Ever since releasing "The Oncoming Storm" on Metal Blade in 2004, UNEARTH has caught on fire in the heavy music scene, garnering large amounts fans of both Metal and Metalcore to become one of the bigger names in North America. Fast forward two years and we see that things have gotten even bigger for the New England heavyweights with their second Metal Blade album, "III: In The Eyes Of Fire", and a non-rotating spot on this past Summer's Ozzfest bringing them even wider exposure. With their strong work ethic and relentless touring schedule, the future is wide open for UNEARTH.

Okay, tell us a little bit about the new album.

"The new album, we did it with Terry Date in Seattle and we went for a live, more organic approach. With a lot of records coming out now and a lot of bands in the scene, they rely on click tracks and Pro Tools and all that good stuff to get them by and get them through. Fake drums and fake everything and we did the opposite - we went natural, we basically got in a room together, looked at eachother with the mikes rolling and they clicked the sticks, you know, and then we started playing. So that's the way we did this record and not a lot of bands have done that, Metal bands at least, have done that in a very long time. Ever since bands started getting bigger budgets and all that other stuff, they kind of cancelled out the live approach to doing stuff."

Okay, could you tell us a little bit about the lyrical content?

"As far as I know, it's one of our darker records. A lot of the lyrics are a little bit angrier, a little bit more heartfelt. In the past, we've been more positive as far as stuff goes, but... the lyrics touch on a lot of different subjects. A lot of 'em are definitely positive still, yet, but there are a lot of negative elements. It's about everybody and everything; what's going on in the world, what's going on in the scene and all that good stuff."

All right, how's your return to Ozzfest been so far?

"Ozzfest has been great. We show up, we're a fixed slot, we play third to last everyday - It goes NORMA JEAN, BLEEDING THROUGH, ourselves, then ATREYU, BLACK LABEL. You know, the sets go about smoothly, we play well, kids are coming out and giving it their all for our set, so you can't really ask for much more than that, you know?"

Okay, how would you say this compares to your first run on Ozzfest?

"Well, the first time on Ozzfest we were rotating, there was a lot of solid bands. It was I think very special for Heavy Metal, Hardcore, anything - the scene in general because... EVERY TIME I DIE, THROWDOWN, BLEEDING THROUGH... every band that was on that tour with us that year, they were working for five, six, seven years to get to a place like this and then we all kind of graduated together and made that stage and it was amazing because there were no Nu Metal bands, there were no sell out bands, there were no garbage - there was just balls to the wall dudes that had been touring for years that knew that their scene was the best scene out there. And then our scene basically... got big. (laughs) And we're all lucky to do it together... it was a really cool experience."

Okay, now do you ever get bothered when elitist metalheads give you flack about your Metalcore roots?

"To be totally honest with you, I don't really give a fuck about any of those fucking people. Like, I'm not angry and I'm not sad, I just think there's a lot of people that like to hate out there and if anybody is intelligent about music in general, things are constant. I think it was very Metalcore that was on Eulogy; there was a lot of Metalcore elements on that record and that was back in 2000 - that was before Metalcore was even out. We were one of the first to even start doing that and here we are later, down the line, people still like to say 'you're this' or 'you're that', but to be honest with you, we'd have eight thousand different titles if you listened to everybody on the street. Like at one point we're Metalcore, at one point we're New Wave of American Hardcore or whatever you want to call it. Like seriously, UNEARTH has it's own sound; I think we're distinct enough and I think we're just a solid Metal band, just like all of the classic Metal bands that have graced us before. And I don't think that there's any tag to that - I don't think we're a Hardcore band at all. Hardcore is Hardcore. TERROR is a Hardcore band. HATEBREED is a Hardcore band. We are nothing like those bands, yet we respect them and we admire those bands, but we have our own sound, so anybody goes on a limb and says we're Metalcore obviously hasn't been listening to what we've been doing in the past two to three years."

Going back to the Eulogy stuff, how would you say your time on Metal Blade has been compared to your time on Eulogy?

