Underminded

Underminded: Hail Unamerican!Hail Unamerican! (2004)
Kung Fu Records

Reviewer Rating: 3

Contributed by: soulbleedsoulbleed
(others by this writer | submit your own)
Published on October 26th 2004Although they started out as a So-Cal hardcore punk outfit that sometimes sounded like a less-commercial version of The Used, Underminded somehow morphed into a breakdown-loving, double-bass-thrashing metalcore/punk combo. They signed on with Kung Fu records after much publicity from a webzine call.

Although they started out as a So-Cal hardcore punk outfit that sometimes sounded like a less-commercial version of The Used, Underminded somehow morphed into a breakdown-loving, double-bass-thrashing metalcore/punk combo. They signed on with Kung Fu records after much publicity from a webzine called Decoy and landed a very important slot on the SmartPunk stage for the 2004 Warped Tour.

Sometime shortly after that tour ended, Underminded blessed the world with their debut album, Hail Unamerican!. While the title screams politics, it's not really political at all -- plus or minus one song -- it's more just uh, interesting. The band has some very good moments, both lyrically and musically, especially when they're sticking closer to the sound they experimented with mostly at the beginning of their career (the excellent "Burn the Metropolis," for one), but for the most part, they're kind of stagnant. There's a little too much breakdown in every song and whatever momentum the song is building at the time is almost always killed -- but fortunately, the band can play their instruments quite well (the drummer is only seventeen and he can play on par with some twice his age) and the vocals are excellent.

Songs like "It's Kinda Like A Bodybag" scream for a good new-school metalcore pit, "Burn the Metropolis" has some great anthemic chants going on in the chorus, and "Pablo Escobar's Secret Stash Revisited" just kinda kicks ass; it sounds so evil. The Thrice-like guitars mesh well with the degree-lessened Unearth vocals and the Stillborn Records style hardcore group screams in the background to form an interesting amalgam of... well, hardcore stuff. That statement right there kind of fits the whole album, too. When Hail Unamerican isn't stalling in its own ambitions, it's a pretty rockin' good time.

Login to rate this album

Please login or register to post comments.What are the benefits of having a Punknews.org account?

Share your opinion by posting comments on the stories that interest you
Rate music and bands and help shape the weekly top ten
Let Punknews.org use your ratings to help you find bands and albums you might like
Customize features on the site to get the news the way you want.

Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not respon sible for them in any way. Seriously.

Anonymous (July 7, 2005)

well produced and the dudes can play, but holy cliche generic hardcore batman. Could you rip refused off any more?

Anonymous (March 9, 2005)

the best band ever...

punkcorekid (October 28, 2004)

yes, i'm an eigth grader....or maybe the fact that im walking to get a drink and i hear a guy yell "i want you to bend over and spread your ass cheeks really wide" and that just happens to be so random and stupid it's funny. who knows.