Underoath - Lost in the Sound of Separation

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RIYL

Norma Jean
Poison The Well
Bless the Fall
Farewell to Freeway

Release Date

09/02/2008

Label

Tooth And Nail

Tracklist

1. Breathing In A New Mentality
2. Anyone Can Dig A Hole But It Takes A Real Man To Call It Home
3. A Fault Line, A Fault Of Mine
4. Emergency Broadcast / The End Is Near
5. The Only Survivor Was Miraculously Unharmed
6. We Are the Involuntary
7. The Created Void
8. Coming Down Is Calming Down
9. Desperate Times, Desperate Measures
10. Too Bright To See, Too Loud To Hear
11. Desolate Earth / The End Is Here

Users Rating

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16 ratings

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Recent Ratings

Underoath surprised everyone with their previous release, Define The Great Line. It was quite a departure from their softer, more mainstream They’re Only Chasing Safety, which shot them from death metal into stardom. Define The Great Line not only impressed people by the amount of thickness and heaviness to the band’s new approach, but there were a few great, epic moments on the album that no one saw coming. With there being a trend of an overall diverse sound between albums, one would expect Underoath’s new record, Lost In The Sound Of Separation, to push the limits of their abilities and once again surprise everyone with another epic record. Unfortunately, in the end, the only thing close to epic, as far as this album goes, is the artwork.

Too much of this album is uninteresting and sounds very, very similar. It seems at times the band is trying too hard to either sound extremely heavy or very melodic and it ends up just being overly dull in the end. For instance, the opening track “Breathing In A New Mentality” is 3 minutes of forced in your face heaviness that sounds like something The Chariot would do, with open chord breakdowns, feedback and all. There are also tracks that are on the verge of being great, but the band’s attempt at minimal song writing ends up almost completely ruining them instead. During the second half of “The Only Survivor Was Miraculously Unharmed” the band shifts into a beautiful atmospheric section with a hair-raising build up that transitions into… absolutely nothing. The band shoots themselves in the foot when they could have really built a great part into one of the most climatic sections of their career but instead the track just ends abruptly.

The highlight of the album is track 10, “Too Bright To See, Too Loud To Hear” with its powerful vocal melodies and a building beat reminiscent of Radiohead. The song really sounds like a closing track and would make a brilliant one, but it isn’t. The closing track is “Desolate Earth / The End Is Here” which sounds like the band trying to hard to write an epic ambient closing track, and it’s just as boring as the songs where they are trying to be heavier than they should.

Lost In The Sound Of Separation is a letdown of an Underoath album, especially after the stellar Define The Great Line. There are far too many mediocre songs, the tracks that are good could have been a lot better, and there are far too few great moments on this CD. The production on the record is also very muddy and far too bass heavy. There aren’t many albums that will not sound good with Bose headphones on but the bass on the record succeeded in drowning everything else out, and made it difficult to listen to when the volume is up high. The album is simply inconsistent and the song writing is poor. Fans expecting another knockout release from Underoath will have to wait another two years.

--Chris Pandolfo

Author

cloudscollide
Last updated: 09/29/2009 09:00PM

Comments

philthy
08/29/2008
06:40AM
Age: 34
Location
Hoboken, New Jersey
Wow, pretty harsh. Haven't heard it yet though.
Rick Gebhardt
08/29/2008
06:51AM
Age: 32
Location
Minnesota
I was hugely let down by this album. After my initial listen, the first thing that came to mind was, "Is that it?" I loved both Define the Great Line and They're Only Chasing Safety equally, but this probably won't receive more than one or two more listens before getting filed away for good.

Find me EVERYWHERE:




Dave Spak
08/29/2008
06:55AM
Location
Boston, MA
Sounds like I could just skip this one althogether. If it sounds bass heavy in Bose headphones, it must be pretty bad. Bose is usually lacking in the low end.

Stereo Typing

Tweet at me, bro

ThugginInDelaware
08/29/2008
08:17AM
Age: 28
Location
Senegal Africa
i would of given it a 3 because i dont feel like they needed to reinvent themselves again. they tried to refine their sound that they created on DTGL(which was a good sound) and coming up short. their is just too many chugga chugga (then insert feedback) parts that they all blend together. I do think the buildup in the end is near is really good.

Listening to:
fuckin african mosques (Tang na bu baax)

Composing
08/29/2008
09:11AM
Age: 26
Location
Waterloo, Ontario
i guess i won't be needing that golden ticket.

Top Ten of 2009 http://www.decoymusic.com/users/3747/top_tens/2009

theseed30
08/29/2008
10:47AM
Location
Cincinnati
ThugginInDelaware
their is just too many chugga chugga (then insert feedback) parts that they all blend together.


this is actually all I hear when I listen to metal...chugga chugga scream, chugga chugga scream chugga chugga headache

maybe they should have gone way on the melodic side of Safety with this new one. They would piss off the metal fans, but would gain so many more teenage girl fans it would all even out.
benny06
08/29/2008
11:19AM
Age: 25
Location
Kansas
i wouldn't base much off of this review. this album imo is just as good as define the great line when you give it a good enough chance.

I couldn't get into dtgl for a long time and eventually it grew on me and became my fav. album for a long time, and now this is doing the same thing. this deserves more than this

http://rateyourmusic.com/~benny06

theDrivingSnow
08/29/2008
03:31PM
This album is definitely not as good as Define the Great Line, an album I at least enjoyed, and this is coming from someone who doesn't like Underoath.

It's blowin' cool outside today...

