Christian heavy · 1995–2010
Underoath
Underoath started as a 1997 high school band in Ocala, Florida. They went on to two gold records and a No. 2 Billboard debut with Define the Great Line.
Underoath started in Ocala, Florida, on 30 November 1997, when singer Dallas Taylor and guitarist Luke Morton put a band together. Morton said the name came "from somewhere in the Bible." Drummer Aaron Gillespie joined after Morton's father heard him play at church, and the rest of the early members came from around Tampa. They were all still in high school.
The early records
Alabama's Takehold Records signed the band in 1999 and put out Act of Depression that July. Keyboard player Christopher Dudley joined for Cries of the Past in 2000. When Tooth & Nail bought Takehold, Underoath moved to its heavy imprint, Solid State, and released The Changing of Times in February 2002. Bassist Grant Brandell had joined a month earlier.
Those first three albums were rough, metal-leaning hardcore with Taylor's screams out front. But Gillespie's sung vocals on The Changing of Times hinted at where things were going. Alternative Press later said that sing-and-scream contrast foreshadowed a whole wave of bands that took it up.
Chamberlain and the breakthrough
Taylor left during the 2003 Warped Tour. That October, at CMJ in New York, the band came back with a new lead singer, Spencer Chamberlain, formerly of This Runs Through. They talked about changing the name and starting over. In the end they kept it.
They're Only Chasing Safety came out on 15 June 2004, produced by James Paul Wisner. It outsold the three earlier albums combined and went gold. The videos for "Reinventing Your Exit" and "It's Dangerous Business Walking Out Your Front Door" got regular play on MTV2 and Fuse. AllMusic heard screamo, post-hardcore or melodic hardcore rather than full metalcore. Either way, the trade between Chamberlain's screams and Gillespie's singing became the band's signature.
Define the Great Line followed on 20 June 2006, produced by Matt Goldman and Killswitch Engage's Adam Dutkiewicz. It sold 98,000 copies in its first week and debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200. That was the highest debut for a Christian album since 1997. It went gold too, and the video for "Writing on the Walls" was nominated for a Grammy for Best Short Form Music Video. Major labels came calling that year. The band re-signed with Tooth & Nail instead, saying major labels "don't get heavy bands."
Lineup changes, a breakup and a return
Lost in the Sound of Separation arrived on 2 September 2008 and debuted at No. 8. In April 2010 Gillespie, the last founding member, left. Former Norma Jean drummer Daniel Davison took his place for Ø (Disambiguation), which came out that November.
On 2 October 2012 the band announced it would split. Underoath played its last show at Jannus Live in St. Petersburg, Florida, on 26 January 2013, and Gillespie joined them on stage for two songs.
They got back together in 2015, with Gillespie back on drums. Erase Me came out on Fearless Records in 2018, and its lead single "On My Teeth" earned a Grammy nomination for Best Metal Performance. Voyeurist followed in 2022 and The Place After This One in 2025.
Faith
In the 2000s the members said they were a Christian band. Even then, Chamberlain said in 2006 that faith shaped how they lived more than what they wrote. Dudley said most of their audience wasn't Christian. With Erase Me the band publicly stepped away from the Christian label, and Chamberlain told interviewers in 2018 that being in a Christian band had been a heavy burden on him.
Where they sit in the scene
Underoath took Solid State hardcore onto MTV2 and into the Billboard top 10, and they've got two gold records to show for it. Loudwire has named them one of modern metalcore's "Big Four," alongside Bring Me the Horizon, Architects and Parkway Drive.
