-fisted rubbish heard on their debut, and it means when you do catch a lyric once in a while it isn't an embarrassment for everyone involved.

All of this said, the biggest way this band so greatly improved their sound was that serious sense of focus and a hunger to push themselves without taking it too far - that is, the songwriting. This strikes me as a much, much more mature, confident and poised effort than their debut and it ultimately comes down to how focused the songs are. No more are there ramshackle collections of death metal riffs, metalcore riffs and breakdowns hastily crashed into one another with no rhyme or reason. These songs manage to have more riffs, ideas and individual passages thrown into them than any of their past work and yet feel more coherent and cohesive. Even as they fairly abruptly shift between rapid-fire tremolo and slower metalcore chugs, these songs flow and transition with grace and without effort and keep you on the edge of your seat throughout, even as they range from well over 7 to well over 11 minutes. The riffs are actually given time to breathe, drive the songs forward and really leave an impact, and the way they're assembled into songs means they can actually reinforce as opposed to detract from one another, allowing you to appreciate the performances far more than you ever could on their older songs. They are easily some of the most successfully ambitious pieces of work in their entire catalogue and will probably forever remain so. Unlike their debut, which has you wanting it to end about 5 minutes in, you'll be hitting replay on this when its 43 minutes are up; as I have done whilst writing this very review.

There's another consequence of this significant structural upgrade, which is that this album actually has an atmosphere to speak of; one that is equal parts nostalgic, sorrowful, hopeful and impassioned. The riffs have room to breathe and both create and release tension, and thus so do the songs, and thus they can actually weave a sonic tapestry in the mind, adorned with the rather more poetic lyricism found here. There's other aspects to the album that contribute to this - the increased melodic sense of the riffs, the greater changeups in texture and rhythm across the riffs and rhythm section respectively, as well as little touches like the occasional use of acoustic guitar or spoken/clean vocals. There's also the matter of the keyboards, which are a new addition for this album that would follow this band for the rest of their career. Instead of modern-sounding electronics though, we get spacey and ethereal keys in a more typical black metal vein. They do load up on them quite heavily on the title track (to good effect I might add) but on the whole these are used a relatively subtle and tasteful element to the music that add yet more colour to the proceedings. All of these elements adding up to create this atmosphere leads to a much more memorable experience than their older material, not even considering the base structural improvements. Even the production, though still clearly a case of 'late '90s/early '00s metalcore album released on an indie label' still manages to be fuller, richer, more textured and a little more thunderous than before, enough to not harm the album at all and even help it.

And with that, all is said and done. This album is an amazing work and a classic at this point; a summit for Underoath that may never be reached again. And maybe that's not such a bad thing - why cry for the past when you can look towards the future?

Whoever knows Underoath, knows how they have become throughout the years. And how their style has worsened and shifted towards a completely different place to stay in line with the trend, making them a commercial alt-rock/pop-punk-influenced metalcore band, even though not as bad as you might think. This disease, which affects a lot of contemporary American bands, obsessed with becoming pop-stars of the metal scene, literally ruined what actually the spirit of the underground music, that both metal and hardcore actually is, something meant to be by the few for the few. And, as I've said in another review, this doesn't just inherently applies to metalcore but to other genres as well.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not calling for elitism, but for God's sake, to each his own. Experimentation is welcome, indeed, innovation too, breaking the schemes is wonderful and risk is sometimes is the name of the game. I've always admired bands who got enemies from breaking the scheme, but there's a huge difference between taking a strategic manoeuvre to catch more fans and breaking a tradition, questioning your beliefs and do things for yourself because you simply don't care about what the others say.

Underoath falls, unfortunately, within the first category. Because, they simply don't belong to a certain scene, and this album is a clear demonstration of this. Cries of the past is a solid flawless record, an insane monolithic mixture of black, death and hardcore: the music has a dark, melancholic, dismal atmosphere. This album is capable of being heavy, brutal, introspective and reflective at the same time. The songwriting is solid and intelligent, with lyrics talking about a personal point of view about different aspects of life, such as feelings, heartbreak, spirituality and faith, and how all of them relate each other (Walking Away, And I Dreamt of You). It's the depiction of the modern humanity, which has disowned God and spirituality and has opted for a comfort zone, but when things start falling apart, starts looking for answers and so desperately looking for a light in a sea of darkness, of endless pain and sorrow. So the religious point of view conceived not as a pathetic self-referential ridiculous hymn (as in Act of Depression), but as a way to look above the abyss.

