Unearth are a metalcore band.
Unlike artists who shun all labels for fear of getting pigeonholed, the Bostonians embrace the “metalcore” tag. After all, they helped cook up the sound and its key ingredient—the breakdown—in the mid-2000s.
But Unearth are hardly a stagnant entity. The five musicians don’t rest on their laurels or refuse to change with the times. They’ve seen plenty of bands make those poor choices only to burn out. Unearth blow out 25 candles this year because, as their name euphemistically suggests, they’re constantly digging into fresh soil.
The band did just that with The Wretched; The Ruinous, which came out in May on Century Media and marks the band’s longest spell between records (four and a half years). Their eighth effort, unlike its predecessors, doesn’t feature founding member Ken Susi on guitar. It’s also Unearth’s first concept record. The timing is no accident, as founding member and vocalist Trevor Phipps says from the attic/recording space in his house.
“I tried to write a concept record with (2018’s) Extinction(s),” he says. “We got halfway there, but then I was pulled in different directions, because some were Ken songs, some were (second guitarist) Buz (McGrath) songs, some were songs they wrote together.”
Commenting on Susi’s departure, Phipps says, “The time was right for us to split. It wasn’t healthy for either party to be together (anymore). It was a divided building for a long time. We had some personal differences and weren’t on the same page with so many things.”
According to Phipps, the parties tried to make it work a few weeks after Susi split—but to no avail.
“The same things started happening again, so we thought it was better to (make a) clean (break),” he says. “It became a mutual decision. He will forever be tied to this band, and I have nothing bad to say about him.”
Alas, none of Susi’s material made it onto The Wretched; The Ruinous. Phipps says Unearth wanted a seamless sound to strengthen the record’s consistent theme: environmental catastrophe. As a father of two children, ages 5 and 10, Phipps felt it was more incumbent upon him than ever before to devote an entire record to the topic.
“I’ve touched on environmental crisis on every record, going all the way back to the first one (2001’s The Stings of Conscience),” he says. “But this is the first record entirely devoted to it. A lot of hardcore and metal bands have a social stance that they’re trying to better the world. The world would be a better place with more metal out there.”
Phipps acknowledged that some Unearth fans and rock critics want him to move on to other topics. For those individuals, listening to The Wretched; The Ruinous might resemble, to toy with an Unearth song title, an inglorious nightmare. Similarly minded people probably told writers Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau, also from Massachusetts, they were sick of them writing so damn much about nature. Phipps says he feels a duty to talk about environmental devastation not only because he’s a dad but because he’s a metal musician.
“I’m not singing about this for fun,” he asserts. “I’d rather sing about other causes that I’m passionate about, which I have in the past. But right now, I think all our focus should be devoted to this. If you’re getting sick of hearing about it, well, you’re gonna get sick of experiencing it pretty soon. Once we straighten out the environment, we can move on to other topics.”
Phipps is champing at the bit to introduce Unearth fans to not just the new record but his band’s new lineup. Touring guitarist Peter Layman is now a permanent member of Unearth, and newish drummer Mike Justian recorded with them for the first time on The Wretched; The Ruinous.
“Peter is doing a harmonized sweep intro to “My Will Be Done” with Buzz and other harmonies that we’ve never done live—only on record,” Phipps says. “Whereas Ken would always do the rhythm to keep it heavy, Peter’s learning these licks that add more melody and harmony to our shows.”
Sounds like Unearthly delights, indeed.
Photo courtesy of Unearth
