The biggest metalcore band in the land happens to be a Christian sextet that, for a second time, is primed to crash into the upper echelons of the Billboard 200. Due this week via Solid State/Tooth & Nail, “Lost in the Sound of Separation” follows 2006’s “Define the Great Line,” which has sold 366,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan.
Without any significant radio play or mainstream push — the band has never charted on a Billboard singles tally — “Define” debuted at No. 2, the highest-ever showing for a Tooth & Nail act.
“I really have no idea,” Underoath guitarist Tim McTague says of the band’s success to date. “We write real songs for real people, and we don’t really polish anything up or downplay anything to make anyone in any big office in any big corporation happy.”
Throughout its 41 minutes, “Lost in the Sound of Separation” occasionally teeters on the precipice of unfamiliar territory. Vocalist Spencer Chamberlain trades his screams for sung parts on “Too Bright to See, Too Loud to Hear,” and the sparse, electronic-based closer “Desolate Earth: The End Is Here” is largely instrumental except for a few lines.