This album is highly and undoubtedly influenced by Starkweather, as all the tracks are surprisingly long and no one is shorter than seven minutes. So, consequently the music is absolutely more rooted in black and death metal, has more focus is more upon the music rather than singing, as precisely as hardcore conceives songwriting. Even the choice of the breakdowns, which are basically doom metal parts, makes the album even darker, angrier and gloomier. The vocals are grasp and no monotone at all, a perfect blend of all the three genres, which the work is based on. Riffs are like razor blades, they literally penetrate through the ears like a drill: heavy, naughty, brutal. And perfectly combined with tremolos and trashy-palm muting, and they sometimes leave open space to melodic, suffered solos like flashes of light in the dark. The shifting transition between different styles within the same song happens sometimes gradually and other times unexpectedly, the same as the first, metalcore acts were doing, back in the days when the genre has been just a bastard son of hardcore, metal and noise rock. Undeniable is the death metal influence in their way of composing, which makes the album away

Cries of the past is indeed a step further from me Act of Depression, which is of course a good album, but not as mature as this subsequent chapter, in which they have put more effort into writing and playing. The production level is sensibly better than in the previous album, as well the purpose in itself. To be honest, the debut didn't actually show the band's talent, giving instead an incomplete introduction of what they actually were able to do. The first album wasn't going anywhere, it has been just enjoyable, but nothing more than that. However, this is definitely not to blame, as it's rare that a band isn't unripe on its debut.

A bit of a shame they have shifted towards a completely different sound with the passing years, not to blame on them absolutely, everyone is free to pursue the purposes, which thinks best, but this still remains the milestone of their entire career, and, in it's genre, Cries of the past is one of the best metalcore works ever. And perhaps one of the fewest records of this style enjoyable even to the most extreme metal fanatics, especially if those who aren't disdaining traditional heavy hardcore. Underoath have probably become tired of playing metal, not sure, but what they are now and what they were once are two complete different bands. Like In Flames.

Yes, this is an unbelievable album, and in this case, that is an extremely good thing. Underoath is a band I have a love-hate relationship with. Their first album "Act of Depression" was, in my opinion, a decent metalcore album, although it was fairly average and the overly religious lyrics annoyed the living crap out of me. Christian metal is definitely not my thing, and I can only tolerate a few bands labeled as such. On "Cries of the Past", Underoath moves somewhat away from the overly religious themes and includes them in a much more subtle way. The music is also just so much better, and simply calling this album a pure metalcore release is blasphemy (hehehe).

It is clear right away with the album's opening track "The Last" that Underoath wanted to create a purely metal album. While it definitely succeeds in that regard, there are a range of styles this beasts covers. We have of course metalcore (in surprisingly small doses), ironically black metal, and melodic death metal. This album is mainly made up of melodic death metal and a highly melodic injection of black metal. The guitar riffs on this thing are heavy, in your face, and crushing, yet throughout the album, the band compliments this brutality with gorgeous melody. The tremolo riffing on this album really reminds me of early Emperor or Dissection, which going into this album, I really was not expecting at all. The solos are absolutely breathtaking. Breakdowns, of course, do periodically show up within the mixture of beauty and chaos, but they are complimented with extremely melodic and, compared to a vast majority of metalcore acts, technical playing. Acoustic guitar is not used a different a main instrument on this album which definitely leaves more room for an aggressive metal assault. However, they do show up, for example, in the track "Walking Away" and are executed beautifully. They serve more as short interludes between musical ideas rather than long passages that become boring.

The keyboards play a huge role on that album and definitely attribute to the insanely dark sound this thing radiates. These keyboards are played in a melodic black metal fashion that really create an Emperor or early Dimmu Borgir atmosphere in these songs. This is definitely the darkest album the band released. It does have a few drawbacks, however; Because the music is so versatile, it does seem a bit too abrupt with switching from one musical idea to the next. This isn't a huge issue because it helps to justify the length of the songs, but at times, it does sound a little unfocused. The other issue I have is it's still a Christian metal album. I have yet to find a Christian metal album that I enjoy 100%, but this is definitely one of the best in the genre, and one of the few I can truly listen to all the way through and not totally cringe. There are still spoken word references to the Christian god, for example, the ending of "Giving Up Hurts the Most". This still made me cringe somewhat, but the music here is just so great, I try my best to block it out.

