Underneath

Underneath is the fourth album by Code Orange, of Pittsburgh, released on 13 March 2020 through Roadrunner Records. Frontman Jami Morgan described the record as a twenty-four-hour-a-day obsession for about two years. The band cancelled a 2019 European tour cycle, including an appearance at Bloodstock Open Air, to do nothing but write and record. Nick Raskulinecz produced it, the first time the band had worked with him, with Morgan himself and Will Yip also producing. Through Raskulinecz they brought in Chris Vrenna, who helped Eric Balderose with the electronics, with the arrangement of the many layers and with the use of white noise. Guitarist Reba Meyers rebuilt her playing to imitate electronic instruments and recorded a great many unusual sounds, which were mixed with samples into a bank the band could draw on song by song. The result keeps a metalcore and hardcore punk frame and drives industrial and electronic sound deep into it. Pauses, glitches, distorted screams and static are used as structure rather than decoration. "Underneath", "Swallowing the Rabbit Whole" and "Sulfur Surrounding" went out as singles beforehand, and the reviews were strong, particularly about the production. The order here is the fourteen tracks of the American CD; the Japanese edition (WPCR-18327) carries fifteen.