And Underoath use vocals like a strange and terrible instrument, adding shades and colour, texture and direction to every song. Yes, the vocal style takes some getting used to, but then so did distorted guitar the first time you heard it. While Screamo (a form of Emo or emotional punk with the vocal style described above) is often dire, this is a Screamo album that glitters and shines, almost too good for its subculture. But then I bought (They’re Only Chasing Safety) by Underoath, and everything changed. I am, in fact, down with the kids, but this is not macho shouting or aggressive rapping, this is just a constant distorted and tortured crying of strangled words over otherwise nicely played songs.
What is up with these “Screamo” bands the youth of today seem to like? What, in the name of all that is groovy, is the attraction of a “song” where the lead vocals consist mainly of screaming? Now, I’m hip. Family Force 5: Shakin The Junk In Your Trunk.Blindside at Greenbelt: Better than Bedingfield.
Underoath: They’re Only Chasing Safety (special edition).Showbread: Age of Reptiles– bring out your dead.Relient K: Skate Punks, Beach Boys and Growing Up in Pop.Nobody gets hurt? Trying to fit the ocean in a cup by Josh Wilson.Jon Foreman: Spring and Summer (double EP) review.Family Force 5: Dance or Die album review.Family Force 5: Business Up Front, Party at the Back.Brand New: The Devil and God are Raging Inside Me.Douglas Alexander: Aid may drop under Tories.A largely political blog about faith and society, from the point of view of an increasingly leftist, inescapably evangelical Christian.Īlso with music reviews that favour the left field of Christian music and film/book reviews that favour quality.