As previously reported on this here blog, Underoath is currently in the studio working on the follow-up to their wildly successful third LP Define the Great Line with producers Adam Dutkiewicz and Matt Goldman. Though the album is still in its most nascent form — as of this posting, it’s still untitled — the group is allowing fans the opportunity to lurk all creepy like and watch them, you know, do it. Make the record, I mean.

Two cameras are posted on StickAm (here and here). You can also check the cams out on the Underoath MySpace page. Right now Adam is behind the boards doing some shit and there’s another dude in the room with him. I’m assuming it’s one of the band members, but I can’t really make him out. RIVETING. If you’re on StickAm, you’ll be able to chat with other fans and even be able to participate in impromptu Web chats with the group. Have fun with it, kids.

Even if you don’t like metal (and who doesn’t, these days?) you still have to love Killswitch Engage. They write some of the heaviest riffs known to man and have some of the most pissed vocals anywhere, but they are still at heart, a bunch of nerds and pussycats. Last time I saw them live guitarist (and increasingly legendary producer)  Adam D was running around in a cape and his boxer shorts. Frontman Howard Jones may look like an NFL linebacker, but in person he’s the kind of guy you want to sit around and drink coffee with and talk about Star Trek. He seemed like he’d definitely have an opinion about Kirk vs. Picard (I’m gonna go with Picard). In an interview with Adam D a couple years back I asked him about the seemingly dichotomous nature of his band’s sound and demeanor and this is what he had to say:

I hate the whole thing within the metal community, where it’s like “Dude, since we’re so hard onstage, we’re gonna be awesome.” I think that whole mentality has kind of died away with all the stupid leather pants and longhair and the [assumes Viking of Death Metal tone] “Yahhhh we’re tough and blah, blah, blah.” I’m just so easygoing, I just don’t give a shit what anyone thinks.

Well there you have it.  I bring this up, not just for the fuck of it, but because the band annouced today a new string of tour dates this spring, with a couple other fairly badass bands, Poison the Well and Throwdown, that will be gracing the middle parts of America and Canada. If you’re a kid in Milwaukee and you don’t go to this show, you’re drinking too much Pabst bro! Here’s the press release:

Killswitch Engage continue to cement their reputation as road warriors. After wrapping up their successful, sold out winter tour, the Massachusetts band has just announced another spate of tour dates that will find the band hitting several Midwest locations as well as cutting a path all over Canada. The two-week tour, featuring Throwdown, Poison The Well and The End as support acts, kicks off on May 10 and runs through May 29.

Below are the tour dates and locations. Pre-sale for fan club members begins today. Pre-sale for all fans begins Monday, March 3rd at Noon EST. Regular on-sale tickets can be purchased beginning March 6.

May 10 – The Sound Academy – Toronto, ONT   (On Sale 3/6)
May 11 – Elements Night Club – Kitchener, ONT   (On Sale 3/7)
May 13 – Capitole du Quebec – Quebec City, QUE   (On Sale 3/6)
May 14 – The Metropolis – Montreal, QUE   (On Sale 3/6)
May 16 – The Orbit Room – Grand Rapids, MI   (On Sale 3/7)
May 17 – Rock On The Range Festival – Columbus, OH   (Radio show)
May 18 – Point Fest – St. Louis, MO   (Radio show)
May 19 – The Eagles Club – Milwaukee, WI   (On Sale 3/8)
May 20 – Val Air Ballroom – Des Moines, IA   (On Sale 3/7)
May 22 – Community Auditorium – Thunder Bay, ONT   (On Sale 3/8)
May 23 – Burton Cummings – Winnipeg, MAN   (On Sale, 3/7)
May 24 – Odeon Events Centre – Saskatoon, SAS   (On Sale, 3/8)
May 26 – Edmonton Events Center – Edmonton, AB   (On Sale, 3/8)
May 27 – MacEwan Hall Ballroom – Calgary, AB   (On Sale, 3/8)
May 29 – Croatian Cultural Center – Vancouver, BC   (On Sale, 3/7)

Godcore luminaries, and one of my personal favorite bands, Underoath announced yesterday that they are currently finishing up the writing for the follow up to 2006’s Define the Great Line, and are planning on entering the studio next month to begin tracking:

So we’re less than a month away from going into the studio! It feels just like it was yesterday when we recorded Define the Great Line. I’m having a lot of fun writing this record. It’s one of our heaviest things we’ve ever done, and at the same time really experimental. A few months ago I felt like this record would be the least we’ve changed in a while. It seemed that for the first time we were going into a record we hadn’t been dissatisfied with our previous effort, and therein had no predisposition toward alienating ourselves from it. I look back at Define the Great Line and wouldn’t change a thing artistically, and although I feel a sense of achievement to have finally made a piece of art that I wouldn’t have changed years later, it also opens up new pressures of matching or exceeding what has already been done. I think our new record is going to be less of a attempt to disassociate the 24 year old men we are now from the 22 year old men we once were, but rather embracing what creativity we have and expanding on it with new influences and new experiences. I’m super pumped to see Matt’s new studio, and to work with Adam and Matt again. It will be a really fun experience.

Adam and Matt are of course producers, Adam D and Matt Goldman, the production team from Define the Great Line and a big reason why that record has scanned upwards of 500,000 copies since its release. Someone at Wikipedia is claiming the new record will be titled “I Am the Culprit” but that shit is highly doubtful since Wikipedia is made mostly of FAIL. Read an interview I did with Underoath frontman Spencer Chamberlain in the music archives and see for yourself just how hard I jock this band. Seriously.

Photo by Jeff Shaner, 1337 shooping by Daniel Taylor