Unearth - Extinction(s)

With the year coming close to its close, we have quite a few bands squeezing their way onto the list of releases this year, and one of the most recent of those is Unearth, with their seventh full-length album here, Extinction(s). Unearth are a five-piece from Boston, Massachusetts who have been metalcore-ing away for twenty years now (yes, I made it into a verb, just go with it), but have never really ascended beyond C-list status in the genre. Your A-listers are your pillars of the genre like Converge, As I Lay Dying, Killswitch Engage, and now Code Orange (they definitely shot themselves to the top by mopping the floor with 2017). Your B-listers are bands who have made some well-recognized albums like Underoath, Knocked Loose, Bullet for My Valentine, and Demon Hunter. I’d put Vein up there too with how well they’ve done for themselves this year. I know these are examples from distant realms within metalcore, but I wanted to provide more than just the melodic metalcore side of the genre. The C-list is for groups like For Today and Unearth, bands that have built a stable enough fanbase, but struggle to really make an impact on the genre and establish themselves as real favorites. Unearth were probably at their closest to breaking through around the time of The March and Darkness in the Light when Adam Dutkiewicz of Killswitch Engage had teamed up with them at the production helm. But the band still struggled to gain traction, and with the type of metalcore they played being slowly abandoned over the years since then, they’ve found themselves in dire straits again.

So how are Unearth trying to do exactly that to their name? Well, Adam Dutkiewicz is back, not as a producer, but to record drums. But the band aren’t just trying to do what worked in 2008 again; they have definitely seen where metalcore is heading right now, and they are following suit.

The fork in the road for a band like Unearth was to either follow in the footsteps of Bullet for My Valentine, Underoath, and Bring Me the Horizon, away from metalcore and into the risky waters of alt. metal radio, or follow the resurgence of metallic hardcore brought forth my bands like Code Orange, Vein, and Jesus Piece. Thankfully, they chose the latter.

From the very opening of the album, with the track “Incinerate”, it’s clear the band have taken note of where metalcore is heading right now. The song’s pick-slides, harmonics, and punchy, jagged riffage and breakdown all point to much more Converge influence than what has shown through on previous albums. The band still blend it with the semi-anthemic melodic style they’ve been known for, but the mesh actually goes over a lot better than I thought it would, and the breakdown of the following track, “Dust”, does well to integrate some Converge into a more quick-paced 2000′s metalcore breakdown.

We still get plenty of the usual double-bass/palm-mute synchronicity and fast-paced guitar solos on songs like “The Hunt Begins” and slowed breakdowns on songs like “Survivalist”, the thrashy “King of the Arctic”, and “Hard Lined Downfall”. But songs like “Cultivation of Infection” and the blast-beat-laden “Sidewinder” continue to integrate the sounds of the genre’s first wave in a way that helps update and boost the power of the band’s metalcore assault. The only notable low point is perhaps the off-putting major-key melodic guitar work on the song “No Reprisal”, which takes me back to like 2006, and not in a pleasing way. The down-tuned closing track that follows suffers a bit from this same problem, but not nearly to the same degree, and not so much that some groovy down-tuned riffing can’t save it and end the album on a monstrous note.

Unearth still don’t really do anything flashy or super invigorating to the genre, but they as unoriginal as this album is, I really can’t complain about it too much. It’s the work of a band trying to keep up, but by bolstering their sound rather than diluting it or forsaking it on an ill-conceived shortcut to success via rock radio. Unearth may not bring too many memorable riffs or catchy breakdowns the the table, and they may not even be able to branch out beyond their standard writing format, but they are channeling a respectably pummeling modern metalcore album that brings together the best elements of old and new. No corny good-cop-bad-cop vocals, no tangents into pop nonsense, no shallow production tricks, just honest, crunchy, growly metalcore. For what this album represents alone, I respect the hell out of it. And honestly, despite not really presenting with too many unique musical ideas, Extinction(s) has continued to grow on me for its tight performances, honest approach, and tasteful integration of new elements of the genre without bastardizing their own sound and coming off as trendy.