:: Underneath The Gun - Forfeit Misfortunes

Underneath The Gun

Although Californian based Christian outfit Underneath The Gun have released one full-length effort and a couple of EPs in their short five years together, I can’t say that I was all that familiar with their name, or just how much of a reputation the band has within the metallic hardcore scene. Despite their young age, Underneath The Gun certainly know their way around their instruments, with the band’s technical prowess infiltrating throughout all ten of the tracks within ‘Forfeit Misfortunes’. But while the band is full of capable musicians, there’s nothing remotely new about the way they deliver their death metal-influenced hardcore sound, with ‘Forfeit Misfortunes’ falling prey to the standard ‘heard it all before’ syndrome. 'Cutting Ties, Breathing Lies’ opens up impressively enough with a hard hitting riff and drum sound, and is backed up with some fairly varied vocals from Degrote, but the song seems to tread the same old ground as a lot of other acts within the scene with its inclusion of breakdowns and use of melodic and atmospheric passages.

Despite the changes of tempo and evident variety of sounds given to the songs throughout the album, not a real lot of ‘Forfeit Misfortunes’ manages to stick to the mind once the song itself has finished. But having said that, the fast paced driving riff in ‘Looking Deep In Shallow Water’, the speed of ‘Penitence’ and the more rock orientated ‘Rising Words’ do stand out as something different from the remainder of the album. With deathcore and metalcore continuing their dominance well into the early part of 2009, I have no doubt that Underneath The Gun’s latest effort will receive more than its fair share of attention from those who can’t get enough of the same thing. Another thing that works in the band’s favour is ‘Forfeit Misfortunes’ was also co-produced by As I Lay Dying’s Tim Lambesis. Not only is the production good, but it’s a name producer, which is sure to get some potential fans interested. But for me, Underneath The Gun only manage to sound like a band with promise, and will only really make a legitimate name for themselves once they can write some songs that aren’t glued together with the clichés common with all deathcore acts.