Loud Faith

You're sitting with one album: Underoath's They're Only Chasing Safety, out 15 June 2004 on Tooth & Nail / Solid State, produced by James Paul Wisner at Wisner Productions in St. Cloud, Florida. Runtime's about thirty-eight minutes. Spencer Chamberlain and Aaron Gillespie's dual-vocal lineup locked after Dallas Taylor left. The record went gold in the US — RIAA, December 2011. It peaked at No. 101 on the Billboard 200 and No. 7 on Christian Albums. It crossed into secular playlists without yelling a sermon into the mic. Christian emo, post-hardcore, adjacent metalcore, roughly 1995–2010 — for Loud Faith, this cut is the album itself, not a band career tour.

Self-ID, without a sermon

In 2004 they were a Christian / Tooth & Nail scene band. Alex Henderson's AllMusic write-up said the quiet part out loud: the Christian orientation set them apart from a lot of screamo peers, but the references sat subliminal enough that secular audiences stuck around. Mid-2000s Solid State reality — church basement and Hot Topic owning the same CD. Combined sales figures circulating around the mid-2000s reissue put the title past half a million in the US, which is how the gold plaque eventually landed.

One sentence of later honesty, then back to the record: around 2018 the band publicly dropped the "Christian band" label — Chamberlain to Revolver around Erase Me, saying agreeing not to be a Christian band anymore was one of the best things they ever did. Noted. No sermon either way. We're staying on They're Only Chasing Safety.

What the critics keep saying about this album

AllMusic's Henderson frame still says it plain for Safety: screamo / post-hardcore / melodic hardcore as heaven-and-hell contrast — "normal" singing against tortured screaming, melody against sledgehammer, honey mixed with vinegar rather than Hatebreed-style throat-first metalcore. Mildly uneven, he wrote. Respectable more often than not. First album with Chamberlain out front after Taylor. Brooklyn Vegan later called it one of melodic metalcore's biggest mainstream breakthroughs; Cross Rhythms heard nu-metal weight on the heavier side of the rock scale. Same point from more than one corner: this LP traveled.

Jaime Preciado (Pierce the Veil), for Revolver, called this album "the blueprint." Chaos and melody in the same song — drumming, singing, electronic production, every track with a place. He learned every word. "Reinventing Your Exit" was the door. He still hears Safety work in any post-hardcore playlist. That's a working musician naming a template, not a press release.

it's all dead's tenth-anniversary reflection is the honest pushback for this title alone: even if you won't call Chasing Safety flawless, it may be the most game-changing post-hardcore record of its window. Flagship for a screamo wave. Gold sales in a scene where that almost never happened. Re-signed to Tooth & Nail off the smash instead of jumping major. Breakthrough as freedom, not as a trap. That's the Host read of this LP.

Knotfest's 20-year talk with Gillespie lands on the dual-vocal engine on these songs: Chamberlain's lows and highs against Gillespie's cleans, melody and aggression in a ratio the genre hadn't locked yet. Ticketmaster's anniversary interview and the album's documented history put a gospel choir on the bridge of "It's Dangerous Business Walking Out Your Front Door" — a local church choir; Timothy McTague has said the band misled them about the song's meaning to get the take. Messy, and on the record. Official singles from the set were "Reinventing Your Exit" and "It's Dangerous Business Walking Out Your Front Door."

Four tracks from this LP

Reinventing Your Exit — the Preciado door; heavy and melodic in under four minutes; the single that taught the balance kids chased for a decade.

A Boy Brushed Red Living in Black and White — F♯-minor double-octave hooks and breakdown/up-tempo swing; McTague has cited Jimmy Eat World's "Your New Aesthetic" as a writing template for the song.

It's Dangerous Business Walking Out Your Front Door — murder-ballad electronics with an 1980s ghost in the machine, choir on the bridge, and the "Drowning in my sleep" breakdown Preciado still hears in the van.

Some Will Seek Forgiveness, Others Escape — Gillespie-led closer, acoustic-leaning comedown after the sprint; Henderson flagged it as the soft landing, not a powerhouse, and still non-offensive.

Deep cuts can wait on the embeds. These four still make a Christian-emo / post-hardcore playlist make sense when you drop this album in.

Host score

8 / 10.

Not a 10 — AllMusic called it mildly uneven, and the record has soft spots even its boosters admit. Not a 6 either — Preciado called this LP the blueprint, it went gold in a scene that almost never does, Henderson's heaven/hell dual-vocal frame still holds, and "Reinventing Your Exit" / "Dangerous Business" still clear a floor twenty years on. Eight is the Host number for They're Only Chasing Safety as a singular Loud Faith cut: it carries weight, it isn't flawless.

Where this album sits on Loud Faith

Christian emo / post-hardcore on Tooth & Nail / Solid State wasn't a side quest — parallel charts, a Dove rock-album nomination for this LP, kids who wanted breakdown and belief on the same disc. They're Only Chasing Safety is the crossover document: Warped-adjacent floor, Myspace melody, Christian-label lane, secular-friendly enough to travel. Adjacent metalcore ears heard Chamberlain. Emo ears heard Gillespie. One album. One cut.