February 26, 2002 - The Changing Of Times

Three weeks after my last release and a year and a half since their last album "Cries Of The Past", Underoath released their third album "The Changing Of Times" on February 26, 2002. There are some personnel changes and big stylistic changes as well! Bassist Matt Clark is only around for the one album as he is replaced by new bassist William Nottke and original lead guitarist Corey Steger has also left the band, with Tim McTague becoming the band's new lead guitarist. I thought Steger was a pretty good guitarist and gone with him is Underoath's progressive death metal style completely! Their last album had five songs, all over seven minutes long; this album has ten songs and the longest one is five and a half minutes! Underoath have shifted to a much more accessible style of metal that is a lot more pop-y at times, but still has Dallas Taylor's screaming vocals. Let's check out a completely different kind of Underoath!

The album kicks off with it's longest song "When The Sun Sleeps" and right away you notice the vast difference from the death metal they used to play as McTague leads the way with a cool but pretty light guitar riff and Chris Dudley adds some pop-y keyboards for a very different, almost pop-rock style. Taylor still screams in his nice high and heavy voice, but Aaron Gillespie adds lots of clean backing vocals that make things sound much more accessible. The chorus is very pop-y indeed with mostly singing and not screaming and things still sound good, but it's a far cry from what most Underoath fans would be expecting at this time. This song really didn't need to be five and a half minutes either, three and a half would've been plenty. Up next is a short song under two minutes called "Letting Go Of Tonight" and it's a lot more like their older stuff with a fast and heavy main riff and some nice screaming by Taylor. Things sound pretty good to me and they even seem to be building up to something epic, but then the song just ends very abruptly. This is the song that should've been five and a half minutes! Track 3 is "A Message For Adrienne" and it has a quiet intro with some trippy keyboards and some distorted talking before they slam nicely into a groovy main riff. Taylor lets loose a couple super low screams that sound great and McTague's lead guitar is very groovy and catchy. Then things take a very heavy turn and I love this breakdown into a heavy headbanger of a new riff. Then they turn things back up to another cool faster riff and there's lots of cool stuff going on here too! They seemingly end the song on a solid note, but then jam out a soft new riff until the finish that is okay, I just thought the other spot would've been a good place to end it. The next track is "Never Meant To Break Your Heart" and it opens with a typically heavy and solid riff, then they switch to a new riff with some soft melodic guitar and some cool drums by Gillespie. After this lengthy softer part they nicely return for another heavy verse, then Dudley adds some cool piano to the next softer part, that still features some nice screaming vocals by Taylor. The back-and-forth is done very nicely on this pretty cool song. Track 5 is the title track "The Changing Of Times" and Dudley plays some interesting keyboards to start things off, then they settle into a lighter, pop-y riff at first, but it shifts nicely into a heavier chorus with some nice screaming. There's still some whiny clean vocals by Gillespie though that really detract from things for me. When he's quiet, things sound pretty solid. The mood is much lighter than usual and definitely more radio-friendly, but somehow they mix this with Taylor's screaming vocals for a song that is somehow both very light and also very heavy. Up next is "Angel Below" and Gillespie plays some nice tight drums on this one as they ramp nicely into a cool main riff that is nice and heavy, but with Dudley adding some epic synths overtop that make it sound like the heaviest 80s song you've ever heard! Once the keyboards stop it's a fairly typical rest of the song, but I mean that in a good way with lots of cool guitars and some full-belting screams by Taylor. Track 7 is "The Best Of Me" and it starts with a pretty pop-y intro, but they slam nicely into a heavy version of the same riff for another cool main verse. Dudley's keyboards are very simple and add to the accessibleness of things, but after a couple decent rounds they break things down with a nice heavy new riff. They return to the main riff to seemingly finish things off, but there's a trippy little outro that sets the stage for the next track "Short Of Daybreak" which they slam into with a slow, super heavy opening riff and of course some fittingly slow and heavy screams. When they decide to speed things up McTague leads the way with some really catchy and cool guitar and Gìllespie once again adds some (unneeded) clean vocals to the mix. Once he shuts up again the rest of this short song is pretty sweet. Track 9 is "Alone In December" and Gillespie plays a catchy drum beat to start and they build a light riff around it with some fast but quiet guitars. Dudley plays some slow piano to add to the epicness and eventually the guitars shift to heavy and Taylor nicely screams overtop of this mix of heavy and epic music. Things go really quiet with some more boring clean vocals, then we slowly make it to a heavy and epic finale in what would've been a great way to wrap up the album. Instead, the final song is "814 Stops Today" and it's a mere 48 seconds long! It's a trippy keyboard song that would've been cool as an interlude, it's not bad at all, but it's a really weird way to end this album.

That is the end of "The Changing Of Times" and I thought it was a good, but not great album by Underoath. There was still plenty of the great metal that made them awesome before, but I'm not a fan of this new direction and much preferred the progressive death metal. I think it's easily their worst album so far, but who knows where Underoath will go from here?