Underoath‘s Spencer Chamberlain and Aaron Gillespie open up on the making of their latest album ‘The Place After This One’, set for release on March 28 via MNRK Heavy.

Plus, we have teamed up with the band to bring you this world exclusive red and gold vinyl of the album, limited to just 150 copies.

Available for delivery worldwide, order yours now at SHOP.ROCKSOUND.TV

Read Underoath, ‘The Place After This One’ | The Album Story below:

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“Have you guys seen ‘A Complete Unknown’?”

Aaron Gillespie posing this question to his bandmate Spencer Chamberlain and Rock Sound may seem a bit out of pocket on the surface when discussing Underøath‘s new album ‘The Place After This One’. But for those, like Rock Sound, who have seen Timothée Chalamet’s incredible portrayal of Bob Dylan‘s early years of success, it makes perfect sense.

The film focuses on Dylan during the 60s, becoming the new face of folk music in an America at a time of huge change whilst also endeavouring not to be pinned down by a particular expected sound. It culminates in his infamous performance at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965, where rather than taking to the stage with just his acoustic and harmonica, he and his band plugged in and rattled through four songs fully electric from his then-upcoming album ‘Highway 61 Revisited’, sending shockwaves through the crowd before them and the organisers who had begged him not to.

For Aaron, with the way Underøath has grown over the years – the successes, the expectations, the fallouts, the reunions – he sees so much of how his band approaches the creation of art in what Dylan did that day.

“We’ve always been towing that road a little bit. We have always made the album that’s a little scary. Dylan had to make that record, and he had to go out and perform it at an acoustic-only festival and almost get carried off the stage. That’s where we live, too.”

“You just keep on making music that you care about,” Spencer adds, now clear on the direction his friend was going. “People will come and go; you will have good years and bad years. That’s just life. It’s normal. You just have to be able to ride the wave with where culture is going, and that’s what we have always strived to do.”

So much of that is reflected in how ‘The Place After This One’ feels like no one else but Underøath. It’s frantic, bludgeoning, captivating, vulnerable, weird, and, more than anything, urgent. It’s precisely what some people will want to hear from the band. It’s also absolutely nothing like what others want them to be, and that’s a fucking fantastic place to be over two decades into your career. Unafraid and unbridled, it’s a record that they could only make right here and right now, and they couldn’t be prouder to have reached this place.

“We only know how to do things a certain way, and that way is our way,” Aaron smiles. “What that means is that we make whatever the fuck we want. If it makes sense to people, that’s a blessing; if it doesn’t, that’s okay, too. But I do think doing things that way is the reason we are still here.”

To uncover more about their practices, Rock Sound chatted through every aspect of ‘The Place After This One’ with the pair and discovered what it means to simply not give a fuck.

THE SOUND

There are moments on ‘The Place After This One’ that sound like a panic attack, like the guttural chaos that holds opener ‘Generation No Surrender’ in place. There are others that send shivers coursing up your spine like the heavy-hitting ‘Survivor’s Guilt’ and occasions that feel like a shadowy hand gripping your shoulder, like the soul-searching grit of ‘Cannibal’. Creating such an intense, intricate and intoxicating compound for what Underøath believe heavy music should be in 2025 doesn’t come without a lot of legwork. It also comes from each individual member of the band not actually listening to much heavy music outside of their roles in the band. But the result is all the more fascinating, as the chase of connecting the dots from each of their separate passions, seeing where the middle meeting point will fall, is forever more thrilling than the catch.

“The reason Underøath works is because the way Tim would have done a song is different from how I would have done a song,” Spencer explains. “That’s also different from how Aaron would have done the song, which is also different from how Chris would have done the song. Everyone’s taste is so broad and out there; this small space that we land on keeps Underøath sounding like Underøath and helping us progress forward. The longer we do this, the more our tastes change and the more we learn how to push and pull each other.”

