Review Summary: We'll live forever.
Chapter VII: No One Wants to Say Goodbye
As an avid music fan, there are certain moments in time that I hope will never happen as long as I live. Among these dreaded hypothetical events include seeing an artist you absolutely adore decline in quality so badly that it’s hard to consider yourself a true fan anymore, watching a universally hated act make something that actually isn’t half-bad, and coming to grips with the fact that one of my favorite bands will cease to exist after consistently churning out quality album after quality album for the last decade. The latter has recently come to life after Anberlin announced their imminent breakup following the release of their seventh studio album
Lowborn and a worldwide, three-month long tour that would mark the last chance for fans to see their idols perform on stage. After November 26th, 2014, the five boys from Winter Haven, Florida will call it quits, and the storybook will close. Of course, that doesn’t mean that they’re never making music again – after all, Stephen Christian’s still got Anchor & Braille, not to mention drummer Nate Young recently became a part of the Yellowcard family. Nevertheless,
Lowborn marks the end of a journey for a band who has shown lots of musical progression ever since their 2003 debut.
Although the end of Anberlin is indeed a very sad moment, why not look at the whole predicament through an optimistic lens? Ever since 2003, they’ve consistently made great albums with plenty of career highlights and very little disappointments. Instead of mourning the fact that they won’t make any more new music, why not enjoy all that they’ve gave us and rock out to every riff-soaked, emotion-filled song they made? It’s not like “(*Fin)” or “The Unwinding Cable Car” will disappear just because Anberlin never released an eighth album. Look at it this way – at least they never ruined their legacy with subpar middle-age records. Even though
Lowborn is the band’s swan song, it’s a pretty damn good one, and if this is the way Anberlin want to exit the stage, then they’ll have done so in stunning fashion.
At the surface, there seems to be nothing special about
Lowborn. The closer clocks in at a measly four-and-a-half minutes, unusual for a band renowned for bookending their records with sprawling epics. If anything, the album is one of their softest, opting for heartbreaking emotion and thoughtful lyrics over hard-hitting riffs and aggressive vocals (although there is one exception). For the most part,
Lowborn is just Anberlin being Anberlin for forty minutes and four seconds, playing their hearts out for the last time. The mellower nature of the album draws comparisons to
Dark is the Way, Light is a Place, but it has the energy and emotion that the band’s disappointing fifth album lacked. Right out of the gate, Anberlin lets listeners know that they’re still kicking ass, with “We Are Destroyer” continuing the band’s tradition of starting off records with hard-hitting openers. “In just a matter of minutes, in just a matter of time, we could lose it all,” cries Stephen Christian in an anthemic call for action. Furious drumming and fiery vocals give the song a very arena-ready feel, ready to be shouted at the top of Stephen’s lungs over the coming months.
Anberlin have always been a band that showed their musical progression with each and every album, and
Lowborn is the culmination of their sonic evolution. It’s probably the farthest from the sugarcoated, innocent pop-punk image they put out in 2003 with
Blueprints for the Black Market. Over time, they slowly upped the emotional aspect of their songwriting while also being more aggressive with the instrumentation and vocals. With
Vital, they added in electronic influences to create an ethereal atmosphere, which
Lowborn manages to expand on more fully. “Armageddon” utilizes a thumping bass beat over pulsating low-tone synths, and the slow build where Christian gradually takes over the song sees the band rock out even with the electronics doing their thing in the background. Elsewhere in the album, lead single “Stranger Ways” wears its 80s influences on its sleeve, using a piano section, warbling synthesizers and palpitating bass-heavy beat. The song starts out subdued, building up to the one moment where Stephen Christian just gloriously sings “Would you stay with me, here in my dreams if I promised you this heaven?” in what has got to be the single best moment on the entire album. He hits those high notes which such unadulterated emotion that the three minutes leading up to it are so beneficial to its impact. Although the build in “Birds of Prey” isn’t as good, it’s still worth noting; the song starts out as one of the band’s most minimalist before the whole band comes in to provide that satisfying climax, with Stephen’s chilling falsetto leading the way.
