When As Everything Unfolds announced themselves to the world with debut album Within Each Lies the Other, they’d already built a cult underground following with two EPs that drew on post-hardcore, injecting synths and a distinctly melodic slant that set them apart as a band with a bright future. The scene at large seizing on WELTO was unexpected by the band, and the album itself was robbed of a true chance to be performed for their new fans for over a year when it landed in 2021. Fast forward two years and the band’s profile has continued to rise steadily and they’re on the cusp of releasing Ultraviolet, their next chapter, one that takes the raw, open heart emotion of WELTO and injects it with even bigger choruses and a sense of hard-won triumph. It’s not a concept record per se, but the purple themes and title itself hint at an album that draws on vocalist Charlie Rolfe’s experience in photography and darkroom work, exposing the emotional growth the band have been through to ultraviolet light in order to bring the true picture into focus.
Opening with the rousing title track, there’s more than a hint of nu-metal influence in its record scratches and a bouncing riff; the band are unashamedly fans of the genre, drawing on it again on third track ‘Slow Down’, whose opening synths are pure Linkin Park. Neither of these moments undermine the band’s own sound they’ve developed; if anything, it proves that they’re more than capable of experimenting without losing sight of the song. It’s a bold choice to open with a song that might come across as a big change from WELTO, one that the band carry off without a hitch. First single ‘Felt Like Home’, described by the band as their festival banger, is exactly that; stomping drums, a chorus that demands (and gets) huge singalongs live, and the kind of towering hooks that sink in with ease, its only crime is to be over so quickly. Given the majority of the singles were released off the front half of the album, it’s refreshing to come across ‘Saint or Rogue’ fairly early, its snaking guitar lines contrasting against ‘Slow Down’ where the synths provided the core of the song.
The more synth-led direction is a fairly major change for the band and, along with the nu-metal flourishes, offer the biggest change in sound from WELTO. Another big one is just how much Charlie Rolfe has progressed as a vocalist; the mix of screams and melodic vocals might not be new, but the furious gutturals she unleashes during the off-kilter sledgehammer breakdown of ‘Flip Side’ most certainly are. The melodicism is just as pronounced, though the vulnerability is occasionally traded for triumph such as on ‘Felt Like Home’ or the joyous ‘Saint or Rogue’. As the album gets into its second act, there’s no let up in quality, either. ‘Rose Bouquets’ seems to offer up a farewell to WELTO, its song title referencing the red colour scheme and roses that characterised the album, bidding a farewell to rose bouquets that “don’t serve you anyway”. The dichotomy of ‘Twilight’ and ‘Daylight’ plays off the light spectrum theme too, referencing both the different times of day and showing different sides of the band like ‘Daylight’ in its slower, brooding melodicism.
Finale ‘All I’ve Ever Known’ can’t be overlooked either; it starts feeling very much like its preceding songs, expecting bouncing guitars and soaring vocals with a storming pop rock hook, but there’s more than a hint of the vulnerability WELTO had at its fore as the song crescendos. It culminates in an unexpectedly quiet moment, a soft ending that, without actually looping back on itself, makes itself ready for repeat listens. It’s an easy task, too; at just 36 minutes, Ultraviolet is lean, wasting none of its precious time. Taking everything great about their debut and folding in a host of new sounds along the way, Ultraviolet is nothing short of a triumphant return from one of the UK’s most exciting young bands.