Underoath Aren't Pretending To Be Something That They're Not

It's been a long, long time between drinks for legendary American hardcore six-piece Underoath. Eight years is an eternity to wait in the music world, but the band are about to break their silence in no uncertain terms with their first album since 2010's Ø (Disambiguation). On the eve of the release of Erase Me, frontman Spencer Chamberlain warns fans to expect the unexpected.

"Writing for the first time in a long time as Underoath, a lot of things are going to be different," he states. "We're all different from what we were, we've all grown a lot as individuals and as musicians and songwriters. We're never going to be the same kids we were back then, we're not going to write Ø (Disambiguation) Part Two, or go back in time and pretend to be something we're not.

"Everyone grows and everyone changes, and change is good."

More specifically, Chamberlain is happy to prepare the fans for what they are going to get on Erase Me, as far as the sound and the songs are concerned. "We had no plan for the record, apart from the fact that we were never going to say something wasn't 'Underoath' enough," he laughs. "I think what the fans can expect is a very brutally honest record. It's a very pop record, but not in the way you might be used to Underoath being pop. Underoath pop songs were very happy, in my opinion. And by that I don't mean lyrical content, I mean like, it just sounded bubblegummy to me. So we steered away from it and became a more dark, heavy band because we didn't know how to write any better, we didn't know how to write a pop song without it being happy. As we grew up we figured out how to make it memorable without it being too happy."

Chamberlain reveals that there was another, more personal reason behind the change in direction on the new album. "I was going through the worst couple of years of my life," he says. "I'd been battling drug addiction for 12 years, and during the writing of the record, I actually got clean. I got rid of all the hard drugs for the first time in 12 years, and I'm a better musician and songwriter for it."

Ultimately, he is philosophical about the manner in which it may be received, especially the Underoath's more hardcore fans. "Some people are gonna love, some people are gonna hate, we just wanted to stir the pot."

The brutal honesty of the record certainly comes across in the lyrical themes he tackles on the record, Chamberlain revealing that the words he penned are very much autobiographical in nature, and chronicle in detail the aforementioned dark period of his life. "Most of the record is a journey between Underoath breaking up and coming back again," he says. "I went through some of the worst years of my life during the break-up, and then we got back together I kinda picked my life back up and cut out a lot of the negative people. A lot of it is based on drug addiction, you don't really realise you're a drug addict, but you are. You just have to admit it. After 12 long years of it, I just had to walk away and break free of it."

On the back of the album's release, Underoath have ridiculously busy tour schedule for the first half of 2018, but Chamberlain is confident they will make it Down Under in the not too distant future. It's just a matter of when. "I know we'll be coming to Australia soon, I don't exactly when it is, but we would never not come now that we're a band again. Australia will be a part of every record and tour we do."