With over a half million albums sold around the globe, UNEARTH’S astounding legacy has never been more self-evident. Festival vets and road warrior renegades, UNEARTH was a standout in a sea of worthy contenders on the final cross-country Warped Tour. Immediately upon its release in 2018, “Incinerate,” the first single from their seventh studio album, shot to Number 1 on SiriusXM Liquid Metal’s “The Devil’s Dozen” and was among the Top 100 most played songs on Amazon Music.
The question that entered my mind as I got ready to cover this show, stemmed from the magnanimous presence that their record left with me after reviewing it and I couldn’t help but wonder again if the band would deliver this anvil-like mayhem live.
It had been a minute since I’d seen the band and with the release of Extinction(s) that simply dominated everything it grazed when it was played, it seemed likely that these alumnists of metal would do the same to the stage. And in fact, there was quite a buzz about this tour before it rolled into Dallas. I mean, you can’t get more sonically debilitating than what this bill offered, right?
Right. UNEARTH tips the metalcore scale at being so heavy at times that the numbers zero out or the plate sits on the surface when compared to other bands in the genre. There’s some thick traces of doomed measures wound around in Extinctions(s) that are so sick and surprisingly matched with the “core” element in metalcore. I only mention this not because I subscribe to the categorizing of bands into boxes like “metalcore”, “thrash”, “prog rock”, or the loathed by me “djent” arenas. I don’t, it’s all rock music or metal for me. And while I get the need to use these labels to lump a band into when trying to describe to another person a band’s sound, I feel it’s kinda lazy to do so unless you’re reduced to a 10 second conversation with the person that hasn’t heard of a band. Although the whole “they sound like ___” conversation is lame to me, I understand why we do this.
Having to literally and verbally spell out what a band’s new record sounds like or how their live show rocked my world, or in some cases, did not rock the Bird’s world, it would be easy to just slam out strings of genre specific words to help a reader with learning about a band’s sound, especially if they have never heard or seen them. But that’s kinda unfair, don’t you agree? That’s why I really focus on the emotions or feelings that the music pulls out from me so that at least you, the reader, can align to.
So as you read the following, you’ll know that what I experienced at this show was derived from a genuine reaction to what UNEARTH delivered. When UNEARTH took the stage and started to play and I would say the first two songs at least created a blast wave from an explosion, only in slow motion! This defining energy that poured over the packed crowd like an over pressurized shock wave was unbelievable. I will have to say that even though I’ve seen a ton of bands at GMBG, I’ve never and I mean NEVER been blown away like I was for UNEARTH. They were SO loud – but not in an obnoxious way, mind you. It was a loud AF obvious trait for the band, like an element has the same molecular makeup – this was just something that just is for the band. It was soul stirring.
I’ll repeat that last sentence in case you’re like me and like to skim through an article…IT WAS SOUL STIRRING! KEN and BUZ blazed on guitars and I swear it was like watching a unicycler maneuver through a minefield, detonating some of them by sheer telepathy. TREVOR reeled in the drag force coming off NICK and CHRIS’s pounding combinations in lows and beats with a huge net and cast it out over us in the audience.
UNEARTH played a killer mix of songs that the audience responded to by the pit activity that didn’t stop from start to finish. Standouts for me were Incinerate, This Lying World, Dust, and Black Hearts Now Reign from that 2004 dandy of a record The Oncoming Storm. (Which this record boarders on the metalcore of 2018 as opposed to what was back in 04, you feel me?) There was zero lag in their set and went off without even an ounce of any issue that could happen live.
And if you don’t believe me I’ll link you to 48 seconds of proof-positive that UNEARTH delivers in a massive kind of way. Click here to witness what the band gave to Dallas on their stop at GMBG.
I know that 2019 will be another huge year for the band and if you don’t know of them or have been balancing on the top of the proverbial fence, get off of it and follow this band right now. You won’t be disappointed in what you’ll find. I promise.
Pick up Extinction(s) now via Century Media Records where ever you snag your music from!
Til Next Time – MRML – Cherri
PHOTO GALLERY
Photos by Cherri Bird
