ANGRY, ANGSTY, NOISY AND INTENSE (IN A GOOD WAY)
There’s a lot the six mild mannered band mates of Underoath could teach Tears for Fears about primal scream therapy. For that matter, they could expose the underlying terror of tears and fears to the band Primal Scream. But, call it hardcore, grindcore, post-metal/artcore, or whatever the kids are calling the loud, fast, heavy stuff these days, and there’s not a lot anybody needs to teach Underoath.
Gut-wrenchingly intense, the Tampa sextet follows the winning ways of Define the Great Line, an album that excelled in taking the hardcore genre in a more experimental direction while topping Billboard’s album sales charts. On Lost in theSound of Separation, as before, Underoath is angry, angsty, noisy and intense. In short, everything here feels like an “Emergency Broadcast” with vocalist Spencer Chamberlain in full-throated howl about these “Desperate Times, Desperate Measures.”
Of course, nothing here is subtle, but there is a greater appreciation of nuance, dramatic tension and the soundscapes that fill the quieter moments (yes, I said quieter, and I only meant moments) and allow the tunes to grow and build. Too often the guitars function like the drums as blunt instruments, but the growing cohesive interplay of musicians reveals a creativity that could be overlooked amid all the sturm und drang.
In slight and incremental ways, Underoath has allowed a bit more traditional melody into the mix, most notably on its most accessible track (ever), “Too Bright to See, Too Loud to Hear.” But thanks primarily to the vocal additions of Aaron “The Almost” Gillespie and the spooky keyboards of Chris Dudley, moments of beauty and tunefulness have been brought to a genre where these things are rare.
But of course, none of this matters if you don’t understand what these songs are all about, which is ultimately the longing for peace, wholeness and redemption, and, as Chamberlain wails in “Breathing In a New Mentality,” for God to “show me how to love.” –Brian Quincy Newcomb