AN UNDER-APPRECIATED MODERN CLASSIC: UNHOLY’S NEW LIFE BEHIND CLOSED EYES

By the time the Syracuse, NY outfit Unholy released New Life Behind Closed Eyes in early 2009, “metalcore” had long come to mean to me “third generation Swedish riff rip-offs with cheesy clean singing and an over-reliance on breakdowns” in popular parlance… so when Unholy came along with an album of actual metalcore — brutally complex metal riffs mixed with a punishing hardcore sensibility — the public at large shrugged. But the public at large missed out, because New Life Behind Closed Eyes is a fantastic record full of one memorable song after the next that indulges in absolutely zero of the cliches that made “metalcore” into a bad word. The album unfortunately didn’t get its due from the largely apathetic metal tastemaker crowd, but man… it’s a doozy.

Here’s a video of Unholy playing album-opener “Seeker Immortal” in their hometown of Syracuse, NY. Check out some more Unholy tuneage at their MySpace page.

-VN