Silverstein – Pink Moon

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When I first got wind of Silverstein deciding to release two albums in 2025, the fan in me was excited to see what the band would cook up during these sessions. The band worked closely together during the recording sessions in Joshua Tree, where they would look at the vastness and emptiness of the desert to put the framework behind the first part, Antibloom. On the second part of this ambitious double album project, Pink Moon resolidifies the fact that Silverstein are doing the whole post-hardcore, emo, and screamo genres a big favor by releasing such dynamic music during this era of the band that surpasses my wildest expectations from their debut in 2003, and is taking a well-deserved victory lap in their 25th year of existence. Pink Moon was first described to me by vocalist Shane Told, as having “a couple songs on the record are really kind of a throwback sort of sound where they could have been on Discovering the Waterfront.” This immediately piqued my interest in the second half of the project as a whole, and when I finally wrapped my ears around it for the first time, it solidified my feeling that Antibloom and Pink Moon are some of the band’s best and most urgent works of art to date.

The record opens on a very emotional and somber note, as we hear the sound of an out of tune piano bleed into the first lyric of “I Love You But I Have To Let You Go” from Shane Told. You can hear the pain and the raw feeling behind Told’s vocal performance, while lead guitarist Paul Marc Rousseau adds in some intricate riffing to put more weight behind each of his bandmate’s words. “Negative Space” was the first song to be publicly released from the Pink Moon set, and it’s easy to see why it gets the honor of being the lead single. The song features a swirling breakdown in the pre-chorus that makes your head spin trying to interpret the lyrical cadence of, “We’re oil and water / And the portrait never fits the frame, and I can’t make it.” The band adds in some heavy riffs in the bridge courtesy of rhythm guitarist Josh Bradford, while bassist Billy Hamilton and drummer Paul Koehler each pick their spots to make their presence known. It’s one of my favorite songs that Silverstein has released to date, and it greatly helps with setting the tone of the entire record.

”Drain The Blood” was the second single to be released from Pink Moon, and the lyrical content was described by Shane as, “our response to the growing fear that machines are starting to replace what makes music (and other art) human. It’s a warning, a cry of resistance, and a reminder that emotion can’t be automated.” It’s a very topical concept, and the band handles it with some punishing riffs and great vocal performances from Shane Told and Rory Rodriguez of Dayseeker. Rory’s verse of “Can I be honest now? / I don’t see a way we get beyond this hell / When everybody’s saying it’ll all work out / If you just sell your soul / Oh, the things we tell ourselves / I can’t stop drinking from the poisoned well / And it’s doing my head in like a bullet to my to my brain / No one leaves till the blood is drained,” is delivered with great vocal cadence and as Paul Marc Rousseau describes, “when Rory enters with ‘Can I be honest now? I don’t see a way we get beyond this hell.’ The line just feels so right with him singing it. It’s like he’s the voice of reason and even he feels defeated by technology. He almost goes through the five stages of grief and recaps the whole concept in 20 seconds.” The band clearly understand the purpose of the guest spot, and it never feels forced here.

”The Fatalist” closes out the front half of the 8-song LP with a pretty standard Silverstein song structure, but the hard-hitting nature of the chorus reverberates off of the speakers and features some great guitar parts from Rousseau. Told sings triumphantly in the chorus, “What makes you scared? / If you really think that nothing matters” that brings home the overall theme of Antibloom and Pink Moon by grappling with the concept of mortality and the fragility of life in general. The back half begins with “Widowmaker,” a song that starts with a spoken word part from Shane over some soft guitar from Paul Marc, while the song explodes into a great instrumental breakdown before leading into a rhythmic first verse that builds up to an anthemic chorus. It’s probably my second favorite song on Pink Moon, and does an incredible job of exploring the thematic elements that Silverstein leaned heavily into for this double album project.

The third, and possibly final, single from Pink Moon comes in the form of “Autopilot”, that features vocalist Cassadee Pope, as Told sets the scene in the back half of the first verse with “So I stay lost and I take off / I’m on autopilot, turbulence inside my head / Crash into the ocean, I’ll be better when I’m dead / Now it makes me wonder why I even breathe at all / And I’m bracing for the fall.” It’s a relatable concept to be going through the motions in this wild life that is filled with even more anger and tragedies that are happening in our country on a daily basis. “Death Hold” once again grapples with mortality head-on, while Told’s bouncing vocal performance in the chorus prevents the song from sounding like a run of the mill B-side. Instead, the song takes some wild turns, with some nice atmospheric elements added in the pre-choruses to help with matching the aesthetic of the album art.

”Dying Game” features an all-time great opening riff from Paul Marc Rousseau, while Shane’s haunting vocal performance leaves the listener with a hard look in the mirror about the life we want to lead, and the legacy we all leave behind once we’re long gone. Pink Moon meshes well with the flow of Antibloom and yet each record has its own personality. Silverstein continue to grow beyond my wildest dreams, and cement their status as scene legends with this ambitious project. When Shane closes with, “Will you remember me? / When I’m a memory?” the answer is a resounding “yes”.

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