History YMMV / Unearth

* CriticalDissonance: ''The Oncoming Storm'' recieved mixed reviews from many music critics, particularly long-time metal critics, but was immediately latched onto by the metalcore scene and is now widely regarded by [[VindicatedByHistory both critics and fans]] as a prime example of the genre at its best. Conversely, ''The Stings of Conscience'' was very well received critically upon its release, but while plenty of pre-2004 fans still love it, ''Storm'' has largely [[OvershadowedByAwesome overshadowed it]] in the public eye.

* FaceOfTheBand: Trevor Phipps

** When being interviewed by Decibel in September 2006, Trevor recalled that the band was struggling mightily to connect with extreme music fans when they first formed, as their "Music/IronMaiden meets Music/{{Crowbar}}" approach wasn't resonating with an audience that was looking for bands that sounded like Music/EarthCrisis or Music/{{Hatebreed}}. This apparently compelled Buz to ask him if he was "ready to grab hold", and when Trevor asked him what he was grabbing, he said "the sinking ship". Obviously, things got better for them.

* AndYouThoughtItWouldFail: There was [[{{Understatement}} a tad bit]] of skepticism when it was first announced that they had recruited a drummer off of Website/YouTube. This ignored the fact that the selection process that brought Nick into the band was the internet equivalent of an invitation-only audition, with the band only looking into drummers who already had experience with other bands[[note]]a quick check of his Metal-Archives page reveals stints with numerous bands and a couple albums[[/note]], and explicitly asking them to record the drum tracks from their older work and post them on their pages. There's also the fact that Nick had to run an entire tour as a fill-in before being bumped up to full-time, which probably would have been a condition for any other drummer who could've gotten past the audition phase. These days, majority opinion is that Nick was an excellent fit with the band.

* BaseBreaker: Derek Kerswill. Some think he was a perfectly capable drummer who did exactly what he was asked to on ''The March'', was unfairly derided by a fandom who didn't quite get what the band was going for on that album, and was then unceremoniously drummed out when the rest of the band didn't like his ideas for their next one. Others say he was a mediocre drummer whose shoddy work kept the band's most ambitious album from reaching its full potential, and was then justifiably let go when he tried to push the band onto a mainstream rock path it never could've gone down without [[TheBandMinusTheFace dropping its key member]].

* CriticalDissonance: ''The Oncoming Storm'' recieved mixed reviews from many music critics, particularly long-time metal critics, but was immediately latched onto by the metalcore scene and is now widely regarded by both critics and fans as a prime example of the genre at its best. Conversely, ''The Stings of Conscience'' was very well received critically upon its release, but while plenty of pre-2004 fans still love it, ''Storm'' has largely [[OvershadowedByAwesome overshadowed it]] in the public eye.

** To an extent, this is true of their entire discography - they're beloved by metalcore fans for largely staying the course and managing to maintain creative vitality while doing it, and have even carved out a small PeripheryFandom in the Extreme Metal community due to their noticeably harsher sound compared to many melodic metalcore acts. Metal critics, however, have been very divided over the band,[[note]]for example, while ''The Oncoming Storm'' got a 9/10 from The Metal Observer, a different reviewer for the same site gave their next several albums 5.5-6.5 scores and indicated this was the score range he would've given ''Storm'' and ''Stings'', too; likewise, one reviewer for The Angry Metal Guy proclaimed in his ''Watchers of Rule'' review that they've not had a weak spot in their discography other than maybe ''Stings'', only for AMG himself to state in the comments that he believes none of their follow-up albums have lived up to the potential set up by their debut[[/note]] although more of them have ruled in their favor during TheNewTens.

* MagnumOpus: ''The Oncoming Storm'' seems to be this among the metalcore faithful as a whole, but many older fans (i.e. before 2004) are known to pick ''The Stings of Conscience'', and a decent number of people will make a case for any of their albums except ''Darkness In The Light''.

* MagnumOpus: ''The Oncoming Storm'' seems to be this among the metalcore faithful as a whole, but some older fans (i.e. before 2004) are known to pick ''The Stings of Conscience'', and a decent number of people will make a case for any of their albums except ''Darkness In The Light''.

* ParvumOpus: Even fans of ''Darkness'' will typically admit that it doesn't really hold water compared to the rest of Unearth's discography, noting that the band in general and Phipps in particular sounded ground down and tired compared to their earlier work, and that Justin Foley's drum style was a poor fit for them. And it has a noticeable {{hatedom}} from people who were freaked about the increased use of soaring "widescreen" melodies and the return of Susi's clean vocals.

* ParvusOpum: Even fans of ''Darkness'' will typically admit that it doesn't really hold water compared to the rest of Unearth's discography, noting that the band in general and Phipps in particular sounded ground down and tired compared to their earlier work, and that Justin Foley's drum style was a poor fit for them. And it has a noticeable {{hatedom}} from people who were freaked about the increased use of soaring "widescreen" melodies and the return of Susi's clean vocals.

* ContestedSequel: There was some controversy surrounding ''Darkness In The Light'' as the band made a number of subtle shifts (and a few less subtle ones, like the return of the clean vocals) that had preceded a full shift out of Metalcore and into to mainstream metal among many of their contemporaries. The subsequent shift away from this and towards a more MelodicDeathMetal-esque sound on ''Watchers of Rule'' may have been a response to this reaction.

* FaceOfTheBand: Trevor Phipps