Anberlin Band • Page 110

I’d say start with their self-titled final album. It really is the perfect summation of what they became later in their career. Their early albums are totally different.

 

I second starting with Captiva and then going forward, that or start with Your Sparkling Death Cometh which is great and more representative of their sound in the latter half of their career.

 

I third starting with Captiva and going forward from there, if only because their stuff gets more impressive from that point forward. If you start with the self-titled, you might be so taken with it that you don’t appreciate everything leading up to it, although Your Sparkling Death is still their best in my eyes.

“Contact” off of Dawn Escapes is also a good song to start with as it’s the first glimpse of what their sound would become.

 

Contact is such a great song. They really aged so well.

What makes YSD your favorite? Haven't heard that one.

 

I love it as an album listening experience. The self-titled album perfects their sound. It's the best note they could have possibly ended on. But YSDC works best to me as a cohesive album start to finish (especially with the bandcamp inclusion of Darkspeed at track 9) and I'm an album listener above all else. It's also the first time the band really emerged and became something amazing and unique. I was so sad they ended after Fangs! because their sudden sound change from intrigued me to no end, then they came back with freakin superpowers. The first three songs on YSDC rival (if not top) the first three songs on Vital for me and Circadian might be my favorite opening track of all-time. The melodies are just insane. It's icing on the cake that all the band's output after this ended up being excellent too.

To tie it into this thread, the album is also all the things I love most about Anberlin without sounding much like Anberlin at all.

I am so. long. winded.

 

Wow, yeah I really like Falling Up. They actually remind me of Mew, mainly in the vocals I think. Thanks everyone for the great rec. You did a good!

 

Haha love it. All this talk about Falling Up has made me wanna dive into their discography more. My friend back in high school used to play Discover the Trees Again all the time during car rides, but I don't think I've ever heard individual albums except for Hours and S/T. I remember my friend saying how Fangs! got too weird for him haha. I always thought it was interesting how they evolved their sound, so I'm gonna try and give their whole discography a run this week!

Btw is Midnight on Earthship worth checking out?

 

I love it. The music is a lot simpler than the rest of their discography but it's a very chill listen. If you look at it as essentially their version of a worship album I don't think you'll be disappointed

 

K. I’m doing a non-Anberlin album ranking in the Anberlin thread but we’ve gone so far down the Falling Up trail anyway:

10. Crashings
9. Exit Lights
8. Captiva
7. Dawn Escapes
6. Midnight on Earthship
5. Fangs!
4. House Full of Caverns
3. Hours
2. Falling Up
1. Your Sparkling Death Cometh

Everything from #6 forward is so so good.

 

The revelation for me in this thread is that Falling Up became an art rock band and I’ve missed out. Think I listened to a few of their early songs waaaay back and that turned me off them forever. Might need to check out these recommendations.

I love how subversive you are. Haha!

 

They alienated their larger fanbase when they went the art rock route, then art rock folks still thought they were a nu-metal band. It's really a bummer. They're absolutely one of my favorite bands and from a melodic standpoint they've been one of the biggest inspirations to me alongside bands like Anberlin, From Indian Lakes, Copeland, and Mew.

LOVE the attention they're getting in this thread even though it is off topic. :)

 

I'm going to have to revisit this band. I wasn't a fan of their debut and never checked them out again

 

Alright I'll go ahead and give this one a listen too!

Alright I gave Crashings and Dawn Escapes a listen today. The first four songs in Crashing are amazing, but then they go way too deep into nu metal and taints the rest of the record. Dawn Escapes is a much better release. Overall it's good and they're starting to sound more like themselves. This is gonna be a journey!

 

I'm listening to their early stuff for the first time in almost a decade and it holds up a bit better than I expected, despite the dated numetalness of some of it. It's way more Skillet and Evanescence-y than I remember.

This song was one of my favorites, it sounds like something right out of Page Avenue:

 

You used words that caught my attention (SOTY, Skillet and Anberlin) and roped me into giving it a listen haha. I gave the song above a listen though and I don't hear it

 

Hm...I remember when Skillet still wrote good songs (Collide, Comatose), shame they went full mainstream.

But back to Anberlin, it would be amazing, if they would release a record in 2019.

 

Anyone who's only familiar with Falling Up's early nu-metal leaning stuff... give this song a listen and be amazed.

 

I really dug Awake and Alive too! But agree that after that, I haven't really liked anything they have put out.

 

Very personal and illuminating interview with Stephen. His audio is really bad, but worth a listen.

https://t.co/TnKjtNwcmw?amp=1

 

I liked this a lot more that the other song posted above.

I am interested to hear some of their nu-metal stuff though.......as well all know that genre is awesome.

 

Free bump for the new page.

 

Does he say something about possible new Anberlin stuff?

 

He didn’t, but he all but confirmed an Anberlin tour.

Some highlights that shed some light on their break up were that at the end of the band, there was quite a bit of bad blood between him and some of the band. He felt torn between his life at home with his family and life on the road with Anberlin.

They wanted to keep going and he didn’t.

He said that the reason he said things at the end like “we will never play again or be in the same room again” and made things so final was that he was coming from a place of bitterness and fatigue. The last 7 month tour was grueling and mis-managed, and he just wanted it to be over.

He said that it’s been in the last couple years that he and the other members have reconciled, and a big part of them doing this show is for personal reconciliation amongst themselves.

Really gave a lot of context to how the band ended, why they talked about it like they did, why they are coming back to play this show, and potentially doing another tour.

 

Glad you listened to it, couldn’t do that audio. Appreciate him being so candid, puts it into perspective

 

I remember talking to them on that last warped tour, and he (and maybe also Christian?) was (rightfully) PISSED that they weren't on the main stage. (wasn't that the year Finch was main stage and Anberlin's final tour wasn't?? WTF) because Kevin Lyman had kind of lied to their management, selling them on the fact that there was "no main stage, just four stages all of the same size, and their tier of stages some nights would be set up in amphitheaters". Anyone super familiar with Warped knows that the last couple of years they had a pair of main biggest stages, a pair of slightly smaller stages for older or up and coming bands (ETID, Silverstein, Bayside, Saves The Day were on this that year I think?) and so on. They were on that second tier.

Also this was either the day of or the day after Linkin Park played at Warped, and literally the only band that was scheduled to play at the same time as them was Anberlin for some bizarre reason...I thought that was super disrespectful to them, especially considering they're like... the only two bands on that got rock radio play so their crowd would largely have crossover. Yeah I feel like that last tour and the rollout of Lowborn could have been much better handled for sure.