Today, Underoath unleashed “Cycle”, the latest single from the band’s upcoming album Voyeurist, out January 14th on Fearless Records. For the song, the band collaborated with Ghostemane after discovering they were mutual fans of each other’s work. The result is a mix of pulsating aggression and infectious hooks that find vocalists Spencer Chamberlain and Aaron Gillespie complemented by Ghostemane’s delivery. Voyeurist is available for pre-order now, including a deluxe animated vinyl that features a plastic o-card sleeve that activates playback of the jacket’s interlaced video imagery. The band will also embark on a North American headline tour with support from Every Time I Die and Spiritbox in 2022, full list of dates below, including a newly added hometown show in St. Petersburg, FL at Jannus Live on March 26th.
Speaking on working with Ghostemane and how the track came together, guitarist Tim McTague explains:
“When we were writing ‘Cycle’, I knew that I wanted to have a feature on the bridge. I wanted something abstract, and ideally in the hip-hop genre. I heard a cadence that wasn’t natural to our band. Ghostemane came up in convo, and we all loved the idea. I had been listening to him for a minute, and the connection between Underoath / Lil Peep put me on to the south Florida squad like Pouya, Ghostemane and Lil Peep (RIP). We tried to get a hold of him for weeks, And one day Aaron called me and said that Ghostemane randomly Instagramed him to tell him that he appreciated what we do, and Aaron replied back that we were trying to get a hold of him to be on a track on the new album. The floodgates opened, all the managers and artists started connecting and I sent his manager the song, and a week or so later we got what was stated as ‘I did a ton and threw the sink at it, let me know your thoughts.’ We listened to the first thing he sent, and just said “that is it”. I don’t think any of us knew what we were looking for in the feature, but when I heard the take, lyrics and energy we were like ‘oh shit. This is perfect.’”
Chamberlain adds:
“Every time I hear the track now, it time warps me right to how I was feeling when we wrote those lyrics and what we were going through at the time. The back and forth on the 3rd chorus transports me back to when we wrote the lyrics. I hope that we’ll have the chance to perform it together live one day.”
Voyeurist marks the first time in Underoath’s storied career that they took the recording process completely into their own hands. The result is the most collaborative album of Underoath’s career and, anchored in a profound respect for each other, one that left no stone unturned creatively. The band refers to Voyeurist as “high-def violence” – technologically advanced, but undeniably visceral. Conceptually, Voyeurist has several interrelated meanings, each tying back to the concepts of how we curate ourselves through social media and how that facade masks a lot of what we actually experience in life. The album is a cohesive listening experience with enough layers to provide fans with a fresh take and new favorite track on every spin. Leading up to the album release, fans have been able to discover clips of new songs in exchange for granting camera access through the band’s immersive website, voyeurist.io.
Underoath is Aaron Gillespie (vocals/drums), Spencer Chamberlain (vocals), Tim McTague (guitar), Christopher Dudley (keyboard/synth), Grant Brandell (bass), and James Smith (guitar).
