UnityTX Releases Gutterly Truthful and Energetic SOMEWHERE IN BETWEEN…
BY OLIVIA LEON
In an album that screams of frustration, UnityTX expels feelings of anger, disappointment, and everything in between into fourteen tracks that vibrate with truly cathartic energy. Coasting where metal and rap meet, Somewhere, In Between… drives the band’s established sound into new dimensions of expression, restlessness, and release.
Right off the bat, “SABATOGE” thrusts you into the pit, a clear tone setter and propellant for the record. Over electronic beats and metal riffs, frontman Jay Webster’s (aka SHAOLIN G) vocals hype up the listener and artist alike, urging a necessary momentum to face hard truths about the band’s frustrations and experiences in the music industry. Taking just a dip into what’s to come, the track echoes to listeners: ready or not here it is.
“I hate that I will never feel like I belong / Always being treated so different by people / And no matter what, we won't ever be equal / So I'm just an outcast surrounded by evil.”
Released first in a series of pre-album singles, “HEINOUS” says it out right. The album speaks to the feeling of being an outcast and repeatedly being othered in the industry — the judgement, deception, and isolation that has come from those around the band. Despite metal and rap intertwining quite fluidly and often reflecting similar themes, the band has faced backlash for their fusion of the two. And while, unfortunately, (metal) elitism is no newcomer to the industry, the band further explains that even amongst peers where support used to endure, they have instead dealt with a lack of trust in the bands working alongside them. “We've been a band for years,” says Webster, “and I feel like we've always done cool things that have made us stand out, but it feels like we haven't really grown. And then bands come in, they show us love and try to be best friends with us, and then they get a little bit ahead of us, and they go silent. They stop being so cool with us.” Track 10 on the album, “COME N GO (NÜ JAX),” echoes this sentiment.
In a seamless conversation between thought and action, “LUCID” and “BODY ROC” take the hostility the band has faced and embody the unease and fight that follows. Fluctuating back and forth between trace-like interludes and screams, “LUCID” vividly demonstrates the dynamics between the effect that others have had on the band and the desire to do something about it. Heavy riffs and gut-punching drums swiftly suspended by melodic vocals over lulling backing beats sonically emulate the snap back and forth between lucid and haze-like states — the heaviness and the rupture of its weight. And despite being released prior to the full album, “BODY ROC” situates itself most potently following these dynamics. While the previous track bounces between sounds, “BODY ROC” stays focused, honing in on the trance-like flow of “LUCID” with added momentum. The song brings the fight that “LUCID” decidedly refused to give up on.
Somewhere, In Between… fluidly and viscerally speaks to frustrations and disappointments not only UnityTX, but many artists face, stripping it of industry pleasantries and getting down to its bare bones. It’s raw, it's emotional, and it's necessary. With restless energy, UnityTX creates a hauntingly resonant record that swings between the overwhelm of it all and the refusal to succumb.
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