Release Date October 16th, 2026
Format CD/LP/Digital
Genre Progressive Metal
Origin USA
Unteachers hails from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and were born from the ashes of Tantrum Of The Muse, the previous project of Stephen Mark Sarro. The band draws from noise, sludge, progressive rock and metal, and has moved at its own slow pace over the years, with the EP "Untantrum" in 2007, a split with Grace & Thieves in 2012 and the debut album "A Human Comedy" in 2014. Today Unteachers stands as a two-piece, with Sarro on vocals, guitars and bass and his longtime friend Wyse on drums and electronics. The second album took five years to complete, squeezed between family duties and the grind of daily life.
"Under Bright Sadness" was recorded at the Sarro homestead on an isolated farm in Lancaster County and mastered by Cliffy Huntington at Steinhaus Mastering. The home made origin pays off, with guitars full of grain and body, a bass that throbs up front on "Psalmnambulist" and drums with an organic, unvarnished tone. "Song Of Seven Pillars" bulldozes with punk fury and sludge riffs from the Melvins school. "Last Rites For Lesser Magick" opens with the voice of theologian Francis Schaeffer before a pounding, propulsive groove takes over, and "The Orb Was Only Dust" hangs on a sorrowful vocal melody and a refrain that lingers for days.
The lyrics dwell on faith, fatherhood and the passing years, heartfelt words that drift toward the sermon now and then. The cracks show elsewhere. Sarro's vocals sink behind the guitars in the heavier moments, the leaps from punk rage to tranquil calm can jolt the listener, and "Lamps Of Vision" wanders a few minutes past its point as it revisits every calm pool and jagged peak that came before it. "Under Bright Sadness" is a restless, emotional album made by two men who poured half a decade of their lives into it, and every scar is on display. It asks for patience and pays it back with riffs that stick and melodies that hurt in the right way, a worthy follow up that justifies the long wait.
|7.5
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