i think Stephen also self-published a follow-up digitally called Safe Here. unfortunately both of these are likely on my old PC that's had a completely dead battery, so idk if i can recover them at this time.
I'm already anticipating the Avengers style comic book in a few years where all the bands team up to defeat the big bad and restore peace in the emoverse or something it's Matty
ok, so i couldn't access the epub anymore, BUT he did put the whole thing on Tumblr as a series of posts. not a true follow-up, but interesting for sure (primarily based off his grandfather's journals). @youaresafehere on Tumblr
The book is loaded with typos and grammatical/punctuation errors. I think he just embraced it as his writing “voice”
But the damn TITLE. Not a single person who looked at that was like, hey bro ... the title has a typo in it.
they played in the suburbs close to me around the holidays, tix were expensive, but they played with eve 6, ended up not going in the end but this is a pretty solid setlist for a random show! Anberlin Concert Setlist at The Piazza, Aurora on December 20, 2024 | setlist.fm
lol totally fixated on this band’s transition. After listening to Vega a few times this week I just think people would have been more open to this change if Stephen and Matty had traded vocals on a couple songs and they ended the release with Seven. Then the next proper release if the full on throw back / fresh Matty songs. I am personally very excited to watch this era play out and it seems less like this was intentional and Stephen has been less available and collaborative as initially hoped, but no one seems upset about it and he has been continually showing up at shows. IMO High stakes is a banger and if the rest of the songs on this next one are as catchy / consistent it will be a fun jolt of optimism in a band this deep into their career. I get the knee jerk reaction tho. The EPs are so good and this is definitely a pivot.
That’s the strange part for me, I am super not a fan of MMF and on paper I would have thought it was going to be a disaster, but against all odds I am digging it. I do get it and I also wouldn’t consider myself a die hard. If Matty replaced Spencer in UO and made songs that sounded like safety after their last album pushing their sound forward I’d be pissed. For whatever reason I am so intrigued to see what this next full length will be.
Sometimes things just hit. Sometimes we want to like something and we make it work. Feels good when those things happen. But I’m in the Jason camp that just doesn’t like what matty does. Especially for anberlin, Matty adds a tough guy, bro-y vocal style to a band that just has never written music like that and who are at their best when their maturity and elegance are front and center.
i do agree MEATY brings a vibe that is kind of silly. to clarify i’m mostly happy to see the band staying alive vs on and off releases based on stephen’s willingness to be the lead singer and the songs have been better than expected. the new songs are in no way even close to the EPs that they came back with. played vega a ton this week and i can’t think of a band coming back post hiatus with such a strong release besides maybe thrice. on the drums? pod they said anthony green was the only other consideration. I am not familiar enough with his stuff to know if that would have been better or worse.
on vocal technique alone, Anthony would've been infinitely better than Matty, but i also don't think his voice would be the best fit for these songs (let alone the lyrics). it's weird that they've said Stephen had multiple people in mind, but the only two we know are Matty and Anthony.
it’s wild to me he chose to leave, talked with MEATY prior to telling the band, and essentially floated that it was what should happen next.