First things first this is not a bad album. Act of Depression starts out with the track "Heart of Stone," which begins with a rather nice groove, although it quickly dissolves into a sludgy mess. Indeed, such moments characterize the disc, leading one to think that the band does have a considerable amount of talent; unfortunately, the listener gets only glimpses of such talent. The rhythm section, while not exactly remarkable, flashes some interesting solos; they definitely pull their weight on the disc. Similarly, the guitarist, apparently of the "strum as fast as you can" school of musicianship, displays some nice melodic bits that help to distinguish the band from other hardcore bands out there. The vocals, however, are where things start to go awry. Underoath is advertised as a mix between hardcore and black metal; the vocalist apparently supplies the black metal part. "Sung" with a high-pitch yowl, the vocals, while unfortunately considered the norm in Christian hardcore, fall just short of abysmal. It's hard to understand why vocals of this style are so prevalent in this genre...no passion is conveyed in the delivery, and it just sounds painful. The lyrics themselves are nothing new to the scene; "Heart of Stone" talks about pain of living without Jesus, while "A Love So Pure" talks about the joy of living with Jesus. There's also an "issues" song (Overcome had one about pornography, Strongarm about abortion, and Unashamed about substance abuse) called "Innocence Stolen" about the agony caused by rape and child molestation. It would be interesting to see where this band goes with their next release, but this one, while it has its moments, isn't all that great.
2 tocks
Other coverage for this album
HM Magazine #79Reviewed by Doug Van PeltOh yeah! Nice 'n' meaty metalcore. Mixing eye-popping vocals with growling toughens up the sound tons. The guitars and drums sound great here, especially when the double bass is just blasting away. Corey really does a good job of holding down all the guitar duties, beefing up the rhythm section as well as spotlighting with solo crunching. This band rocks!Decapolis 1999Reviewed by ConradAs you can probably tell by the name of the band - they're hardcore, with some metal. Unfortunately, for intense, hard music, it gets really boring. Remember when Tom, in his Zao review, said their singer sounded like Cobra Commander? Well the Underoath guy is the real Cobra Commander. His voice has that thin shredding "tone," as if he's trying to scratch out his vocal cords. It's not terrible…Decapolis 1999Reviewed by Tom BastianWell as I mentioned in past reviews, I'm not a fan of hardcore, metal or rap-core. I suppose this release would fit somewhere in the hardcore/metal category. This is pretty typical stuff for the genre, at least from my limited knowledge of this style. It's got that death metal drumming featuring fast double bass, and heavy and often fast guitars. In general the vocals pretty much just go from…Decapolis 1999Reviewed by TimBands like this remind me that my dream of being a singer is not terribly unrealistic. For those of you who know me, you know that I sing really badly. Well just know that hearing this band gives me hope. I don't know why people listen to this on CD. I understand the live show, because this music is really energetic, but I don't know why people listen to it in the car. When I listen to CDs in the…The Phantom Tollbooth 1999Reviewed by Tony LaFianzaUnderoath comes out of the chute with a five minute fifty second cut called "Heart of Stone," and that is the shortest song on the CD! There are two tracks over ten minutes long. This Florida band takes some pride in the length of their songs, but what should impress their fans is they pull off these long songs with impressive musicianship and interesting musical themes. Mixing heavy metal,…Similar sounding releases
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