"I mean, Eulogy, we were young. To be honest with you, I just got out of college at that point and we were touring, being weekend warriors, playing every shithole in America, sleeping in the street, eating out of garbage, you know, picking up a girl just to even get to the next show, just a place to stay, you know... that's the way that whole album cycle went and through our EP, 'Endless', too. Once the 'Storm' hit, that kind of marked the beginning of being a bigger band. Eulogy was good for the time, but we definitely hit the wall with them. Metal Blade has been great to us. We couldn't have asked for a better label to sign to because, you know, we were getting offer from labels like Roadrunner and Century Media and stuff like that. I'm not talking negative on those labels at all, 'cause I think they do some great stuff, but to be honest with you, Metal Blade to us was the label that wanted to keep the integrity of the band, let us keep what we do honest and true and we stuck with that versus trying to make a smash hit for some blowhard in an office somewhere, you know. So we chose not to sing, we chose not to be commercial, we choose to be the heaviest band that we can possibly be and I think that 'In The Eyes Of Fire' is going to be the heaviest record to come out this year because everybody else is trying to make a dollar or two."

Speaking of two dollars, regarding the two dollar DVD that was being sold at Hot Topic awhile back, has anyone ever won the Fruitcake Challenge?

"(laughs) That's a pretty hard one to swallow, man - no one ever has, but it was pretty funny that dude puked and that for the show and stuff like that, so it's pretty nasty. I know a dude who was going to eat the vomit of that other dude just to win the challenge, but we had to let it go. (laughs)"

Oh man, that's more like GG ALLIN territory right there!

"Yeah, I dunno - those wacky kids these days, you know, they'll do anything, they'll stick anything up their ass - it's great. (laughs)"

Okay, can we expect a full length DVD anytime in the near future?

"Yeah. We're filming around here, there and everywhere now, so yeah, I'm sure we'll get enough footage together to get people an understanding of what this band is about, what this band has gone through. I think we're one of the most hard working bands, you know that... uh... be a part of the scene, so we definitely want to show that."

Now that tour you did awhile back, I think it was in 2002, with ZAO, SHAI HULUD, FROM AUTUMN TO ASHES, UNDEROATH and COHEED & CAMBRIA. Now I've noticed that everybody but the two headlining bands have gotten absolutely huge since then. What do you think about that?

"Well, COHEED has always been a solid act. Just as much as we've risen in the Metal scene, they've risen in the Rock scene. ZAO is one of the first bands to ever, in my opinion, make relevancy to the newer form of music. They were so fantastic for so many years, they're just an amazing act. All those bands that were around at that time were great, you know. It's hard to say that I'm honored to be a part of it, but I'm definitely honored to say that, like, I've played shows with those bands and we've crossed over and we're still here to play - we're lucky."

What is your opinion of small shows versus large shows, 'cause I know you've played some really tiny shows in the beginning; recently on Ozzfest, the tour with SLIPKNOT - what sort of shows do you prefer size wise?

"There's no real way to decide between one or the other. To be honest with you, UNEARTH always puts on the same show whether it's in front of fifty kids or a million, you know. It doesn't really matter to us - we're there to play live and play hard and to be honest with you, some of your best shows are your smaller shows, but then again, some of the most incredible shows you ever play, too, as well, have a bajillion people there and it might seem magnified by a million times, you know what I mean? It's unbelievable, so you shouldn't really say that, man - it's like apples and oranges. It's like, you can't say you like one over the other - you know where you came from and you enjoy playing music and all the shows are relevant. You can't half-ass it one night."

All right, is there anything else you'd like to add?

"No man, just tell everybody to check out our new record - it's a real, organic, true record and our true fans are going to understand that we want to make a record for them and if you're still hung up on labels or tags or whatever the case may be or you want to hear a hit single or whatever, maybe this might not be the record for you, so as long as you're not ready for a real fuckin' Heavy Metal record, then don't buy it. (laughs)" [FIN]