Label: Roadrunner
Released: 13th March 2020
Rating: ★★★★★
Code Orange aren’t the kind of band to do things by halves. When they want to make a statement, you best believe they’re going to go in guns blazing – only this time, there’s more than meets the eye. As always, the glitching monster that rears up, resolutely banging itself into a chainlink fence, threatening to escape and swallow you whole.
Feeling like a crashing storm, Code Orange know when to let the eye hit at the right time, for a bit of serenity – well, in the Code Orange world that is still raging brutality but letting the melodies shine through. It’s this experimentation with subduing any expectation and delivering a promise to deconstruct everything and re-build it like the second Death Star that is the crowning jewel.
The one-two abrasive introduction of ‘(deeperthanbefore)’ and ‘Swallow The Rabbit Hole’ establishes the black hole ready to swallow you whole throughout ‘Underneath’. Tauntingly opening with the spine-tingling phrase “Let’s take a good hard look at you”, the entire scope of the record feels like a test that even once it’s over, will never leave you.
All told, the excitement is where Code Orange excel – you don’t know where they’ll turn next, or when the lights will flicker off and on. Exhilarating doesn’t even begin to cover it.