Dante
08/29/2008
03:55PM
Age: 23
Location
Fort Bragg, CA
I dig it.
doctor_doctor
08/29/2008
03:58PM
Age: 26
Location
chicago
dante you have a sick avatar.

this bar smells like a old lady farted piss

Chin35char
08/29/2008
04:22PM
Location
Vero Beach
I agree with this review 100%. Great review. A lot of the songs all sound similar which makes it boring.



thrillseeker30
08/29/2008
04:23PM
Age: 26
Location
Highlands
Nothing creative is coming from the hardcore/metal/put different genres together to form another name genres.

Time for some exploration.
Dante
08/29/2008
06:05PM
Age: 23
Location
Fort Bragg, CA
doctor_doctor
dante you have a sick avatar.


Why thank you. A Persona fan, I take it?
Mike Duchnowsky
08/29/2008
07:06PM
Age: 28
Location
West Haven, CT
underOaths last Cd was sort of lame too.
Maybe GOD told them to make the same boring Metalcore music on every Cd till they get their message of Christ across every Mall in America.

Fuckings Greatest Hits: 2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008

theDrivingSnow
08/29/2008
07:19PM
Lost in the Cocaine-Laden Tour Bus of Teenage Girl-Fucking, Jesus-Approving Masturbation

1. Believing in a Religious Bestiality
2. Anyone Can Be Effeminate, But It Takes a Real Woman to Be Aaron Gillespie
3. A Pussy Whine A Creativity-Deficient Line
4. Unnecessary Podcast: Our Record Couldn't Be Any More Queer
5. Our Only Fan Beat Himself to Death with His Severed Arm
6. We Are the Suppository
7. The Most Unnecessarily Expensive Noise
8. Releasing an Album Is Losing at Life
9. Desperate for Money, Bitches, and Drugs; Desperate to Use the Bible to Get 'Em
10. Too Jesusy to Stand, Too Ugly a Band Not to Make Fun of
11. Unjustified Existence: God Wouldn't Want Me to Drink This Beer

It's blowin' cool outside today...

tim
08/29/2008
09:40PM
Age: 29
Location
Green Brook, NJ
uh, what the fuck? this album is amazing. reviewer is on crack.
cloudscollide
08/29/2008
11:20PM
Age: 24
Location
PA
tim
uh, what the fuck? this album is amazing. reviewer is on crack.


You're 0-2.

Music Blog.
Depths blog. (my band)

The Breeze
08/30/2008
09:20AM
Location
Alabama
I like the record. The first time I heard it I was like great this is DTGL Version 1.5. I didn't really like DTGL at first either. It grew on me. So has this record. It is definitely not the record of the year. However, if you have the time give it a few more spins before you write it off completely. I am not an Underoath defender gaurding the gates of the internets watching for haters either. lol I do that for foreigner.
thebled88
08/30/2008
11:09AM
Location
Boca Raton,FL
Shallow Breathing
Sounds like I could just skip this one althogether. If it sounds bass heavy in Bose headphones, it must be pretty bad. Bose is usually lacking in the low end.


LOL BOSE headphones!....holy shit buddy.....you should learn a thing or 2 about audio!!!!! Bose goes as far to impress deaf grannies, and what does that say???

More so, once again reviewer boy lets down everyone. Just because you hate these bands reviewer boy, doesnt mean you should give them all bad reviews, or vice versa, as you did on Acacia Strain.
b_myers
08/30/2008
12:16PM
Age: 30
Location
Olympia, Washington
you realize you're all going to hell for this...
cloudscollide
08/30/2008
12:27PM
Age: 24
Location
PA
thebled88

More so, once again reviewer boy lets down everyone. Just because you hate these bands reviewer boy, doesnt mean you should give them all bad reviews, or vice versa, as you did on Acacia Strain.


You are quite a moron. I do not dislike Underoath. Did I say that once in my review? Yeah, i'll admit I hated The Acacia Strain when I reviewed The Dead Walk and then I grew to not mind them, and then I enjoyed the new CD.

And what do I give a shit if I 'let people down'. The point of reviews is NOT for everyone to agree with it. What point would writing reviews be if everyone already has the same opinion on it? We wouldn't have reviews at all.

PLUS, a lot of people actually do agree with me. I'm not sure if you've read the other threads about this album on the forums, but I think it's quite simple to see that this album disappointed.

Music Blog.
Depths blog. (my band)

Dante
08/30/2008
01:02PM
Age: 23
Location
Fort Bragg, CA
cloudscollide
You are quite a moron. I do not dislike Underoath. Did I say that once in my review? Yeah, i'll admit I hated The Acacia Strain when I reviewed The Dead Walk and then I grew to not mind them, and then I enjoyed the new CD.

And what do I give a shit if I 'let people down'. The point of reviews is NOT for everyone to agree with it. What point would writing reviews be if everyone already has the same opinion on it? We wouldn't have reviews at all.

PLUS, a lot of people actually do agree with me. I'm not sure if you've read the other threads about this album on the forums, but I think it's quite simple to see that this album disappointed.


Shut up reviewer boy!
BlakeW
08/30/2008
01:44PM
Location
Oklahoma
Yeah. Fuck you Chris!

But seriously, from what I've heard of this album the review seems spot on.
cloudscollide
08/30/2008
05:23PM
Age: 24
Location
PA
Hahaha I swear if this becomes like a nickname ima start banging heads.

Music Blog.
Depths blog. (my band)

lambchopthis
08/31/2008
08:51PM
The artwork is sorta neat...