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A man in a gas mask, face fully obscured, flickers in black and white and classic film style on the back wall. His hand rises and the words, I Am The Messenger write themselves across his hand. The crowd is going nuts as Aaron Gillespie walks out onto stage first, and stands on the stool behind his drum kit, arms outstretched, in a Christ like pose, reminiscent of Scott Stapp, but far less arrogant. The rest of Underoath, vocalist Spencer Chamberlin, guitarists Tim McTague and James Smith, bassist Grant Brandell and sample/keyboard player Christopher Dudley, join Gillespie on stage and he leads them into Breathing in a New Mentality with an incredible display of drumming that has to make anyone who would deride the founding member of Underoath and lead singer of The Almost, myself included, take notice of his considerable talent on the drums.

It doesn’t stay a one man show for long, as Spencer Chamberlin, scrawny with more hair than flesh on his body, emits his trademark scream and growling vocals, and McTague and Smith pound out the incredible lines that have made Underoath a tour de force in almost any scene that ends in the word core.

The sounds of an old school projector clicking clue the already insane crowd that Underoath are about to reach back to 2006’s Define the Great Line for In Regards to Myself, giving Gillespie the chance to stretch his vocal chords, singing the hook, “You’re sleeping a bed of shame,” to which Chamerlin growls back “Let the light breathe some new life into this room, It’s what keeps you coming back.”

Neither Underoath or the crowd is letting up as Chamberlin screams the opening words of It’s A Dangerous Business Walking Out Your Front Door from 2006’s genre defining They’re Only Chasing Safety. The crowd croons along with the softer more melodic moments of the song, and chant along in one voice, “I’m drowning in my sleep.” As Chamberlin screams over the chant.

The crowd’s heat and passion are fueling the band as they continue to pound through a set that included. Emergency Broadcast : The End Is Near, I Don’t Feel Very Receptive Today, You’re Ever So Inviting and The Only Survivor Was Miraculously Unharmed.

By the time Gillespie asks, “Can you feel your heart beat racing? Can you taste the fear in her sweat?” The crowd is so hyped that it seems that the roof is going to come off, and when A Boy Brushed Red, Living In Black and White’s break down hits and Chamberlin again unleashes his surprising power, the pit erupts.

The set continues with Desolate Earth: The End Is Hear and Returning Empty Handed, before Chamberlin tells the crowd that they’ve been the best of the tour (cheap pop), and then with his religion planted firmly on his sleeve he does his best to spread the word of Christ without trying to sound like a pretentious ass. The crowd clearly feels it as Jesus gets the biggest pop of the night.

He then announces that this is the last song and they break into Desperate Times, Desperate Measures of their latest release, 2008’s Lost In The Sound of Separation.

Darkness follows but the crowd wants more and Underoath obliges returning for their encore and playing Too Bright To See, Too Loud To Hear and Define’s Writing on The Walls, before retiring for good, and leaving behind a drained and wholly satisfied crowd.

Underoath live is an amazing example of what can happen when talent meets unbridled energy. Gillespie, for all his awkward ginger faults, ie. The Almost, is perhaps, one of the best drummers working today and seeing Underoath live proves one thing, it is definitely Gillespie’s band, but it’s Spencer Chamberlin’s show.

Underoath – A Boy Brushed Red Living In Black And White
Underoath – In Regards To Myself
Underoath – Desperate Times, Desperate Measures

How do you find a band? You can scour the internet, looking for sound a-likes to your favorite bands, or bands with a lot of positive buzz. If you were in your sixties you could take recommendations from Rolling Stone where you could find out about hip young artists like Bruce Springsteen or U2. In the case of Sky Eats Airplane, I had a friend gush his brains out to me about how awesome they are.

Hailing from Fort Worth and occupying a similar branch on the metalcore tree as Enter Shikari and We Came As Romans, Sky Eats Airplane combine some pretty sick riffs, guttural screams, a faster than a black guy in rural Arkansas tempo, electronica beats and some sweet and silky vocals. (Note: Anthony Green /Craig Owens sweet, not Luther Vandros/Aaron Neville sweet.).