Anberlin’s experimenting on
Lowborn isn’t just limited to minimalism and electronic synthesizers. “Dissenter” is probably one of the band’s heaviest tracks to date, with hard-hitting drumwork, aggressive guitar riffs and harsh vocals from Stephen himself, who has spent the last decade making a name for himself as a talented emotional singer. It’s nice to see him loosen up and finally get a chance to sing his heart out, screaming at the top of his lungs in a brazen display of fire and belligerence. It’s a pretty unique track in their discography, standing out as one of a kind. With that said,
Lowborn isn’t all experimentation and testing the waters with new ideas. There’s plenty of moments on the album that are reminiscent of classic Anberlin, from the moving ballad that is “Atonement” to the anthemic “Hearing Voices”. The former sees Christian’s vocals soar with passion as the instruments melodically play along, creating an otherworldly atmosphere with fragile layering. It’s a sad tune, as Anberlin reflect on the journey they’ve had as a band and all the things they’ve done, and the ethereal atmosphere only complements that.
Although the softer songs on
Lowborn do stand out more compared to the hard-hitting rockers, Anberlin haven’t completely given up on heavy. Aside from “Dissenter”, we have the fast-firing instrumentation of “Velvet Covered Brick” and “We Are Destroyer” and the call for action that is “Hearing Voices”. The latter shines the brightest, with synth lines and drum fills that resonate so fast like the non-stop brisk firing of machine guns and a stadium-ready chorus that exudes energy and vivaciousness. The lively way in which Christian sings gives the lyrical content a sense of importance, like it’s a message that needs to be spread for the youth of tomorrow. Coincidentally enough, the subject matter of “Hearing Voices” is worth noting – it almost seems like a sequel to “(*Fin)” in the fact that it contains scathing attacks on religion and its followers for its hypocritical nature and controlling tendencies. “Trapped inside a cell that I built myself, feel so very empty, cold, dark, and lost” is how he describes his relationships with Christianity, and given the nature of this song, it’s probably not a positive one. The anthemic feel that “Hearing Voices” exudes gives it an epic sheen that wouldn’t feel out of place as
Lowborn’s last track.
A lot has been said about “Harbinger”, the closer to Anberlin’s final studio album. Being the song that they go out on, one would expect a lengthy, towering monolith to bookend the band’s discography, given their tradition of ending records with long numbers. Yet what it is a four-and-a-half minute long crooner that feels like the sonic equivalent of saying goodbye to a friend at the airport before they move away, never to be seen again. It’s that emotional vibe given off by its subdued nature combined with lyrics like “I don't wanna go now, but I've got to for you to remember me” and “Look back with a lighter soul, harbor motion into the great unknown” that really bring the fact that Anberlin are breaking up home. Many have judged “Harbinger” for dragging on without purpose, but I disagree. Even if it isn’t a nine-minute long epic, the sadness that the track conjures with its lyrical content and instrumentation is a perfect finale to Anberlin’s story. Sure, maybe they could have ended
Lowborn a bit differently, but that’s beside the point. “Harbinger” is a great send-off for a band that have accomplished so much over the last twelve years, and this song truly encapsulates all the emotions associated with saying farewell for the last time.
On the surface,
Lowborn seems like a recipe for disappointment. The focus on slower-tempo crooners and emotional ballads over fiery rockers and hard-hitting riffs may feel offputting at first, but upon further relistens, there’s so much more that needs to be discovered. Anberlin made a normal album, with no flashy exits, over-the-top displays of melancholy or eight-minute closers. What
Lowborn does do, however, is expand on the electronic-infused sound that
Vital dipped its toes into and experiment with minimalism and post-hardcore to create a career-encompassing album that shows off all sides of Anberlin, from the emotional ballads to the riff-driven rockers (the only missing would probably be the lengthy closer, fittingly enough). As the curtains begin to close and the band begins to play their final song, it seems rather appropriate that Anberlin’s send-off brings together the best parts of their work. We’ll miss them dearly, but they can rest peacefully knowing that they went out with one hell of an album.
Anberlin (2002-2014) will live on forever as:
Stephen Christian – Vocals
Joseph Milligan – Guitar
Deon Rexroat – Bass
Nathan Young – Drums
Christian McAlhaney – Rhythm Guitar (2007-2014)
Joey Bruce – Rhythm Guitar (2002-2004)
Nathan Strayer – Rhythm Guitar (2004-2007)