Dallas Taylor is a great vocalist on this release. He ranges from extremely hateful, high pitched black metal-like screams, to guttural death metal influenced vocals, to standard metalcore vocals and clean singing. This variation does the music justice and makes it really unique. This is an album for those who generally cannot stomach Christian metal. I was highly cautious about listening to this band because of their lyrical content. Although there are definitely moments when the cheesy Christ worship lyrics are presented, the extreme vocals really make the lyrics incomprehensible for the most part. This assures no distractions to the truly amazing musical talent. For any fan of extreme metal who can drown out the whole religious aspect of this music, and certainly for any fan of Christian metal, this is an amazing extreme metal album to listen to. It may not be completely perfect, but it is highly enjoyable.

Underoath's early extreme metal past comes as a surprise to many people. They played borderline blackened death metal with minor hardcore influences on the fly. This album alone sounds like a 90s Gorgoroth album just with better production, keyboards and short "jam-out" parts. The band members that made up the "Underoath" name during the time of this release really had a knack for some Emperor-stage Norwegian BM. This album is metal as balls with almost nothing replicating what is seen in this band as the Warped Tour embarked Christian metalcore outfit that they're usually recognized for. Coming from someone who has an Underoath tattoo, I will admit that I love almost everything the band ever did even after this album. So pardon me if it comes off like I'm dissing out the band's material that put them on the map (because I'm not. I absolutely adore They're Only Chasing Safety and Define the Great Line). But Cries of the Past is my all time favorite Underoath album in terms of songwriting.

The Christian message is still strongly perceived through the music, but if you're just a fan of music and go right into what it sounds like instead of worrying about its lyrical theme (like me), it shouldn't matter. Corey Steger's ridiculously high tuned buzzing guitar sounds like it was recorded in Varg Vikernes' garage while the drum kit of Aaron Gillespie is almost perfect. It's mixed excellently, I wouldn't expect anything more or anything less from black metal than a drum tone like his on this record. While it should be mentioned (before I get ahead of myself) that this is the debut release for keyboard player Chris Dudley, who brought a solid atmospheric sound to the album than what would have been if it was just as raw as its predecessor Act of Depression.

Now the only thing I don't like about this album, is honestly the vocals. I hate saying that, but it needs to be addressed. Dallas Taylor's vocals are far too metalcore sounding for as black metal-esque as this album reaches. Not like that's a bad thing when he's singing on an actual metalcore album. I mean he sounds top-notch on The Changing of Times (the album following after this). But his alternate screams and then growls along with the occasional spoken word part seems too groaning for my liking on a style of music like this. Some people also complain that his lyrics are too "emo". But I won't tackle that topic because if there's anything I never do, it's criticize someone's lyrics who clearly had meaning to them when writing. Judging someone's lyrics to me is basically the same thing as reading someone's diary and saying that it's a terrible novel. But that's just the thing; it's a not novel. And lyrics aren't a performance if not more of words that are said whom meant something to the vocalist who wrote them. If Dallas Taylor was upset that he lost his girlfriend, by all means, he can make full albums about it. No complaints from me.

Bass guitar is barely audible under some of the riffs, but not enough performance is really all that clear to the ears for me to judge, so I'll just skip talking about that bit. If you ever hated Underoath, I would recommend checking this album out for a second opinion on what they really had going on long before what they started doing what they're known for. Cries of the Past is an essential listen.

Recommended songs: "Walking Away" and the title track

To be honest with you, I've never had any interest to listen to Underoath before and the only reason I bothered with Cries of the Past anyway is because I heard it was some fusion of melodic black/death metal and metalcore. Now, I'm not usually a big metalcore fan but the supposed synthesis of genres seemed interesting enough. Even though I did have doubts about the quality of the music, I pushed play and I was pleasantly surprised.

