Underoath - "In Regards To Myself"

[tortuga]

I'm still not sure if their name is supposed to be written as underOATH, UnderOath, or Underøath. I'll just spell it the normal and easier way.

The video for this will premiere this fall, its already been filmed. I still think "Writing On the Walls" is their best song and also hands down, it will be my #1 single of the year.

Define the Great Line is the most un-christian christian rock album I've ever heard. I'm glad that an album with such non-commercial yet satisfying music can sell. Right now its sold about 280,000 copies. I hope they don't break up or whatever has been going on with them affects them. I think they have a good future if they keep making this type of music.

[jetblacknewyear]

Great song..obviously won't be a particularly huge song due to it's underground sound and screaming. I love the chorus though..so much emotion. The lines "pull yourself together/pull yourself together man" are just crazy.

Great album..one of the best of the year.

[Pipa]

Why do these guys keep releasing singles? It's not like they need them.

[tortuga]

picpak said:

Why do these guys keep releasing singles? It's not like they need them.

Tell that to Hoobastank.

[pen]

tortuga said:

picpak said:

Why do these guys keep releasing singles? It's not like they need them.

Tell that to Hoobastank.

But Hoobastank needs a hit single. That doesn't make any sense.

[tortuga]

Why does Hoobastank keep releasing singles if the songs won't help them at all?

I think at least two singles for Underoath are fine. "Writing On the Walls" made me buy their album so hopefully this song will bring them some new fans.

[pen]

tortuga said:

Why does Hoobastank keep releasing singles if the songs won't help them at all?

How do they know the songs won't help unless the singles are released? Hell, Born To Lead could shoot to #1. You don't know. It's unlikely, but stranger things have happened, and certainly comebacks on albums have occurred before. Face it, you're just being bitter cause you don't like Hoobastank.

[jdmasta289]

penance said:

Face it, you're just being bitter cause you don't like Hoobastank.

Bingo.

[tortuga]

jdmasta289 said:

penance said:

Face it, you're just being bitter cause you don't like Hoobastank.

Bingo.

No...I don't think I've ever said I disliked Hoobastank. "Inside of You" most definitely did suck though.

I'm just wondering why a band like them that is flopping gets to release a third single when Yellowcard can't. Its just weird; a third chance after bombing twice.

[American Idiot]

That reminds me, why hasn't Yellowcard released a third single? Lights & Sounds (song) did very well and I'd say Rough Landing, Holly did mediocre to fairly well. If they are going to pick a third one, I hope they pick Sure Thing Falling, because not only is it probably my favorite song on the album, but because it describes for a mere second in the lyrics about the crap I have to drive through on the 3/5 of a mile on I-4 from classes downtown. I know that has nothing to do with the song, but Orlando traffic sucks major ass.

[Nicholas2.0]

tortuga said:

Define the Great Line is the most un-christian christian rock album I've ever heard.

In what way? Are you not hip to the whole Christian-metal scene? (I'm not either, though I am aware of it [e.g., Living Sacrifice, Zao, As I Lay Dying, Stavesacre, et al.] I'm just asking.)

[pen]

tortuga said:

jdmasta289 said:

Bingo.

No...I don't think I've ever said I disliked Hoobastank.  "Inside of You" most definitely did suck though.

I'm just wondering why a band like them that is flopping gets to release a third single when Yellowcard can't. Its just weird; a third chance after bombing twice.

I'm confused. What does this have to do with Underoath? I thought you were countering Picpak's comment about Underoath not needing singles with an attack on Hoobastank, but you did it because you're disgruntled about Yellowcard?

At any rate, Yellowcard's third single was "Down On My Head" and has been for a while now, but Capitol Records decided not to go through with it and instead the band is writing a new album and they plan to head into the studio in January. I think the fact is that Capitol was not happy enough with the sales of Lights And Sounds to want to shell out the dough to keep promoting it, but at the same time, I think Ocean Avenue showed enough promise that they're willing to give Yellowcard another shot right away.

Hoobastank is more or less in a similar boat with this album. "If I Were You" was released in February, four months prior to the album release. "Inside Of You" coincided with the album, and basically Island decided to pull the plug on "If I Were You". Two songs with two videos. Obviously neither single was especially effective at raising sales, but Hoobastank is still a potentially profitable act because of the massive success they had in 2004 with "The Reason". Meanwhile, "Born To Lead" is only going for adds to active rock at this point in time, and the video was already made for the song before the album was even released. It's a duh for Island to go ahead and greenlight a final single before they have Hoobastank go back into the studio early to try to "correct" their "mistake".

