As Everything Unfolds have had a quite fantastic two years since the release of their debut, Within Each Lies The Other. Festival slots (Download Pilot / Download Festival 2022), tours with Enter Shikari, Trash Boat, Holding Absence and others, special headline shows, extensive press coverage, huge streaming numbers. You name it, they’ve pretty much had it. But even putting all of these things together does not mean a band will be able to sustain the success. And so, we find As Everything Unfolds about to release the dreaded so called “difficult second album”.
However, anyone who has been paying attention to the singles released from Ultraviolet over the last few months won’t have been worrying. From Felt Like Home to most recent single Slow Down, As Everything Unfolds have been putting out, in the words of WWE’s fightin’ Irishman Sheamus, banger after banger after banger. It’s a term that’s certainly appropriate for the album kick off, as Ultraviolet’s title track roars out of the gate, a mixture of polished melodic post-hardcore and a chorus that goes utterly hard when Charlie Rolfe turns on the harsh vocals.
Originally a six piece, losing one of their two guitarists hasn’t affected the melodic side of As Everything Unfolds’ sound – with Jon Cass’s keyboard stylings taking a more prominent role in the mix. The songwriting overall is sharp as a tack; Harsh vocals are not quite as prominent as they were on Within Each Lies The Other, with first single Felt Like Home, Blossom and Saint Or Rogue either completely clean or with much less use of them than fans will be used to from previous material. But this isn’t a problem whatsoever, the album flows brilliantly through the different styles used across the record as a whole. Charlie has a phenomenal clean singing voice, and when As Everything Unfolds turn the heavy up to eleven like on the end of Slow Down, or on the Slipknot influenced Flip Side, the impact is massive.
The variety continues, as Twilight even threatens to break into Pendulum-esque dance metal territory with the various beats and the undertone of the main riff throughout. Daylight is an emotional, synth filled post-hardcore power ballad of top quality. And the album closer All I’ve Ever Known could have come from their good friends Yours Truly, an upbeat, jaunty, power pop rock song. Yet in spite of the variety, this is very much a band and an album with a distinct, strong musical identity.
Faced with trying to top an album as good as Within Each Lies The Other is was a tall challenge, but the growth that As Everything Unfolds have gone through as a band over the last couple of years comes through in spades on Ultraviolet. They, along with their friends in Holding Absence, are now the standard bearers for melodic post-hardcore the world over. As Everything Unfolds are bringing “Twilightcore” to the masses. Embrace it, for Ultraviolet is one of the albums of the year.
Ultraviolet is released on the 21st of April through Long Branch Records. Pick up one of the Long Branch Records exclusive album bundles on this link.
