(Andy Synn was an early supporter of Growth and their debut album, so it only made sense for him to cover their long-gestating sophomore record, out next week)
Good things come, or so they say, to those who wait.
And, goddamn, have I been waiting for the new record from underground Aussie sensations Growth for a while now… ever since I discovered them and their outstanding debut album (which you can, and should, read more about here) back in 2020, in fact.
Sure, it may have taken them longer than I might have liked (though not as long as some of their countrymen, who I’m still waiting on) to produce the goods, but if good things really do come to those who wait, then surely the extra long wait means it’ll be extra good?
Well, let me clear that up for you right away… the answer is an emphatic yes… albeit with one particular caveat.
You see – and I acknowledge that this might be a bit of a “hot take” – Under the Under doesn’t really get going, for me at least, until track #2 (which just so happens to be the title-track).
That’s not to say that “Remember Me As Fire” is a bad song by any means – it’s definitely one of the most straightforward and aggressive tracks they’ve ever written, if nothing else – it’s just that, even after multiple listens to the whole album from front-to-back, the song’s relative simplicity never quite seems to fit in with the overall vibe of the record.
“Under the Under”, however, firmly establishes that vibe with its seamless melding of barbed, discordantly textured guitars and juddering, bone-jarring groove, eerie, pseudo-melodic dissonance and simmering atmospheric tension… all building towards a captivating, clean-sung crescendo (whose presence, building out of the track’s sombre, subdued bridge section, provides a well-earned moment of moody catharsis after nearly nine-minutes of constricting pressure and calculated chaos.
And while many of the initial influences from their debut are still apparent in the music – in addition to the obvious Gojira-isms present during the likes of “Pain Is Never Far Away” and the aforementioned title-track, the dynamic DNA of bands like Gorguts and Ion Dissonance can still be detected here and there (see “Death Cannot Hold Me”) – the gloomy melodic aura of “Slings That Shatter” and “Further, Forward, Spirit Killer” remind me more of the melancholy Post-Death of underrated UK underdogs Ageless Oblivion, while the increasingly impressive clean (and semi-clean) vocals (especially during the latter track) also recall the best of Spirals-era Blood Has Been Shed (which, if nothing else, is a major compliment for frontman Luke Frizon).
All comparisons and contrasts aside, however, there’s never any question (once the album fully finds its stride) that Under the Under isn’t as distinctively a Growth album as its phenomenal predecessor, as it’s more about the way these different elements and influences are combined – artfully arranged into a series of ambitiously constructed, sonically destructive, songs that defy easy and simple convention, straddling as they do the nexus point between Death Metal, Mathcore, Tech Death, Prog, and more – and how they work together to (and sometimes clash, in cunningly creative fashion) to create something more than the mere sum of its parts.
What this ultimately means, of course, is that not only was Under the Under definitely worth the wait (a few minor caveats notwithstanding) it also has the potential to introduce Growth to a whole new swathe of fans from across the genre spectrum, as its underlying appeal – despite its spiky, dissonant exterior and bleak, brooding interior – possesses an unexpected, but not unwarranted, amount of crossover potential!