Listen To This!

“I’m the desperate, and You’re the savior,” yells Spencer Chamberlain during what seems to have become the obligatory false start before Underoath’s latest offering bursts into a ravaging assault. I’ll admit the first 20 seconds had me fooled – I immediately worried for the disturbingly lo-fi production, only to breathe easy as soon as the familiar sound of the Florida boys threw itself to the forefront.

Actually, album opener Breathing In A New Mentality comes in at not much over two minutes, before we’re thrown straight into absurdly titled Anyone Can Dig A Hole But It Takes A Real Man To Call It Home. We begin to realise we’re in for a quick, but thrilling, ride.
And this is the beauty of ‘Lost In The Sound Of Separation,’ – this time it feels like everything Underoath were trying out previously on ‘Define The Great Line‘ has been tightened up and improved. For where ‘Define…’ was a sprawling, spluttering epic ‘Lost…’ is a slick, sharp, well-oiled machine that delivers the goods song after song. There’s some very real freshness to it at the same time; ‘Emergency Broadcast :: The End Is Near’ opens with a dirty, fuzzed-up bass which add texture not really heard before in an Underoath tune, and then treats us to a grimy, palm-muted guitar chug.
‘The Only Survivor Was Miraculously Unharmed’ belts out a traditional attack which nods back to the heavier style first shown on ‘Define..,’ with a glorious mantra ‘Repeat, repeat, repent and repeat, the cycle never really ends,’ Chamberlain’s inner pain laid bare for all to see in his guttural screams.

‘Lost In The Sound Of Separation’ refuses to be ignored. The navel-gazing of ‘Define The Great Line’ has been distilled down to conscise, brutal energy. And it works.