Anberlin - Vega (August 2, 2024)

here's hoping they equalized the mastering for the full LP

 

This don’t sound like Anberlin no more

 

Not sure what to think after a few listens but I know that I definitely miss Stephen's voice.

 

It sounds... compressed? also if you put this on without telling me who it was, I wouldn't have guessed in a million years that it was Anberlin.

 

No strong feelings about this song one way or another. It’s fine, that’s all

I’ll give this record some spins when it drops

 

Who’s singing?

 

Stephen on 10 of the 12 songs, Matty on the other 2

 

Just can not get in to Matty's vocals.

 

preview of the vinyl packaging and some more variants from IG. lettering on the back is holographic.

 

Could they not put the two Matty songs as b-sides? lol

All joking aside, I'll check it out like I have done with all their material.

 

I saw them open for Hawthorne Heights a few days ago and the crowd was confused at first, but when Matty explained he was basically the new singer, the crowd seemed to warm up to him. Him singing songs originally from Stephen Christian just seemed like someone doing karaoke. His vocals made the band for me.

 

I feel like the band should’ve known that Stephen’s vocals were the main draw and the only unique thing to their sound. They should’ve retired Anberlin and started a new band with a new singer, this approach makes no sense

 

Makes most sense as a “we’d like to still make some money being a band” choice. Can’t blame them much for that imo.

 

the problem too with starting a new band/adopting a new moniker is that i feel like there's then an obligation to then have a good amount of original material to tour on. if you don't have that, it would make less sense to change the name and still primarily play Anberlin songs than to still call it Anberlin. the Anberlin name gets them a paycheck in a way another name or outlet wouldn't. it's not ideal, but it is what it is.

 

There’s really no winning for the fans or the band in this kind of situation, imo. Gotta do what you can to keep the train rolling!

 

A number of hard rock bands have replaced frontmen to either go on recording a new era of material and touring with the new member (Van Halen, Judas Priest) or moving on to a legacy touring career (Journey).

This situation is weird because it doesn’t exactly fit in either of those boxes. They’re still presenting themselves as an actively recording band so it’s not a Journey. If they still mainly (or solely?) record with Stephen but tour with Matty it’s not a Van Halen either!

It's commendable that the band cares so much for Stephen and are attempting something so out of the box. People would be upset but less confused if they just announced Stephen was stepping down from the band fully! The waiting to see if this will be one tour, a year, years, or forever is the hardest part and Anberlin either doesn’t know the answer themselves or are keeping it close to their chest.

 

Listening to this now and this order of the songs is fucking with my head.

 

takes some getting used to. are any of the EP songs remastered?

 

Can't really tell. 192 mp3s vs lossless streaming i'm used to. They sound less beefy.

 

that would make sense. the back of the jacket indicates that one person each was respectively in charge of mixing and mastering, so my hope is that they're on par with one another (especially given the inconsistent mixing on Vital and Lowborn).

 

The songs we'd already heard are still so good. That's one thing that I know.

 

i could be wrong, but i think i stumbled across it somewhere on IG from one of the engineers on this that the album might also have an incoming Dolby Atmos mix (or at least Walk Alone)? idk why it's not on Apple Music, but if true for the whole album, i would love to hear some of the Convinced tracks this way.

 

No Christian = no Anberlin for me. I did really like the EP from last year though so at least there’s that material.

 

The album (obviously) sounds like Anberlin. The new Matty songs aren't very good but it's two of them and Stephan is very clearly there on the back half of "Seven."