Underoath - They're Only Chasing Safety

A few years ago, I wrote Alternative Press a long, detailed letter inquiring on where their music taste had gone to and why they were satisfied with letting their magazine be typified by bands solely in the pop-punk and emo realm. They used to be truly, well, alternative and covered styles all over the musical spectrum: from electronica to noise to experimental to Japanese rock to dub and noise. AP even claimed the genre-corroding album of XTRMNTR – Primal Scream’s glorious masterpiece – as their 2000 album of the year. Now, we are left with this. It’s literally like a group of young, impressionable twentysomethings read a single issue of a recent AP and formed a band based on the composite of nearsighted bands found in its pages. They’re Only Chasing Safety is rife with awkward transitions between scream-riddled verses and saccharine choruses that sound quite literally like every single band on this year’s Warped tour. It is so calculated, so achingly typical and mediocre, that it’s difficult to even call this “bad.” It’s so docile, so innocent and faceless that I actually had to pause the CD to check the cover to affirm what band I was listening to. What is even more perplexing, however, is that just two albums ago this band was chugging through renditions of seven and eight minute pure metalcore songs. At least then they made a statement; now they are merely another band lost in a sea of sameness. [www.underoath777.com]