Writing On The Walls It’s really hard to quantify just what Underoath accomplished on their career-defining album called Define The Great Line. Having already achieved breakthrough success with their previous record of They’re Only Chasing Safety, the bar was certainly raised for the band to deliver once again. And what a delivery it was. Underoath’s Spencer Chamberlain recently shared, “Define the Great Line was never just an album to me. It was a world I was building in my head through lyrics and sketches long before the songs were finished. I was dealing with a lot and didn’t always know how to put it into words.” From the thrilling opening notes of “In Regards To Myself” that has the sound of a film projector being turned on, to the final fadeout in the sprawling seven-minute album closer of “To Whom It May Concern,” Underoath were creating pure undeniable audio cinema.
I first got wind of Underoath when they opened up for Coheed & Cambria at the 9:30 Club in Washington, D.C. I was instantly enamored by their energetic stage presence, screamo-tinged vocals from Chamberlain, and the clean vocal approach from drummer/vocalist Aaron Gillespie. There was a certain magic that happens when these musicians take the stage together as Underoath, and it’s easy to see why the recently-announced Define The Great Line anniversary tour dates are already selling so well. If They’re Only Chasing Safety was the breakthrough album that showed the band that they could make a career out of this, then Define The Great Line was them fully believing in themselves and truly going for it.
”A Moment Suspended In Time” was a more aggressive version of Underoath than the screamo-polished poise of the album’s predecessor, and the production from Matt Goldman and Adam Dutkiewicz (of Killswitch Engage) brings out the best in the band. “There Could Be Nothing After This” is another example of Underoath offering glimpses of where they would take their sound on subsequent releases, with an emphasis on electronica elements from keyboardist/programmer Chris Dudley. The punishing dual-guitar attack from Tim McTague, and now-former band member in rhythm guitarist James Smith, is the real strength of this record early on. “You’re Ever So Inviting” begins cautiously and takes its time building up to the anthemic chorus to highlight some of the poise and patience the band showed at this stage of their blossoming career. It was truly a marvel to see it unfold as it was happening as a fan of the band, and Underoath made me a lifelong enjoyer of their craft from this point on.
For an album that was certified Gold by RIAA just a few short months after its release in 2006, Define The Great Line felt like the birth of a monster. The middle section of the album featured a reflective, brooding spoken word song called “Salmarnir” that meshed well with the album artwork of the vast and bleak emptiness of the desert and the uncertainty of days ahead. Not wanting to wallow in the darkness too long, “Returning Empty Handed” blows the doors off its hinges with an empowering mix of heavy guitars, punishing baselines from Grant Brandell, and some purposeful drumming from Gillespie. It’s a song that wraps around the listener and never allows much space to breathe in-between. The opportunity for taking a beat comes in the form of one my all time favorite songs from this genre in “Casting Such A Thin Shadow.” There’s so much I could write about this track, but to be concise, it’s a track that I hear something new in it each time I take the time to listen to it. It’s really got that much going on it, and it is patient enough to pick its spots of when it wants to be brutal or beautiful.
”Moving For The Sake Of Motion” opens with frenetic drumming from Gillespie that sounds absolutely incredible listening back to it today, and the contrast between Chamberlain and Gillespie’s vocal cadence works really well on songs like this. “Writing On The Walls” was an obvious choice of a lead single with its immediate hook of in the first verse, and it’s the closest the band gets to trying to write anything close to being “rock radio friendly”. It’s a perfect example of what Underoath were best at doing at this stage of their career, and it continues to go off live every time they perform it. The brutal screams on the speedy punk rock song of “Everyone Looks So Good From Here” make for a great penultimate song on Define The Great Line, and sets the stage brilliantly for the thrilling closer of “To Whom In May Concern.” It’s on the final track of this LP that Underoath are basically throwing everything at the listener, purposefully and intricately, to see what they absorb and take away from the listening experience. Thank God this album is getting reissued on vinyl, because I missed out on The Observatory pressings from a few years back, and have been kicking myself ever since. A true artist’s record, Define The Great Line defined the still-dominant career of Underoath.