UNEARTH : "the Wretched , the Ruinous "

This album opens with the title track. There are only two original members of this band, but does it matter as they sound like every post- MY-Space. Over twenty years into their career, album number eight does not sound like it's a fresh take on what they have been doing but finds the band punching the clock with a very calculated effort to make heavy music in 2023. In the definition of metal-core , this sounds like a melodic death metal band with hard core influence. The second song finds them blasting into things at a more rapid pace. This is even less impressive to me than how they opened the album. Nothing really hooks me in it feels like a bunch of recycled riffs. There is more of a break down on what I guess is the chorus, but the rule here is cool riffs alone does not a good song make. If you are 14 then this guitar playing might impress you. 

"Eradicator" assaults you with the same mood of the previous song with frantic riffing getting the best of them and breakdowns just thrown in a random to break things up. Are they tight and does this album sound good? Yes, but they are a professional band than has been doing this for over twenty years there is no excuse for anything less. Is there anything unique to them about their breakdowns that bears their signature? No. That is the bulk of the problem. No amount of guitar solos can compensate for it. A hint of melodic vocals and a darker tone help the beginning of "Mother Betrayal" then they speed things back up to a thrashing cruise control and it goes back to the status quo for these guys. "Invictus" is rinse and repeat from what we have already heard on this album. Thankfully these songs are short and I am able to bust through this album quickly. 

It is at this point in the album where the song all take on such uniform sounds that they all begin to sound the same. This really bores me and the lack of risk-taking feels like everything that metal should not be, Metal is a sound these guys have dialed in, but it is nothing that I am feeling from their music. I know they have had Christians in this band before, though they are not a Christian band, but the lack of inner darkness that is expelled in their music is one of the hindrances here. I just have to endure three more songs. "Dawn of the Militant" finds the pace picking up again, but no danger or emotional venom behind it. The singer's growl is a very middle of the road , mid-range rasp with enough power behind it, but not much anger. 

The abyss the are going into on "Into the Abyss" feels like it would be lit like a department store. The guitar harmonies are polished but lack teeth even when going into the pounding sections. "Broken Arrow" is marginally more convincing with its heft, though a great deal of credit rests on the opening riff, before the big gang vocal chorus that follows. There is the most hook on this song as it almost has a nu-metal feel, in terms of the grooving. The two best songs are the last two. The closing anthem is more deliberate though less nu-metal and more crushing in it's hard core intentions. I almost believe they are angry. I will round this down to a 7.5, while it's highly polished and there are less than a handful of bangers I am not feeling that this metal is not false, so the rating is taking the perspective of  a  fan of this kind of music into consideration as their standards of what feels like metal is low to begin with. A learning curve for special ED music tastes, other wise I would call it a 6.