Ø is the seventh studio album by American metalcore band Underoath. Released on November 9, 2010, through Tooth & Nail Records, the album was the band's only without founding member Aaron Gillespie, and is the first and only record by the band with Daniel Davison, formerly of Norma Jean. It was also their final album before a two-year breakup from 2013 to 2015. They would not release another studio album until 2018's Erase Me. Ø was met with acclaim and was recorded at Glow in the Dark Studios in Atlanta, Georgia, the same studio where the band's previous album, Lost in the Sound of Separation was recorded.
Recording and production
During a late 2009 interview, guitarist Timothy McTague stated that the band had "just started writing songs that may be included on the next record", and that they are hoping to enter the studio late summer or early fall 2010. On April 5, 2010, the band announced the departure of their final founding member, drummer and vocalist, Aaron Gillespie. On May 10, 2010, through their official Myspace blog, Underoath announced that they will be entering the studio on May 24 to record their follow up to Lost in the Sound of Separation, with production done by Jeremy S.H. Griffith and Matt Goldman. The new album was aimed to be released sometime later that year. Following the departure of Gillespie, Underoath recruited ex–Norma Jean drummer Daniel Davison for drumming duties.
Release and promotion
The band hosted a pre-release listening party on September 15, 2010, which generated two independent reviews. A postcard containing a piece of the artwork was sent to each person who pre-ordered the album. The buyer was to take a picture of that postcard and upload it to Underoath's official website. Once every piece had been uploaded, the band would release the artwork. They did so at 1 pm EST, September 21, 2010. Underoath hosted a game on their Twitter and Facebook profiles. It consisted of scrambled titles for tracks featured on the album. The first person who unscrambled the words won an Underoath T-shirt. The band also released one of their new songs, "Illuminator", by layers, giving away one instrument's part at a time. The song was fully uploaded on October 1, 2010. The second song Underoath released was the single "In Division" on November 2. The band also developed a contest for the track "Catch Myself Catching Myself". The song was uploaded to YouTube on October 28; however, all the vocals were taken out. The lyrics were put up in the video, and viewers were told to put their own vocals over the song and upload it to YouTube. The submission chosen to be best would receive an Underoath prize pack containing a shirt, poster, stickers and more, and the guitar used for the video of "In Division". Two runners-up would receive the prize pack only. A music video for "In Division" was released on November 1, 2010. In its first week, Ø sold 24,000 and debuted at No. 23 on the Billboard 200 charts. A music video for "Paper Lung" was released on April 25, 2011.
Track listing
Personnel
;Underoath
Spencer Chamberlain – lead vocals, additional guitars
