Code Orange - Underneath
Critic Score
Based on 17 reviews
2020 Ratings: #25 / 871
Year End Rank: #49
User Score
2020 Rank: #118
Liked by 149 people
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CRITIC REVIEWS

100
Distorted Sound

An album that at times could be confused with a horror movie surrounding a hook filled chorus: Underneath is as disturbing as it is outright violent.

100
Consequence of Sound

Underneath spreads its tendrils in every direction, reaches into the coffers of diverse genres like grunge, industrial, death metal, intellectual dance music, and assimilates them all into a cohesive whole.

100
Upset
All told, the excitement is where Code Orange excel - you don't know where they'll turn next, or when the lights will flicker off and on. Exhilarating doesn't even begin to cover it.
100
The Guardian
The Pittsburgh quintet marry technical mastery with genre-fusing risk in a record of poetry and spectacular potency.
100
Kerrang!

One of the most powerful, cathartic, creatively satisfying and bruisingly heavy records of its age.

90
Clash

The sheer, clear-eyed ambition they exhibit in pursuing the impossible is compelling enough to make ‘Underneath’ an absolute must-hear for anyone who dares to dream differently.

80
The Needle Drop
Code Orange updates metalcore for the 2020s on their latest album.
80
Q Magazine
Hardcore punks carry on breaking down genre barriers.
80
MetalSucks

Underneath is, from start to finish, the band’s most satisfying release to date. Now let’s hope Code Orange fans are open-minded enough to embrace it.

80
No Ripcord

Underneath can be easy to reduce as more of a good thing, but it's also sneakily different.

80
NME
The Pittsburg quintet broke the mould with 2017's 'Forever', and continue to push the boundaries with this maelstrom of goth-laced melody and punishing intensity.
75
Blabbermouth.net
As flawed as it is, you can feel the conviction and belief in everything that Code Orange do here, and "Underneath" is undoubtedly their most distinctive and potent statement yet. At times, this is an absurdly exciting record, but at others, it's frustratingly dull and misjudged.
70
Exclaim!

Their fourth LP, Underneath, has every nuance they have ever dabbled with shifted into overdrive.

70
Classic Rock
Code Orange's fourth album is the sound of metal's cutting edge in 2020.
45
Pitchfork
At the edge of crossover success, the hardcore stalwarts sputter out with an overstuffed album of weak modern-rock imitations.
BradTasteMusic
79

Underneath takes the ambition of Forever and multiplies it multiple degrees. The high points on this album are insane. This however is met with songs that do not have the same grit. More of a mixed bag than the previous, but the high points are insane

RemisReviews
73

Finally... I've finally checked out Underneath by Code Orange. It's an album that I've been dreading listening to, and I have actually heard a little bit of it like 2 years ago when I wasn't super into the Metalcore scene yet (I didn't like it). But I didn't remember much about it. After loving Forever, with its heavy beatdown riffs, and also absolutely loving The Above, which was just pure Alternative Metal Ear Candy, Underneath is the last piece of the puzzle to check out, and so I did.

And, ... read more

WhatTheFunk
37

Code Orange is going full WWEcore...

88

STRONG 8
(8.8/10)

...........................................

(1,145/13) = 88

armandoetf
30

bored as hell

SamuelStudios
78

Every song on this album is good, although the second half is much weaker than the first. I also didn't care for how jarring some of the transitions were or the little pauses in the middle of the music. I know those were intentional artistic choices, they just weren't for me. They weren't enough to ruin the songs for me still either.
Highlights: Swallowing the Rabbit Whole, In Fear
Low Points: A Sliver, Underneath

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Added on: January 10, 2020