“Wake Me” by Underoath, Saturday, March 20, 2021

In many ways Underoath's 2018 release has seen the band's climb to new levels of success, yet the album and the band have become controversial with longtime fans and critics. Not only were the fans debating the band's expansion to mainstream-sounding rock, but also the band's denouncing of organized religion. However, spiritual themes on this record are undeniable, and the lyrics come from an honest place that the Christian Rock gatekeepers don't allow to make it to the Family Christian shelves. At a time when the Christian bookstores that used to hold the power over if an artist was sold or banned have gone out of business, bands like Underoath can start the honest conversations many would rather sleep through.

I HOLD MY TONGUE. For years Underoath toured and recorded music keeping the secret of lead singer Spencer Chamberlain's drug addiction. On an old episode of Labeled tells the story of when the band tried to confront Chamberlain in the summer of '06 on the Warped Tour and almost broke up the band. The band had already gone through one lead singer, and it was Chamberlain who had brought the band to their two most successful albums. Admitting that there were problems would only lose fans from the Christian market, which they desperately needed to keep the machine going. Warped Tour, debuting at number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100, a gold record--much of this was built on the Christian hardcore fanbase. So just like most problems in the church it was covered up and it grew in silence.

OPEN UP MY EYES AND SHOW ME SALVATION. Chamberlain stated in an interview with Music Feeds before the release of Erase Me, the album from which this song comes: "I’m not saying religion is wrong for everyone, but for me it was wrong. It ruined my life, turned me into a drug addict and people were awful to me the whole time. I never felt more alone in my life than when I was Christian." In a video, also released in 2018, drummer and clean vocalist Aaron Gillespie and Chamberlain talk about the problems with modern-day Christianity. From following Gillespie's career from Underoath to The Almost to his solo worship records, he seems to cling to many aspects of faith, whereas Chamberlain feels that it is too toxic to deal with. The metaphor of "Wake Me" compares Christianity with Chamberlain's drug addiction. Things might just be simpler to fall into line with a 20th century-cultivated faith, in which all answers are provided and your job is not to dig at them; however, just like it is important not to be "asleep" or numbed by the drugs, Chamberlain felt he had to wake up to the realities that Christianity was about judgment and keeping up appearances rather than healing and community. 

Read the Lyrics.