SEA’s first album, 2006’s Everything Perfect on the Wrong Day, is a DIY masterpiece that they self recorded with a Mac and a guitar. For an album lacking professional production, Everything Perfect shines as an example of incredible musicianship. The guitars, helmed by axe men Lee Duck and Zack Ordway, are heavy and perfectly timed, synching when they need to be and at odds when it serves SEA’s purposes. Drummer Kenny Schick, emrbraces the electronic beats, and plays with them, blending his rhythms together with fellow band mate MAC. (For your reference the band considers the laptop to be a member, I consider it to be a useful instrument, and a tool for looking at the midget porn I covet so dearly). Johno Erickson’s bass lines serve their purpose but generally sit third chair in the rhythm section behind Schick and the electronica. Original Singer Brack Cantrell, armed with a kick ass name, and the ability to shuffle back and forth between his deep growling scream and light airy vocals turns what could have been a train wreck into a shinning example of what can be accomplished when the right elements of talent meet the drive to succeed and a need to be original.

Everything Perfect knows when to rock and when to croon. When to push the electonica and when to let it fade into the background, and when to shred ass. On stand out track Giants in the Ocean, SEA utilize the electronica to set the stage, as they often do and then break in with a scream that almost immediately mellows into a sweeter croon. From there the song builds Everytime I Die style, with a stuttering rhythm, multiple styles of screaming and group vocals, while the electronica hits a falsetto and Duck and Ordway (sounds like attorneys you’d never hire) prove that they don’t need to be playing at light speed, to reach the speed of awesome.

The friend that recommend Sky Eats Airplane to me described Everything Perfect on the Wrong day by saying, “In the sea of bad ass, this album is truly the great white shark….or at least the sting ray that killed Steve Irwin, metaphorically speaking of course.”

Strangely enough, this is an apt description of Eveything Perfect, and bad ass is essentially SEA’s middle name, to be found between Eats and Airplane, cause otherwise, it would sound stupid.

Sky Eats Airplane – Honest Hitchhikers Asking for Cash Handouts
Sky Eats Airplane – Giants In The Ocean

For their second and self titled album, released in 2008, SEA juggled it’s line up as Cantrell left the band to, by all accounts, make softer music and spend his days writing Bronte themed lyrics and looking up at clouds in a flowery field of gardenias and dreaming of cotillions and puffy dresses.

After a nation wide search for a singer SEA settled on Hampton Virginia native and supposed former model, Jerry Roush, who impressed the band singing over an instrumental version of the afore mentioned Giants. Jerry proved to be a more than solid addition to the band, as his scream is more practiced and less haphazard than that of Cantrell, but no less harsh. Meanwhile his voice, at most times feels like a vast improvement.

The band traveled to Baltimore to work with Post Hardcore super producer Brian McTernan who has mixed and produced some of the greatest albums of time, including, but not limited too Thrice’s Illusion of Safety and Artist in the Ambulance, Circa Survive’s Juturna and On Letting Go, The Bled’s Silent Treatment, Strike Anywhere’s Change is Sound and Moneen’s brilliant The Red Tree.

The end result proves less charming than Wrong Day, but no less bad ass. While the songs seem to be more tailored towards finding an audience, the entire band has evolved and their level of musical ability has been ratcheted up several notches. Most notably Schick’s drumming has found a more noticeable place in the band the mix applied by McTernan’s magic fingers blends the electronica into the sound, using far more subtle builds to help the songs grow into what they should be instead of leaving it out front lingering like an obvious gimmick.

Numbers finds the band speeding through an opus of raging guitar and a clinic in time changes from Schick, while Roush perfectly balances his screams and singing as the band craft a song that could easily gain them thousands of new fans and a sell out label from fans of Wrong Day.

As is often the case with a bands sophomore effort, Sky Eats Airplanes self titled release doesn’t fully live up to the promise that is evident on Everything Perfect, but is still an incredibly good record. The band’s musicianship has improved, but there’s a spark that isn’t quite there. I’d keep watching though, as it seems likely that not only are Sky Eats Airplane not done evolving and improving, but their best work is still ahead of them.

Sky Eats Airplane – Numbers
Sky Eats Airplane – Photographic Memory