If you want something done right, sometimes you just have to do it yourself, and the current wave of new material from Underoath radiates with that energy. The post-hardcore icons have revealed ‘Hallelujah’, the latest track from their impending self-recorded, self-produced album, which has now been attributed with both a name and a release date. Brace yourselves, one and all as the next chapter in Underoath’s legacy will be called Voyeurist and it will be released on Friday, 14th January.
‘Hallelujah’ is chaotic, paranoid, and anxious, coming out of the gates with a hauntingly beautiful chanting choir before its condition rapidly declines into dark, glitchy depths. Vocally, ‘Hallelujah’ is totally unpredictable, rapidly meandering through the whole spectrum of human emotions from unfiltered rage to blissful peace, everywhere in between, and back again.
True masters of not only storytelling but composition, near the halfway point, the ‘Hallelujah’ fever appears to break, but it’s only a slight moment of reprieve – the eye of the storm if you will – before, and to be quite literal, all hell breaks loose.
“I think the song is one of the more powerful songs on the album for a myriad of reasons,” explains guitarist Tim McTague. “But sharing a night of beers and stories with a handful of the people you love, unpacking a ton of heady concepts and recording a choir really put an exclamation point on the song for me. It’s dark, beautiful, haunting and heavy all at the same time. That’s what Underoath does best in my opinion.”
Voyeurist was a staunchly self-powered project, the first of its kind from the band, and as such is the first time in Underoath’s storied career that we get to experience the act through their own gaze. In this capacity, it appears the band felt no need to pull any punches, making the release as loaded and topical as possible. They’ve coined the album’s genre as “high-def violence” – advanced but raw, and it takes inspiration from, among other things, the projections we put out and oh so effortlessly try to uphold.
Watch Underoath’s new single ‘Hallelujah’ below.
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