Coming from a band who is notorious (from what I here) about playing accessible post-hardcore/emo, I was not expecting what hit me. There's a HUGE black metal influence on this album, there's a lot of tremolo picking and a focus on keyboards to create a haunting ambiance. The vocals of Dallas Taylor are your typical high pitched shriek, I like how they're passionate and powerful, and although the growls don't lack as much character as the shrieking, they work well with the context of the music.

Musically, Underoath play an interesting blend of melodic death, black metal and metalcore. Now, usually if I hear a fusion of core with black metal that'd send me running, but Underoath play it with a degree of finesse and skill I wouldn't have expected. The metalcore influences aren't that pronounced actually, instead there's much more of a traditional screamo influence, with the screamed vocals being particularly influenced by screamo rather than taking a rasped black metal approach. I think I only counted about one breakdown within this album, this really isn't metalcore as many people view it, but instead there's a much more traditional post-hardcore vibe within the music. The influence from black and death metal is the most striking aspect of the music. The riffs are mainly tremolo picked leads mixed with thrashier sections, breakdowns aren't a large part of the music on Cries of the Past and instead the focus is just on damn good riffs. Much of the riffs have a definite Dissection vibe to them, and mixed with the ethereal keyboard work then the whole album is wrapped up in a black metal atmosphere. It's a rather odd mixture but honest to god it works.

With the album clocking in at over 40 minutes with only 5 tracks, this either shows a really bad attempt at making long songs or that the band are stellar song writers. For Underoath, it's the latter. There's a rather large progressive vibe running throughout the album, as songs run through numerous transitions. The transitions never feel haphazard or lazy however, the music has a strong sense of fluidity, with each riff complementing the one that came before. There's enough variation between each song to keep the album interesting and no single idea is repeated long enough to wear out its welcome. The use of acoustic guitars serve more than to break up the faster sections, they're suitably atmospheric and work well with the context of the music. What I really like about this album is just how damn consistent it is, nothing ever feels out of place or awkward, the whole thing just comes together to create one solid, cohesive package.

So overall this is a phenomenal album from a band I wasn't expecting much from, the musicianship is absolutely stellar and each song is fantastic. It's a shame that the band changed their sound so much as this is one of the best metalcore albums I've ever heard. From a band who has become the epitome of generic post-hardcore/metalcore I can't say I was expecting the quality Cries of the Past delivered, well worth listening for people who like their metal atmospheric and melodic. Cries of the Past comes highly recommended.

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.

Underoath, along with many other bands in the genre known as metalcore, polarize popular opinion. Some people absolutely love this band and would like to do dirty things to its members' members. Others would like nothing more than for bands like this to drop off the face of the universe. I will readily admit to not being the biggest fan of the more post-hardcore bands in metalcore, as well as the post-hardcore genre in general; I've always been more keen to listen to normal hardcore punk bands. So when I heard that Underoath, the poster child for Warped Tour attending scenesters aplenty, made two legitimate metal albums in their early days, I was reluctant to believe so. Their first album, Act of Depression, is a sloppy, overly preachy mess of an album. Their second album however, Cries of the Past, is one of the best -core albums I've ever heard.

When the first song "The Last" came through the speakers, I was astounded to hear something I thought was foreign to the members of Underoath: actual guitar riffs. Lots and lots of heavy, thrashy, black and death metal based guitar riffs. The keyboards used in this song, as well as the rest of the album, draw heavy traces from melodic black metal, with parts on "The Last" reminding me of the keyboard parts on Satyricon's first album "Dark Medieval Times". There is A LOT of tremolo picking on this album, once again drawing influence from black metal. There's also some slightly experimental aspects to this album; a few of songs feature acoustic guitar sections. The songs are very long, with the shortest one being 7:36 and the longest one being 11:24. Because of this, there's only five songs on the entire album, but the album's running time as a whole comes up to 42:08, much shorter than Act of Depression but much longer than some of their later material such as The Changing of Times.

