I have a hard time understanding that opinion when it's been brought up before on here. To me Anberlin has a pretty distinct sound and I can clock bands that are influenced by them pretty easily. Go listen to Ivoryline or Escape the City and you know who they are fans of lol. Edit: *SEARCH the city. Maybe I played Sonic Adventure 2 too much as a child....
The Matty Vega songs are definitely not the strongest of that era, but they're way better than "High Stakes" and everything else they've done to have him cosplay as Never Take Friendship Personal-era Stephen. I'm not overly optimistic about new Matty material, but that would at least be something that could live on its own and not be just him failing to recreate the things that Stephen did well.
i'll at least give Seven some respect. that was a demo Chad Carouthers brought to the band that they wrote around, and save for Matty's lyricism (it's probably his best vocal performance with the band, which isn't saying much), he didn't have any other involvement with it. it mostly felt like a natural continuation of what they did with Silverline and Convinced, and if they had to record more songs in this state of the band, i'd probably be more okay with it if they went in that direction. but nope. they want to rest in the same sonic space ad NTFP and Cities because it's a quick cash grab. that was the point i tapped out.
The instrumental behind High Stakes is extremely locked into that NTFP era. My ears picked up on that the first time I ever heard it. I've heard a number of Search the City songs on my Apple workout playlists and find myself checking to see if it's Stephen singing on them. I definitely see the Anberlinfluence in the few songs I've heard. Overall it's just so wild to me that in the span of 10 years (2014 - 2024), my emotions with this band have been on an absolute roller coaster. From them "breaking up", to going to their reunion secret show in Tampa, to being so excited for new tunes, to now this version of the band. They'll likely always be a top 5 band for me with how their music has resonated with me through the stages of my life, but I NEVER thought I'd be at a point where I am not interested in going to an Anberlin show.
i believe i read somewhere that it's a scrapped demo from NTFP that Matty wrote over, which makes it all the more disappointing for me. i love those early albums, but the band's best sound lies in the back half of their discography. i get maybe doing that once to cater to those old-school fans, but to pivot your whole sound back to that style is cowardly and stupid.
I read the same thing as well. It's this weird scenario where we never would have heard it if Matty never got access to it. So would we have wanted to never hear it, or hear a version with a different singer? I guess there's an ability to download it and remove the vocals to turn it into an instrumental at least ha.
i'd be fine if it just stayed buried in their hard drives. i'll agree with @Micah511 here about those earlier records not really sounding unique instrumentally. it's derivative of old Anberlin which is derivative of their contemporaries at the time. even if they stripped the vocals, it just sounds too much like songs we've already heard, and i'm just not interested in that.
Wild tidbits that i would have never picked up on but now I cant un hear, the whole drum part is on a high hat, bass drum, snare, and one tom. Nate demoed it and they liked it so much with the tight sound they left it in. I like high stakes and I feel like the album will actually be pretty neat. I dont know how long you can milk this revisiting a classic era, but the songs they have put out with MEATY are pretty great pop punk meets classic anberlin. Against all odds i look forward to hearing a full record.
Sorry for the self-plug, but while we're on the subject of bands inspired by Anberlin, my band Never Home put out an EP last year that was a direct love letter to the Cities era. I think you all would dig it.
Yea I just doubt anyone besides the most hardcore people are going to give two shits about an anberlin record with a new singer. Specially when it’s Michael
Yeah I think I'm onboard with this sentiment. If they leaned heavier and let Matty do the one thing I think he's passable at (singing/screaming over octanecore), I'd be much more likely to enjoy new output, but him doing... whatever it is he does... over poppy Cities demos.... nah man.
Matthias Replaces J̶u̶d̶a̶s̶ Stephen This works on multiple levels and I'm excited to see who might get it