Album Review :
Underoath- "Lost In The Sound of Separation"
Artist: Underoath
Album: Lost In The Sound of Separation
Label: Tooth and Nail Records
Street Date: 9/02/08
Review by: Nate
- “Breathing In A New Mentality” – 2:37
- “Anyone Can Dig A Hole But It Takes A Real Man To Call It Home” – 3:16
- “A Fault Line. A Fault Of Mine” – 3:22
- “Emergency Broadcast: The End Is Near” – 5:44
- “The Only Survivor Was Miraculously Unharmed” – 3:09
- “We Are The Involuntary” – 4:10
- “The Created Void” – 4:02
- “Coming Down Is Calming Down” – 3:15
- “Desperate Times, Desperate Measures” – 3:28
- “Too Bright To See, Too Loud To Hear” – 4:31
- “Desolate Earth: The End Is Here” – 4:07
Rating: 7.5/10
Summary:
For Underoath fans, this has been the long-awaited album. Too long, for some. But for most, complaints were heard few and far between because the people had faith.
Faith that the mighty UO would deliver the greatest of surprises. Because this is what Underoath… does. Or at least thats what we thought. Let us remind ourselves that while the band has been a hardmusic powerhouse for the past few years, two albums is hardly enough to base a legacy upon. And with that said, we find more proof of Underoath attempting to discover the “legacy of finding their niche”. I’ll explain more later. Now with the album:
The album awakes with a rough mixed/recorded intro to capture our attention. And soon enough the music comes into focus as we listen to one of the hardest tracks on the album, “Breathing In a New Mentality”. The intensity continues to the next track as we feel like we have heard this somewhere before. The same eerie yet creative sounds are found to captivate the breakdowns along with Gillespie’s belting vocals. And speaking of Aaron, you’ll sure find him in this album as if UO is responding to The Almost’s recent success. Gillespie’s tests his vocals abilities with this album adding a solid prescence to the CD, giving us a break from the monotonous tracks that we’ve “heard somewhere else before, but can’t quite put our finger on it”.
Yes. Many have called this, “Define the Great Line, pt. 2”. And all with good reason. But when digging through the album we find some minute differences that may set this apart from the last. The lyrical value has seemed to been pushed to more of a sensitive and person side. While the last album explored poetic lyrics that causes people interpret at will, this album offers more blunt and straight forward lyrics pointing to the heart of the band. We find revealing words even about the band’s past struggles involving the supposed and rumored, near break-up.
We are also presented with some actual stand out tracks that I feel are great, just because they are different. Songs such as “Too Bright To See Too Loud To Hear”, give a slower and minimalistic vibe that I would love to see more prevalent in a future album.
And I think this is key to Underoath’s future success. While there is nothing, wrong with this album, there is not a lot right with it either. It is entertaining to the ears, and fulfills our ears for the moment as we reminisce about when we first got, “Define the Great Line”. Back in the day when UO suprised us, and we honestly weren’t sure of what we were listening to. They took risks that involved them passing or failing, and taking that risk with “Define” gave it so much more character than what we have now with, “Lost In the Sound of Separation”. So my suggestion to UO is to not attempt to acheive the “legacy of finding the niche”, because they have found one already. Twice. They need to attempt the “legacy of learning the niche” which suggests that they will constantly be learning, bending, and changing they way they make music. This way of always learning involves risks, but its the character that will last.
Quick summary:
Great album with some decent changes, but I have still have heard it before. Take some chances UO!
Rating: 7.5/10