The band itself has a much different lineup than they do now. Aaron Gillespie and Christopher Dudley are there on drums and keyboards, but the guitars are played by Corey Steger (who left after this album, no doubt contributing to the style change on The Changing of Times) and Octavio Fernandez. Both make wonderful use of the aforementioned riffs and tremolo picking, considering the two of them are obviously much more influenced by extreme metal than the band's later guitarists. Bass is handled by Matt Clark, who, in general heavy metal fashion, is turned down so far he's inaudible in the mix. Dallas Taylor, current vocalist for Maylene and the Sons of Disaster, delivers an amazing vocal performance, with about 99% of the album being done in black metal screams or death metal growls (give or take a few spoken word sections as well as very intermittent clean vocals). Gillespie dishes out a wonderful drum performance, making good use of extreme metal standards like kank beats, double bass, and blast beats (yes, blast beating in an Underoath record). The instrumentation, while nowhere near as sloppy as Act of Depression, is still sloppy at times. This mainly occurs when Gillespie does a long, Dave Lombardo-esq double bass line; it sounds like every second hit isn't as strong as every first hit.

The lyrics are also MUCH less preachy than the lyrics on Act of Depression. This is probably the best improvement the band made between the two albums other than the songwriting. The lyrics on Act of Depression were just a bunch of teenagers whining into a microphone about how abortion is evil and God is great and all that shit (considering my stance against religion, overly preachy religious lyrics REALLY get annoying to me). Cries of the Past, however, takes the preachiness level down about 5 knots, making the overt references to Jesus very minimal and other references to Christianity much more subtle. Compare these two sets of lyrics from the two albums. Firstly, from Burden In Your Hand on Act of Depression:

You should of thought about the baby before you had sex, because you have destroyed a gift from God
You kill, you destroyed
Never will this baby be able to grow up or show it's love
You'll never hear it say I love you, I love you
God does not give you the privilege to carry a child for nothing
When you kill, you destroy that child's dreams and hopes
How innocent a baby is... how can you put it to death?
What if you were aborted... you could of never had life
And now you make a choice to take this child's life because it is a burden in you hands

Really overly preachy and absolutely no subtlety. Now, from And I Dreamt of You on Cries of The Past:

Words are pointless, for this love is speechless [x2]
Preparing for the curtain's closure
Laying there, clutching hands so tight; I can feel your heart
Telling me it will be alright
Ascension to heaven where this love can not only walk,
But it runs through the endless fields of joy,
Where love neither ends nor begins but flows everlasting
This was thy dream this daybreak and will by thy prayer
That T will rest sleepless 'til the sun rises on that day
And butterflies sing with us, as we write love symphonies
The pages of life fill the story of our love in a time long ago
Where fairy tales come true
And you and I, my love, will live happily ever after. [x3]
I love you

Way more subtle and almost no overt references to Christianity.

All in all, Cries of the Past is the best album Underoath has ever made. It's a damn shame that they changed their style on The Changing of Times, because what they created on this album is among the best music ever put out by a metalcore band. I recommend this album to anyone looking for good metalcore music. Certainly knocks the piss out of They're Only Chasing Safety.

http://www.youtube.com/user/Subrick

How this can be the band that made "They're Only Chasing Safety" is beyond me...but then again, the line-up present here on "Cries of the Past" is quite different from the emo Underoath we've all come to hate. Hell, the only members from this line-up remaining are the drummer and the keyboardist...who seem to have sold their souls along with...any notion of talent or creative songwriting. Onto this album.

The album's main weakness is the occasional lack of fluency. Riffs are thrown together in a seemingly mish-mash way, without much regard for standard song structure. However, it refrains from being jarring and mostly just keeps your attention to see what riff will appear next. The clear vocal parts have been a bit of a problem for most people, but I can stomach them. There are, in fact, solos on this album. None of them will go down in history, but are enjoyable listens. This coupled with the rock-solid riffing which includes a lot of tremolo riffs shows a growth in the guitar-playing abilities of this band. And as for this being metalcore, the absence of breakdowns is...odd. This is a much different release from "Act of Depression" or later efforts. Very varied, keeping in a somewhat melodic death metal style, or (here's some irony) melodic black metal. As far as the lyrics go, I actually can kind of enjoy them. Written with a certain poetic flair, most will shun it due to the Christian/emo aspect of it, but I can appreciate good emotionally cathartic lyrics and the music is great, so it's not that important. And don't worry, whenever I catch any of those damn references to Jesus in the lyrics, I usually cringe.

