Would love to hear your thoughts in the ETID thread if that band came back with Marty singing, I'm sure you would love it and be so excited
I agree with all of you. I wish it wasn’t Matty, but it is what it is. if it wasn’t Matty or stephen, then who would you want it to be?
Hey so I don't think it's unreasonable to understand how some fans thing Stephen was just as integral to the DNA of Anberlin as Keith was to ETID. It's a fitting comparison. One band came back with a new singer (and guitarist) under a new name, and are seeing success. One band "replaced" a singer and kept the name and is also having... success, I guess.
still a little confused why both Stephen and the band decided that Matty was somehow the best choice to fill in. i know he and Stephen have been good friends for a long time and that Matty obviously loves the material, but just because he has a similar vocal range to Stephen (but nowhere near the control or tone) and is a close friend shouldn't make him the top candidate. then again, Stephen is also good friends with Sean Feucht, so maybe Stephen just doesn't keep the best company?
Anthony green commented one time that Stephen asked him to front anberlin. Wild if that ended up happening
i remember Christian mentioning Anthony. he's obviously a better vocalist than Matty, but i think a good replacement would ideally have a similar vocal tone/inflection to Stephen, and Anthony's still feels too different to me to be effective. obviously a great choice that's filled in before. wonder why it didn't work out.
It’s not the most fair criticism but there are few people I would’ve preferred less because MMF have always sorta represented the super sterilization of the scene, especially metalcore, to me, and that’s in no small part due to matty’s vocal style/voice/etc, to say nothing of the shockingly boring lyrics. again, it’s not fair, but in every word he sings I roll my eyes at that really hard, tough-guy-sounding annunciation of every syllable. “Wuahhhlk alowne tonight, it’ll get bhetturrrr.”
despite having only heard his other stuff on occasion (all of it bad), i do notice that his vocal processing feels a bit reigned in ever so slightly (and i mean slightly) with these new Anberlin songs (Seven feels the least offensive in that regard), but that can't fix the fact that the way he enunciates the lyrics is incredibly forced and off-putting.
I don’t see why people have to be so dense. They announced an anniversary tour for their most popular album with very nostalgic leaning support. Why in the hell would anyone want to see Matty on a tour like that? Like you’re starting this new chapter of a band and then announce a tour that’s celebrating the bands history with the new vocalist? Extremely odd strategy and there is bound to be fans who are disappointed/super fucking confused when they don’t see Stephen. That’s not even to mention the major douche vibes Matty has always given off.
Yeah that EP and Sleepwalker were formative albums for me. Fell off afterwards even though the following EP and The Hollow ended up growing on me. Everything since then has been diminishing returns while slowly moving towards (even more) generic waters. Their guitarist/main songwriter used to write memorable riffs. I don't know what happened.
I’m not a fan of Matty in Anberlin either but some of the recent takes in this thread are weirdly aggressive and antagonistic. Matty didn’t take the band hostage. Fans aren’t leaving Anberlin shows in droves when they see/hear him perform. For the most part, by any actual metric that the guys in the band care about, all of this is going just fine. I guess I just feel like talking shit about how Matty enunciates his vowels when he sings and/or calling him a douche because of “vibes” is very silly online behavior
I’ve thought about it for months, but finally settled on Jeff Schneeweis from Number One Gun. Stephen is featured on NOG’s song “Disappear” and sometimes I have trouble telling their vocals apart on that song.