Unearth – Darkness In The Light

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There’s a certain point in their progression where both metalcore and melodeath effectively sound the same. This is proven by the ever growing quantity of bands that are confused for one or the other. Unearth of course fall squarely into the metalcore genre, but on closer inspection it’s easy to see the latter’s influence even this deep on the other side. On Darkness In The Light, amidst the duly anticipated metalcore breakdowns and straight forward melodies are many cases of melodeath riffing. This works rather nicely, and would perhaps give metal fans something to latch on to – but sadly Unearth are all too eager to ruin this. Sadly this is yet another metalcore album that utilizes the shouting/singing approach, something that works quite well in some genres but has long since began to tire in metalcore. It doesn’t help that the clean singing present on Darkness In The Light, best evidenced on opener Watch It Burn, sounds badly auto-tuned and ill-fitting. This spoils an otherwise enjoyable metalcore record and, dare it be said, makes it feel like it is trying to grab commercial appeal. The album is otherwise good at what it is doing, albeit not likely to gain any crossover interest from the metal community, and probably not strong enough to stand against the best that hardcore has to offer.

Written by James Donovan
More: 2011, Albums, Hardcore/Metalcore, Quick.Play Reviews, Unearth