Code Orange - Underneath
A code orange alert is activated when an emergency evacuation is required. So the Pittsburgh band’s original band name of Code Orange Kids did not work as a clever literal phrase, and the band were also no longer kids. They dropped ‘kids’ from their name before I am King, and launched head first into a promising phase for the band. Their Kurt Ballou produced album, 2017’s Forever pushed their hardcore sound into new, punishing and eclectic industrial territories. Forever was an industrial hardcore, grunge and alt metal neo noir thriller fest. Neo Noir directors use tilted camera angles, mix light and dark, use unbalanced framing, blur the lines between good and bad with right and wrong. Then they pack the plot with revenge, paranoia and isolation.
Forever was a stomp through dramatic shifts and left turns, experimental in pace and delivery, but at times it was equally as puzzling. Its unforgiving abrupt shifts between songs harmed the flow of the tracks and overall listening experience of the album. But, Forever exemplified ambition, confidence and plot, and its release laid a smackdown on the hardcore scene, so much so that the band received a Grammy push that has never been seen in the genre before. They expected to win the Grammy, but didn’t, their confidence at the time was telling, and promising for the metal scene.
Its follow up, Underneath at 47 minutes, is a longer album; this is important because it allows the band to explore dynamics in more expansive ways, they explore upon ideas that do not require dramatic shifts in the middle of songs. The stop-start nature is still present at times, but it is not as jarring. The album opens with a furious and spiteful rush of blood. The first three proper tracks (after Deeperthanbefore) are an attack on the senses, in more ways than one. It is a dense opening assault, yet an enjoyable listening experience that is filled with samples, creepy spoken word parts, electronic bleeps, screams, broken glass and crushing breakdowns. Code Orange wanted to take their sound further; a sound that incorporated new production techniques (not unlike a rap record), and Kurt Ballou was not the man for that, enter: Nick Raskulinecz. And, the results are remarkable. Underneath sounds fantastic, and you can really get lost in its cold, mechanical, and industrial ways. It is a full, expansive and rich sounding album.
There is a piece of dialogue in the 1967 American drama film: Valley of the Dolls where the character Anne Welles (Barbara Parkins) says: “You are fortunate that you know yourself. I don’t know what I want, I only know that I have to find out.” Who I Am is that statement, and a telling point on the album. After a number of listens, you release that this is the point where you need to ask the question, who are Code Orange? From that moment on the album does not settle into one style for long at all. Cold Metal Place splits two Reba Meyers vocally led songs, and Reba sounds fantastic on Underneath, she is not the greatest singer of all time, but Reba has an authentic yet abandoned type tone to her voice, and one wonders what a solo alt metal/grunge album would sound like attached to her name. The Easy Way is a mix of both worlds, but one that is perhaps their closest Nine Inch Nails moment. Erasure Scan is a fast paced hardcore belter, which proceeds Last Ones Left, which would not sound out of place on Slipknot’s IOWA. From there, Reba takes centre stage again, Jami Morgan is still present, but the best use of the both of them is the dual attack that happens on the title track, which closes out the album. It would have been interesting to hear more of that at times throughout the album.
The sign of a long lasting piece of art that stands the test of time, is whether it hits the mark immediately, or whether it takes time to absorb. I felt that I was able to pick up on its textures, density and tonal shifts upon my second of third listen. This is a little early for me, yet it is also a little early to claim that this album will not be a revered hardcore album in 2030. One that pushed the genre into new and exciting areas, one which Forever threatened to do and subsequently forged plenty of copycat acts.
The question must often be asked of those with incredible creative exploration and potential: whether the creative form or experimentation is an example of good art, or a confident artist trying to create something new at the detriment of what the actual piece or movement needs. Even experimental music needs to know what it wants to be. Do Code Orange know what they want to be, or what they want to do and achieve? because there is a difference. They will get to a place soon where the balance is reached between ambition, experimentation and songwriting.
Underneath is a better album than Forever. The level of creativity hits closer mark of quality songwriting. Underneath will be the best album that comes out of hardcore or industrial metal this year, and yet Code Orange are not both things in isolation. Code Orange are ambitious, they are not kids anymore, and you get the feeling they already have a road map in their mind as to where they want to go next.
NOTE: The release of Underneath has unfortunately coincided with COVID-19 crisis, and the album will not be toured on for the foreseeable future. This is shame, because these songs would sound fantastic live, especially the heavier, cohesive tracks that fill the first quarter of the album.