Code Orange are big-time WWE fans — and the feeling is mutual. The two hard-hitting institutions have teamed up multiple times, including in 2017 when the Pittsburgh heavy-music experimentalists performed "Bleeding in the Blur" at NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn, and last year, when they reimagined wrestler Bray Wyatt's entrance theme. The relationship continued last night, June 7th, at NXT TakeOver: In Your House, the official theme song of which was Code Orange's "Underneath," the title track off the band's critically acclaimed latest album. And the group showed up in the flesh to perform the crushing cut, with bandleader Jami Morgan and guitarist Reba Meyers trading off vocals first in stark black and white, and then smoke-enshrouded and bathed in blue lights. Watch above.
It was just the latest milestone in what has been an insane year for Code Orange, who dropped Underneath just as the COVID-19 pandemic was sweeping the globe. Due to the resulting social-distancing restrictions and the shutdown of the live music circuit, the band were ultimately forced to scrap their headlining tour in support of the album and to radically rethink their hometown record release show. Code Orange went ahead with the latter concert, dubbed "LAST ONES LEFT: In Fear of the End," but played it to an empty venue, livestreaming it on Twitch with the help of hardcore videographer extraordinaire Hate5six. The band has since placed themselves at the cutting edge of livestreamed music programming with "YOU AND YOU ALONE: a livestream series," which has seen various members hosting improvised electronic sets, instrument-specific playthroughs, visual arts discussions and more.
