Lost In The Sound of Separation

With their magnum opus, 2006's Define The Great Line, I was introduced to how beautiful heavy music could be. With as much atmospheric and melodic fragility as crushing and crippling power...it's like Aaron Eckheart's character in that so-so movie movie last summer.

When this Sunshine state sextet released Lost In The Sound of Separation in 2009, it planted it's roots in me, but didn't immediately flourish. I came close to calling it the most disappointed album of the year. My sheer respect for the band's talents kept me giving the record more spins. Then it finally clicked into place.

The band rarely takes their foot off the gas as opener "Breathing In a New Mentality" dropkicks you in the teeth harder then any track I've ever heard. Picking up where they left off, the group still slams you in the head with a sledgehammer of bashing guitars and pounding drums before falling away to shimmering delay-heavy guitar lines, textured electronic and catchy harmonies. ("A Fault Line. A Fault of Mine.", "The Only Survivor Was Miraculously Unharmed", and "Desperate Times, Desperate Measures") Vocalist Spencer Chamberlin's continually powerful screams are roaring, while drummer/singer Aaron Gillespie's Sting-esque vocals soften the brutality.

Also on the record, we hear Gillespie leaps his drumming skills from solid to impressive, throwing in machine gun beats and slow-mo skull-crushing breakdowns. This fact surfaces in industrial "Emergency Broadcast: The End is Near", as Gillespie showcases some brain-boggling talent. The song also shows what is most respectable about the band: their fearlessness in stepping out of their safety bubble. "Too Bright To See, Too Loud To Hear" is Underoath at their most abstract and experimental (Spencer singing???), but lodged itself among the top songs released all of 2009 and one of the best songs the band has ever written.

In the end, Define The Great Line will always be the shining star in Underoath's discography but man...is Lost In The Sound of Separation sky-rocketed from disappointment to snapping at a masterpiece's metaphorical heels.




Buy Lost In The Sound of Separation
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Desperate Times Desperate Measures


"I’ve been crawling around in the dark for a while.
Sprawled out across the floor.
Not collecting dust anymore.
Define me a parasite. Define my host.
Trapped beneath the floor.
I slowly waste away.
Now I pull my frail body into the chair.
And look me in the face.
I'm disappointed, so disappointed.
This may be my last one.
It’s gonna be good and hard.
It might be a touch out of key.

When this thing breaks. I will be you, you will be me.
I’m afraid that this is really happening.
Let’s hope this is short lived and riddled with disease.

Oh, God the noise! Is ringing in my ear.
It’s so unclear. I hear them talking.
But can’t make out the words.
Speak up. Speak clear.

God, where have I been.
I’m terrible company. With zero apologies.

While I sink to the bottom.
I’ll sing out as it fills with water.
I hope I’ve done enough.

I’m worn out.
I’m worn thin.
I will never break through.
Let me out."