Under - Training Resource #5

2020 was meant to be the year Under released album number three, but then the pandemic hit and plans changed. Instead, the band channelled their energy into Training Resource #5, tracked live with minimal overdubbing and released on 13 November 2020. What began as a stopgap quickly became something essential: four songs that flow into one another, designed to be heard as one continuous piece. It features three Under originals plus a ferocious cover of Black Flag’s My War, neatly encapsulating everything that is unique and life-affirming about this Stopfordian powerhouse.

From the opening surge of Introductions & Apologies through the doom-laden churn of Dope Loop and the aggression of Dividers in Hell, the EP is restless and unrelenting. The closing cover of My War is both homage and reinvention — blistering, venomous, and perfectly in tune with the year’s frustrations. Recorded live, the raw edges are left intact: riffs sag with distortion, drums crash with urgency, and vocals cut through with equal parts humour and rage.

As bassist and vocalist Matt Franklin put it: “When our album number 3 plans were brought to a halt we decided to try a no-frills live (in the studio) EP. None of us could have predicted how well this recording would come out and it was a much-needed boost for us. I hope these tracks can provide some humour and cathartic aggression for anyone else melting into the cycle of boredom and fear that this year has become.”

Training Resource #5 may not have been the album Under originally set out to make, but in its immediacy and ferocity it captures the band at their most direct. Uneasy, intense and cathartic, it stands as proof of their ability to take adversity and turn it into something vital.

1. Introductions and Apologies

2. Dope Loop

3. Dividers In Hell

4. My War