It’s asking each other constantly, “What do we want to hear when we listen to heavy music?” that keeps things in balance. Being a central cog in the scene machine for two and a half decades, they have seen and heard it all even when they weren’t strictly at the control board. Watching trends come and go and seeing bands shapeshift to chase the algorithm has seen them endeavouring never to fall into the same traps, even if, at times, listeners think they have. But seeing how heavy music is having a well-deserved moment in the spotlight right now and seeing that the bands at the cutting edge of the culture are the ones crafting their own lane has only bolstered Spencer and Aaron’s belief that marching to your own beat is the only way.

“During COVID, every rapper was doing pop-punk,” Aaron laughs. “Ten years before that, it was whatever else. Stuff is just cyclical. Things just cycle around, and right now, it is heavy music’s time, which is cool. If you, as a band, stick at it, it will continue to go. If you love what you’re doing, you can be okay with that. If you don’t love what you’re doing and you’re chasing the commercial aspect, your style will change again and again depending on what is happening. There’s nothing wrong with that, but it’s not for us.”

THE COLLABORATORS

When it came to production duties, the band turned to an acquaintance of Aaron in the form of Danen Rector. With the likes of Grayscale, Boys like Girls and Charlotte Sands in his portfolio, his expertise in making an infectious pop hook is clear to see. The sessions for the album’s recording with Danen took place in a cabin up in the stunning surroundings of the Blue Ridge Mountains, with the fresh air and natural splendour playing a huge part in making the experiments and sonic expeditions that little bit more tranquil and grandiose. And though Spencer admits that Danen was perfect in his role, becoming a sixth band member throughout the process, he doesn’t point to his involvement as the main reason for things falling into place like they did. He doesn’t point to the surroundings they committed it to tape, either. Those are things put in place in their pursuit of creating something that causes goosebumps. Of wanting to feel something. But the reason that they were able to develop that was because of the place that the band were in as a whole. Collaboration, be that with others or with each other, only creates gold when you’re in the right spot, and that’s where Underøath are now.

“Every record we have done has been the best representation of us at that moment in time,” he remarks. “Looking at our career, the band being in a good spot and catching us making that best representation of us at the right time is where you get things that are special. ‘Define The Great Line’ and this album, the reason they feel similar to me is because we were in those good spots in our personal lives and with each other.”

“I think that when you’re making music, it should put you out of yourself a little bit. It should be vital to you. It should make you feel something,” Aaron adds. “That’s what we are trying to make, and that’s where the cabin and Danen comes in. I think that we really try and set up those situations. For us, that has always been the thing. Creating that and doing things our way and creating our own way. Any music can make you do that.”

THE LYRICS

The fact that the band are in such a good spot also relates to how they are writing lyrics this time around. During every other album process, they have been in the middle of the storm rather than looking back on it. And when the rain is soaking you to the skin, and it seems like there is no end in sight, your perception of things will be different. And that has been clear throughout the Underøath story.

2004’s ‘They’re Only Chasing Safety’ was a band figuring out who they wanted to be, and 2006’s ‘Define The Great Line’ was a creative reaction to the pressure of what had come before. 2008’s ‘Lost In The Sound Of Separation’ saw them falling apart, and 2010’s ‘Ø (Disambiguation)’ was created off the back of shattering into pieces. 2018’s ‘Erase Me’ was returning with no idea who they were anymore, and 2022’s ‘Voyeurist’ was a record made to prove a point. Different circumstances at different times but the same sense of trying to tread water as the flood swells around them. Being out the other side has offered so much necessary clarity for Spencer and Aaron, and they know that ‘The Place After This One’ has significantly benefitted from that.

“Every record has been us writing about the shit whilst we’re still drowning in it,” Spencer reiterates. “This time, everything that we are speaking on, we are doing when we have returned to shore. We fucking made it, now let’s talk about it. That was a more beautiful spot to write from than I have ever been able to do.”

“When you’re writing at it from the other side, you can write about it within the whole narrative as well,” Aaron points out. “You remember where the storm started and where it ended and everything that happened in the middle. I think that’s a great place to write from. It’s a strange place but beautiful songs come out of that.”

