Code Orange - Underneath: Album Review

Speaking of songs that heavily rely on studio post-production, ‘Cold.Metal.Place’ is up next with an almost incoherent ambush of groove metal electronicore. In truth, ‘Cold.Metal.Place’ is an awful song in comparison with Code Orange’s other material. ‘Sulfur Surrounding’ immediately seems clear and more crisp than the prior songs which struck you as confusing and cluttered. Easily the strongest tune on the record so far, ‘Sulfur Surrounding’ is a great track.

As ‘The Easy Way’ introduces itself, it becomes clear that the band may have given the studio too much freedom over the album’s final sound. The natural Code Orange awe is lost in the sea of overproduction, a problem that has plagued several of the record’s songs.

‘Erasure Scan’ shows great groove metal elements but you have to strain to hear them through the thick, cluttered foliage of the song. Signs of improvement are transparently clear in ‘Last Ones Left’ with its raw and comparatively stripped back atmosphere. If the entire album followed this example, it would be phenomenal.

Remaining songs such as ‘Autumn and Carbine’ represent the finest qualities of the album, while other tail end songs like ‘Back Inside the Glass' certainly don’t. Overall, ‘Underneath’ isn’t an awful album by any stretch of the imagination but it is a huge letdown after the standards set by ‘Forever’. It seems like Code Orange are over-complicating things with this altered style and taking a step back to the more natural sound would be beneficial.