Underoath once was (almost lost), but now is sound

Strip away the doom-laden guitars, feral howl of vocals and chest-rattling bass, and you'll find God in Underoath. "Good God, if your song leaves our lips, if your work leaves our hands, then we will be wonders and vagabonds," you can make out Spencer Chamberlain singing in one of the quieter moments of the metal band's new album, Lost in the Sound of Separation.

"I'm as Christian as you can be," says bassist Grant Brandell, tracing his beliefs back to age 13. "It's definitely the foundation of our band. It's literally how we communicate with people. It's not just an on-stage thing."

Oh, if only it were that easy. Underoath, which plays Tuesday at Water Street Music Hall, has emerged from Florida as one of the premier metal bands of the moment, dominating a genre of music that is frequently seen as anything but Christian. And the relentless touring, with so many temptations at hand, so many easy choices to be made, can test a man.

"Just because you're a Christian," Brandell says, "doesn't mean you can't go through things that are not ideal."

Metal is a visceral experience. Brandell has witnessed shows get out of hand, with crowds pushing against barricades, "people getting beat up, people going nuts, getting hurt. And offstage, all of the backstage antics."

Underoath members are veterans of the Taste of Chaos, Warped and Mayhem tours, alongside the likes of Slipknot, Mastodon, Disturbed and Dragonforce. That surely must have tested the mettle of this Christian metal band.

"You've gotta know your place," Brandell says. "If you see someone in another band doing something I don't agree with, making yourself not being around ... is one way to deal with it. If I want to go out and get drunk and sleep with women, I can find that. It's definitely a personal decision.

"But it's not like you close yourself off to it. Talking about it, after the act, is one way to deal with it."

Metal has carried the rap, unfairly or not, as being some kind of art form without consequences. Perhaps most famously, Judas Priest was sued by the parents of a young man who killed himself, supposedly after listening to a Judas Priest song.

"You can take an art, like music, you can use it for any cause," Brandell says. "Metal definitely has an aggressive sound to it, it has an angry sound to it. Angry. Bad. Evil. At the same time, it's a powerful thing. You're still expressing yourself.

"We've had people come up and thank us, and we have people who think we're hypocrites. It's just how people perceive metal. The hardest thing is, we are human beings. I can have a bad day, I have my crappy days where maybe I didn't say the right thing to somebody. I don't want to say we're in a leadership position. But you're putting yourself up in the spotlight."

Christians though they are, Underoath is not immune to the volcanic nature of metal. In 2006, it was reportedly simmering with internal strife over, of all things, religious arguments within the band. That, and what the band at first denied, and now concedes is true — it all came out at what Brandell describes as "a big band meeting" — that Chamberlain had a cocaine problem.

"Yes and no," Brandell says of whether he was aware of Chamberlain's personal struggles. "I knew there was something there. I didn't know what.

"He wasn't happy. He obviously didn't want to be doing it. He wanted to break it, escape doing that. He definitely wanted help."

And these young guys, in their mid-20s at the time, maybe didn't know how to help. Some wanted to walk away from Chamberlain. It's tough on guys who believe, as Brandell says, that God "should impact every decision you make, all day long." Such an inconsistency was nearly the end of Underoath, Brandell concedes.

"Yeah, I've been through a couple of those with friends," he says. "I've never been in that situation myself.

"I'm not a therapist, I don't know the 12-step program. All I know is being a friend."

In time, Underoath has healed. Released last month, Lost in the Sound of Separation debuted at No.8 on the Billboard top 200 album chart. At least the band's fans stuck with Underoath. In "Desperate Times Desperate Measures," Chamberlain sings of how "I've been crawling around in the dark for a while." A band falling apart is a desolate sound. Perhaps those fans are taking solace in a familiar place.

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