Album review: Underoath – Lost In The Sound Of Separation

I didn’t have high hopes for Underoath. As soon as the press release mentioned that Lost In The Sound Of Separation is an album from a Christian group with “what may be the biggest metalcore following in the world”, I expected the worst. As the weeks pass by, metalcore becomes more and more useless as a definition for anything more precise than “relentless shouty crap”… and that’s why I think calling Underoath metalcore does them a huge disservice.

That’s just my prejudice, of course. But from where I’m sitting, Lost In The Sound Of Separation is a progressive collection of highly inventive post-hardcore, with only the slightest seasoning from the metal side of the equation. No blood, war and demons here, nor high-speed fretwank and tough-guy posturing. Instead, Underoath build their material from angular riffs full of gaps, stops and drop-outs; from discordant lead lines and staccato rhythms; and from Spencer Chamberlain’s vocals, which vary from some surprisingly clear and powerful clean singing scattered in amongst the raging roars and howls, meaning that the ferocity of his material comes across without making the lyrics unintelligible.

You may be able to make out what Chamberlain’s singing, but Underoath’s material isn’t simple by any means. The words match the intricate architecture of the music, inviting you to explore their meanings. The song titles alone should give you an idea of the intellectual underpinnings of Lost In The Sound Of Separation: “Anyone Can Dig A Hole But It Takes A Real Man To Call It Home”; “A Fault Line, A Fault Of Mine”, “Desperate Times Desperate Measures”. Spoiled middle-class angst, this isn’t.

Underoath keep up a constant and admirable intensity all through Lost In The Sound Of Separation, but they avoid the foot-to-the-floor monotony of their contemporaries. Instead of wearing you out with a relentless forty minute barrage of crushing guitar and roaring, the heavy stuff is tempered with fantastic dynamics and song structuring, with quietly spacious tense passages exploding into action, and surprising oases of calm erupting from the maelstrom when you least expect it.

The production, like Underoath’s music, is intricate but subtle – no gloss and varnish, it’s a very in-your-face mix despite some discreet and understated processing and trickery that adds to the material without swamping it. I particularly liked the way the compressed drums and cymbals sometimes shoulder their way through the spaces in the bass and guitars, giving Lost In The Sound Of Separation an almost live feel; the imperfections actually enhance the material, letting the staggering musicianship and songcraft stand naked for your ears. “We Are The Involuntary” contains dozens of new ideas but never feels crowded, and the album closes with “Desolate Earth : The End Is Near”, which is something like White Pony-era Deftones material, with processed drums and haunting drones from keys, guitar and what sounds to be a cello conjuring a plaintive atmosphere before Underoath blow you away with a final thirty seconds of fury.

The most sincere praise I can give to Lost In The Sound Of Separation is that I’m not yet bored of listening to it, and that’s after two back-to-back play-throughs. I can’t remember the last time that happened with a “metalcore” album; if this is how the genre is really supposed to sound, I hope Underoath and others will be making more of it very soon.

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