As one of the acts that came up in the so-called ‘new wave of American heavy metal’, Unearth have already outlasted a number of their peers. In a little over a year fellow members of that early 2000’s movement—Chimaira, Shadows Fall, Bleeding Through and God Forbid—have all hung it up or are in the process of doing so.
Despite their own dips, Unearth frontman Trevor Phippps appears determined to ride it out, telling Metal Hammer:
“You check out bands from the 80s and 90s like Anthrax and Exodus, they had their lulls for a while but they came back. Take Testament, a favorite of mine personally, they went downhill for a while. Their songs didn’t but as far as album and ticket sales they did. But now they’re back, as big as ever. It’s weird to see but you have to ride the rollercoaster if you want to stick around.”
As Phipps explained:
“Sometimes it’s all about the trend of the time. We’ve never been one to follow trends, we just write the songs we want to write. We’ve been going for 13 years non-stop and it has been an up and down rollercoaster, but it’s been enough to keep us around.”
“I think bands that don’t give into pressure and keep doing it their way will reap the rewards in the long run. Our intention the whole time has been to model ourselves after the likes of Hatebreed, Cannibal Corpse and Slayer, although they’re a much bigger level, to just keep going and get the band as big as we can for as long as we can.
We don’t want to end, we’re going to give it everything we can for as long as we can. We’re always touring and releasing albums, like those bands who always tour and maintain a career throughout all the peaks and valleys, you’ve just got to fight through it.”
Phipps‘ outlook is notably more levelheaded than that of All That Remains frontman Phil Labonte on the same topic. When the conversation turned towards Unearth‘s forthcoming new album “Watchers Of The Rule” (out October 24th,) Phipps described the outing as being “more aggressive and vicious”, likening it to be more “chaotic” than their prior release.
