Review by Maverick on March 23, 2024.

Underoath's new legendary metalcore album impressed me, I don't mind their emo attempts at metal, but from a metal point of view - their emo stuff did stuck! There's alot that I can say about this new album, but one thing I definitely did notice was the absence of Aaron Gillepsie:

Firstly, there were no emo vocals, but rather progressive metalcore vocals, and Spencer's clean vocals which seems to act out calm didn't have the emo-ness anymore, there was emotion yes but not the self-pitying emo feel. That seemed to fit perfectly with the way he screamed, this new sound was different and after a few listens I started to love it.

Secondly, with regard to drumming I could hear a different form of percussion. It was that kind of "soft-agression" drumming, don't get me wrong their were times when I could hear heavy agression in these drumming patterns, but whenever the clean vocals came up I could still hear agressive drumming, but it wasn't in your face. Which brings me with the conclusion that Underoath was starting to enter a new stage of metalcore, not deathcore (heavens no!) but a clever and intelligent attempt at mathcore! The new drummer did bring along a mathcore sound coming from Norma Jean. I loved every second of it, this was definitely legend!

Third, the guitar wasn't that impressive sadly. It was filled with hard rock-ish riffs which really dissapointed me, this is where the drumming starting to make up for it. The album gripped me with the track "In Division" and left me calm with "Paper Lung" yet I was waiting for something more powerful and I was impressed after hearing "Illuminator" and "My Deteriorating Incline."

If you weren't impressed with "Define the Great Line" maybe this album will make up for it, I recommend it! It was really something awsome!

Rating: 7.8 out of 10