Before the clean vocals, the Warped Tour singalongs, and the eyeliner-era breakdowns, there was Cries of the Past — the dark, dizzying second album from Underoath that, even now, feels like something unearthed from another timeline. Released on July 4, 2000, it’s been 25 years since the Florida band dropped one of the heaviest, weirdest, and most ambitious records of their entire catalog.
Clocking in at just five songs but stretching past the 42-minute mark, Cries of the Past is the kind of record that refuses to be background noise. It’s loud, long, and layered with everything from black metal tremolo picking to synth-soaked interludes — a strange beast that lives somewhere between deathcore, post-hardcore, and church music for demons.
This was the pre-Spencer Chamberlain era — Dallas Taylor was still on vocals, Aaron Gillespie was already drumming like a man possessed, and keyboardist Chris Dudley was adding eerie textures that made the chaos feel even more surreal. It’s Underoath at their most unhinged and least accessible — and that’s part of what makes it so fascinating.
Tracks like “The Last” and “Giving Up Hurts the Most” feel like full-on odysseys, packed with tempo shifts, punishing breakdowns, and raw emotion. The title track alone is over nine minutes long, and it never sits still. You won’t find choruses or catchy hooks here — just a band experimenting wildly, and somehow making it work.
What’s easy to forget is how young they were when this came out. Underoath were still figuring it all out — writing long, theatrical metalcore epics in a genre that barely had a name at the time. Cries of the Past didn’t make it onto MTV or scene playlists, but it laid down the foundation for what came next. It was the storm before the scene took notice.
Now, 25 years later, it’s kind of incredible how much this record still holds up. It’s not for everyone — and that’s the point. It’s messy. It’s intense. And it’s pure Underoath.
Not the band you remember. The band before all that.