Though there are some immediate musings on what each member has experienced the last few years baked into these songs, the longer view of the storm is also the focus here. The relationships – both personal and professional – that have been shattered and repaired throughout these last twenty years. The band’s perception of faith, an element of Underøath that has long defined them, for better or for worse, and how they feel different to the kids they were searching for solace in scripture. Such raw vulnerability and honesty in the face of things they haven’t been able to discuss before has also allowed Spencer and Aaron to take back ownership of their story. Using the clarity they now have to set the record straight and show that things are different is okay. Change is good and expressing that as much as possible is important.

“When you’re still in the middle of that storm, maybe you’re not ready to admit all of it,” Spencer builds. “I think that’s why this album feels so pissed off. It’s really fucking angry, and it comes from my mind being clear. That’s from not being on drugs or being riddled with anxiety or in the middle of these fucked up situations. You can now go, ‘That was fucked up, fuck that’. It’s the first time you can say it with an open mind.”

“I don’t think anybody makes art with the intention of it not to be heard,” Aaron adds. “But this album, for the first time in a long time, us finishing it feels like the biggest success to me. The things that it says and the things that it means, it feels vital. And that is where the success lies.”

THE TITLE AND ARTWORK

Despite approaching things with that clearer mind, that doesn’t make going over such raw subjects any easier. It doesn’t make looking at what comes next any clearer, either. You just have to set yourself alight and run into the unknown, hoping that something beyond all this will extinguish you.

That’s where the title of this collection comes into play. The world doesn’t stop spinning just because of what you are going through. Life doesn’t slow down to give you a chance to get up to speed. So, you need to have faith that whatever is around the corner is there. The Underøath story boils down to constantly feeling like there was something still to come through every high and every low. So having ‘The Place After This One’ umbrella these aggressive, angular, audacious songs feels fitting. The exorcisms and expressions that take place on it all filter back around to the belief that there is something still to come. Of course, there is an element of existentialism to that, the heaven and hell, which is reflected in the discussions of faith within these songs, but more than anything, it is where we are on this mortal plain.

“We’ve been a band a long time,” Aaron muses. “We’ve made a lot of stuff, we’ve made a lot of mistakes, we’ve had a lot of successes, and it’s all from asking, ‘What’s next’? And are we okay hanging on for that ride? For a long time, it was asking, ‘Why aren’t we like this? Why aren’t we this band? Why not us?’ For the first time in our career, I don’t give a shit about any of that. When we get on stage, I know what we do and what it will feel like. It’s always going to be special because it’s us.”

THE FUTURE

The last frame of ‘A Complete Unknown’ is a simple but effective one. It is Dylan on his motorcycle, riding to God knows where and slowing but surely getting faster, his focus on whatever is ahead of him unwavering. The reality is that after the movie’s events, ‘Highway 61 Revisited’ became one of the most influential and best-selling albums of all time. But in that moment, of letting the wind flow through his hair as he rides into whatever the world has for him, freedom is all on his mind.

Now, Aaron is sure to reiterate that he is not comparing what Underøath have done and will do to the career of Bob Dylan, but that freedom and that joy of not knowing what is coming next is something that really lingers within him about where the band find themselves now. It’s exciting but scary, gratifying but stressful. More than anything, it’s human, and after riding the wave, every ebb and flow, for as long as they have, to have that feeling at their disposal is a gift that cannot be bought. More than that, Underøath feel a part of a movement once more. A member of a group of bands that are doing things the way that they see fit. And the more bands that join them, the stronger this scene will become.

“You have all these bands swinging back through and doing something different,” Aaron smiles. “Bands are doing things I’ve never heard before, and people are doing whatever the fuck they want again. And we will miss with records and miss with songs, but then we win again, and that’s what we will keep on doing.”

“You do what’s right for you,” Spencer adds in conclusion. “That’s where the biggest successes are. You can’t have an explosion into a whole new world and way of thinking without pushing in that way.”