Underoath – Erase Me album review

Lurching back into view, Underoath’s surprise return hits hard with opener It Has To Start Somewhere. Juddering riffs and Spencer Chamberlain’s seared vocals fight for space amongst the atmospherics that once helped the Florida troupe stand out from the pack, to gripping effect. Elsewhere, though, Erase Me highlights how modern metalcore has leapfrogged its forebears. Wake Me and ihateit channel the huge, arena-ready pop-metal of modern-day Bring Me The Horizon, a band who once cited Underoath as an influence, and nowadays headline above them. Midpoint highlights come from the spasmodic fury and pull-the-rug dynamics of Sink With You and Hold Your Breath, and No Frame’s Nine Inch Nails-esque industrial clatter, but the washier melodic numbers dotted throughout highlight Erase Me’s core flaw – where once Underoath fused sugar-sweet melodic passages to guttural, heavier hooks, their first post-reunion record largely occupies a muddy middle-ground.