To wrap up my review, let me finish by saying...an Underoath album that can honestly be headbanged to...and is most likely worth your energy.

Highlights: "Giving Up Hurts the Most", "And I Dreamt of You"

Forget the Underoath of today. This is a completely different band - in sound at least. This album is an interesting mix of metalcore, death metal, and even black metal (especially in the vocals). It's heavy, brutal at times, and full of good riffing and solos. Bass is even audible! Several of the songs are above average length, and are - dare I say - EPIC, even PROGRESSIVE at times.

If there's one complaint I have about this album, its the drumming. Despite the obvious metal-ness of the rest of the instruments, the drums keep to a simplistic punk-style beat most of the time, which distracts from the more interesting parts of the music. If you can numb the dull drumming, or if the album featured better drumming, the score would probably be at least 10 points higher.

As it is, Cries of the Past is a mindboggling album for a band thats recently become the epitome of generic metalcore. Worth a listen, especially for those like myself who cannot stand Underoaths latest offerings.

Yeah, that pretty much sums up my expression when I first heard this. This isn’t the –best- album I’ve heard, but when I was expecting to hear more uninspired Jesus trash, instead I hear RIIIIFFS, SOLOS, RIFFFS and more SOLOS among the breakdowns and screaming vocals.

The guitar work is the best Underoath is probably going to get. There is more depth and variety to the music, it’s not just tremolo-breakdown-scream4Jesus-breakdown-tremolo-screamsomemore-etc… the songs are long and intricate, probably even bordering on the realm of progressive. It gives me something that I can actually head bang to. The bass even comes through at times, and while it still sounds average, at least it has a part in providing a neat introduction to one of the songs.

One of the biggest improvements are the vocals. They aren’t the substandard metalcore screaming yelling bitching yadda yadda yadda, but instead they are more evil sounding screaming yelling bitching yadda yadda yadda. Okay, so there isn’t all that much improvement. However, there is no clean singing during the Jesus parts, and that at the very least makes these songs enjoyable. I don’t want to hear about Jesus, and the indecipherable barks of Dallas Taylor allows me to enjoy the song without the dreadful lyrics getting in my face. I do mean dreadful, as one thing that has remained constant throughout the history of Underoath is their uninspired Christian lyrics dealing with OMG my girlfriend broke up with me / I broke up with her / she died somehow / she became a Muslim :’( and other shit… There is more variety to the vocals at times, sometimes even incorporating a falsetto scream ala Iron Maiden.

There are a lot of good parts to this album, and even if you despise Christianity like me, you might enjoy it if you just pretend that they are singing about Satan and stuff. At times the music is even inspiring. I dare say I do like this, even if it is Underoath. There are times when it devolves into emo, but only during the spoken word parts, such as the intro to the song Cries of the Past. This is above-average Metalcore, if I can even call it just that.

A few years ago, one of my friends played a song by a "mystery metal band" that he thought I'd like. I loved it and after listening to it I jokingly said, "This isn't Underoath, is it?" I couldn't believe that the same band who wrote Reinventing Your Exit wrote the song I just listened to (which was The Last). It really isn't the same band, though, as the only people still in the band now are the drummer and keyboardist. For those of you who know Underoath from When the Sun Sleeps or their newer works, you are in for a major surprise.

Coming off of the less-than-stellar Act of Depression, Cries of the Past is miles ahead in terms of production, musicianship, and song-craft. The death/groove elements are turned down a bit and black metal is added as a major influence. The addition of a second guitarist adds many leads and solos to the music and the major addition of a keyboardist gives the music the atmospheres needed for a quality experience (the first and last songs are the best examples). The songs are tighter than ever and actually have feel this time around. There is enough musical meat to make the long songs interesting rather than trudging along like Act of Depression. There are no emo clean vocals or acoustic worship songs either.

The lyrics aren't quite as bold as Act of Depression's, but they're still pretty powerful. They work more to create moods and atmospheres, but you'll have to read the lyrics to know what they're about because Dallas' shrieks are almost completely unintelligible.

I don't think either Dallas Taylor, Aaron Gillespie, or the new Underoath will ever be able to top this. If you like metalcore but feel that the majority of bands leave much to be desired, check this album out.