How a Well-Known Band Disguised Itself as a New Masked Band for Big Announcement

Masked bands are all the rage right now, so Underoath recently disguised themselves as a new masked band to make a big announcement.

Earlier today (Feb. 20), we reported on a mysterious band called President that were just recently added to the 2025 Download Festival lineup. But another masked band also recently made the rounds throughout January and February named Locus Ultra.

The mysterious group made its first Instagram post on Jan. 11 of this year. They performed onboard the Emo’s Not Dead cruise earlier this month, and also played a handful of shows with Norma Jean and Limbs.

Some fans were perplexed by this “new” anonymous group, while others pieced the puzzle together and figured out who the members really were.

Locus Ultra’s Cryptic Social Media Posts

A post Locus Ultra shared on Instagram on Jan. 24 featured a graphic that reads, “Locus Ultra exists as a dream state of unconsciousness living in the space between a dream and sleep paralysis.” One person suggested that the vocals in the audio clip playing over the Reel sound like Spencer Chamberlain, but with distortion.

“Underoath turning into Sleep Token,” another comment reads.

Several days later, Locus Ultra shared another Reel on their page with the caption, “Some are meant to understand and others to merely receive. Know what you don’t know.”

They announced a few more shows in a post on Feb. 11, and in the caption, noted that it was “thirty hours until termination.”

Locus Ultra’s Cryptic Emo’s Not Dead Message

At the end of Locus Ultra’s set on the Emo’s Not Dead cruise, a message appeared on the screen. Read it in full below, and check out the video clip here.

We have been Locus Ultra.

An idea that is housed in being free, expressing love for music, creativity, honesty and the people that support those ideas. Life is more than numbers, status, identity and profit. If anything, they are the very things that dilute our true purpose.

In a world that is marred by chaos and bias, it is rare that people are allowed, yet allow themselves to be their true selves. Sometimes pretending to be anything else is healing.

Tonight was one of five nights total that this body of work will ever be performed in it’s entirety. Our goal is to not try and make history, but share a moment in time with people that we owe the world to. The amount of energy it takes to put your whole self into a creative venture is exhausting and this will be a night that we hold dear to our hearts forever.

Thank you to E.N.D. and our entire team for making this dream possible. We thank you all for watching and being a part of something special and we hope, albeit for a brief moment, that you were able to escape for a bit and be your true self.

Until we reach the place after this one, this [cut off] this life is all we have. Let’s make [cut off] of it. You belong here, even if it doesn’t feel like it at times.

 

Locus Ultra Are Actually Underoath

There were quite a few clues that confirmed that Locus Ultra are actually Underoath. For starters, a press release noted that “locus ultra” is Latin for “place beyond,” which is a phrase that was included in the artwork for some of Underoath’s recent singles.

READ MORE: 13 Musicians Who Have (or Had) Hidden Identities

Additionally, a fan shared a photo of one of Locus Ultra’s setlists on Reddit, and it listed song titles that match some of the tracks Underoath have released in the last year — “All the Love” is “All the Love Is Gone,”“Teeth,”“Survivor’s Guilt” and “Generation” is “Generation No Surrender.”

On Valentine’s Day, Locus Ultra posted a clip announcing Underoath’s new album The Place After This One — which they referenced in the last paragraph of the Emo’s Not Dead message. 

The record will be available March 28. The track list noted in the album pre-order mentions the rest of the songs that appeared on the aforementioned setlist, thus Underoath performed the previously-unheard songs live as Locus Ultra to build anticipation for its release.

Well done, gentlemen.