I think it just comes down to timing, money, interest, and how much each label has riding on each band. Not every label is going to treat their acts the same.

[tortuga]

penance said:

I'm confused. What does this have to do with Underoath? I thought you were countering Picpak's comment about Underoath not needing singles with an attack on Hoobastank, but you did it because you're disgruntled about Yellowcard?

Eh, sorta.

I didn't even know "Down On My Head" was single. I guess it makes sense why Island is still giving Hoobastank a chance.

nicholas said:

tortuga said:

Define the Great Line is the most un-christian christian rock album I've ever heard.

In what way?  Are you not hip to the whole Christian-metal scene?  (I'm not either, though I am aware of it [e.g., Living Sacrifice, Zao, As I Lay Dying, Stavesacre, et al.]  I'm just asking.)

I mean, most parents would think that this type of aggresive rock would be "devil-worshiping" music but we all know thats not the case. I wasn't aware of the whole Christian metal thing until I heard of Underoath. I wonder if there have been any complaints from the Christians that the music is too "un-heavenly".

[jdmasta289]

Yeah, I could never find an Internet link that confirmed so (beyond Wikipedia), but I had heard a couple word-of-mouth rumors that "Down On My Head" would eventually be a single from the album. It's too bad, because they should have released it second to the title track because "RLH" sounded a little too much along a "Lights & Sounds"/"Ocean Avenue" hybrid. Nonetheless, "Down On My Head" has been riding my personal chart for about eight weeks, and it's really too bad how their album fizzled out after a top 5 first single.

In regards to this song: I've never thought I'd say this, but this is just too much for me. Which is too bad, because I love "Reinventing" and "Writing", but the screams just do me in. I love metallic screamo acts like Atreyu, but this is just too much...enough said.

[Nicholas2.0]

tortuga said:

I mean, most parents would think that this type of aggresive rock would be "devil-worshiping" music but we all know thats not the case.  I wasn't aware of the whole Christian metal thing until I heard of Underoath.  I wonder if there have been any complaints from the Christians that the music is too "un-heavenly".

Punk, metal, and ska Christian bands are generally the only Christian rock acts I can respect because any other style of Christian rock just doesn't convince me that they get rock & roll.  Anyway, the success of the annual Cornerstone festival in Illinois, I believe, is proof of how much extreme Christian rock is accepted.  In fact, until I heard of Cornerstone roughly 6 or 7 years ago, I had a hard time believing bands could be this extreme and be Christians.  Hell, I'd never heard of Zao, Living Sacrifice, or Stavesacre until I met my best friend-in-college.  Obviously I was familiar with P.O.D. and Chevelle (pre-"The Red"), but I was impressed that Christian bands that were insanely heavier actually existed.  In fact I'd listen to those bands if they weren't too dissonant and heavy for me.  As it is, As I Lay Dying (whom I later learned were Christian) are about my tolerance limit for how little clean singing and hooks I can accept.

I'm sure there are kids every day who have to convince their parents that this kind of music is legitimately Christian.

Since I was last here I have "familiarized" (if you could call it that--I'll explain) myself with the new Underoath record I burned last summer.  After not even getting into "Dangerous Business" (which I like) at their Warped Tour set, I was convinced that trying to like Underoath was impossible and I shouldn't bother listening to the new album.  But then I was convinced to give it a chance after reading rave "perfect" reviews for it.  I thought, "Well maybe there's something there on the actual album."

So I played it once as I did other things.  I played it again, paying close attention to it, because I wasn't able to distinguish any of the tracks the first time and no part of any song stood out to me whatsoever.  This time I was loosely able to rank the tracks against each other (which is what I do with all my albums).  I listened to it the third time on shuffle, to refresh my perspective and ranked the songs again.  The fourth time I listened, I played the album back in my reverse order.  Because this was to be my final time, where I finally assessed the songs in order of preference, I had to play the songs at least once or twice more each as I went along because it was so hard to distinguish the songs from each other, still.  Obviously track 5 stands out, but that serves as an interlude.  Even tracks 7 & 11 are too similar for me to really distinguish.  And all the other 8 tracks, it may as well not even matter where I put them, because I can't even tell you anything about any one of them, they're so indistinguishable.

This ended up my favorite song on the record, but really, what does that even say.  So, yeah, I'm finished trying to get into Underoath.  Final analysis of Define the Great Line (s**t, never mind the great line, define the songs.): 2.5/5

[tortuga]

This video is just as crazy as their last one.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IolIBMA9iA

and Nicholas, that was a little too much information on the methods you used to listen to the album but I'm glad you at least gave it a chance. Next time you should try the "ignore the reviews and move on" method.




...just kidding.