Almost three years after the release of their last opus, ‘The March’, metalcore outfit UNEARTH are back with their fifth studio album entitled ‘Darkness In The Light’. This new album further cements UNEARTH as one of the best metalcore bands in the genre. You will find everything you would expect from an UNEARTH album here. Crunching riffs, raucous vocals from frontman Trevor Phipps, and superb breakdowns, which as ever add another dimension to each song.

‘Watch Them Burn’ is a great and aggressive way to start the album as they tear into the album with nothing held back, and continues at full throttle into next track ‘Ruination of The Lost’. ‘Eyes of Black’ is a real highlight on this album, and you would run out of superlatives to describe it’s epicness. The guitar work is immense here and there is a hint of virtuoso-ness too ala Yngwie Malmsteem, making this one of the best new metalcore tracks I have heard in a while.

‘Arise The War Cry’ shows off some good use of melodic riffs, and the ease of it which it changes from melodic to brutal back to melodic is sheer genius, and engrosses the listener even further, before a almost faster marching style of the drums, starting off a ferocious breakdown. ‘Equinox’ is one of the more interesting tracks here, as it starts off really slow using keyboards to build up into the song before some intricate guitar work breaks through, and the more brutal side of the song pretty much starts and then finishes almost as quickly as it had begun, before more keyboards then take the track out.

‘The Fallen’ is another sublime example of mixing another style of the metal genre into the song. The guitars are more akin to a traditional/power metal style in places and switch between this and a more straight up metalcore style with seamless ease, but the drums take a severe pounding in this as temporary drummer Justin Foley leads a barrage of attacks on them, and the result is quite spectacular and thoroughly satisfying on the ear.

While it’s extremely difficult to pick out favourites from this album, another real highlight for me is the awesome ‘Overcome’. Contained within it is a multitude of excellent elements that all work together to produce a sublime tune. Awesome solo, a catchy chorus, a fast paced style and some crunching guitars. This is one track that makes you just want to bang your head and throw your horns or pump your fists in the air whilst screaming out the chorus.

Anybody who loves their previous albums will love this too. UNEARTH have delivered yet another killer album in ‘Darkness In The Light’ that can not only stand up to the excellence of it’s predecessors, it even surpasses them, and with album after album of pure quality, you have to wonder how they will choose a set come touring time to keep everybody happy. This is another masterpiece, and it’s near enough constant brutality and superb tracks from start to finish, whilst mixing a few other styles too into the album make UNEARTH masters of their craft, and still firmly mixing it with the big boys in the metalcore genre. Superb guys!

Rating: 4.9/5.0

Review By Adam Fredericks