Anberlin - New Surrender

Universal Records . 09/30/2008 . written by Oliver . genre: Rock . format: CD

Pop Rock band Anberlin got formed by Stephen Christian (lead singer) in 2002 in Winter Haven, Florida. The band - who sold over 400.000 copies to date - kept its original lineup by and so you find Stephen Christian doing lead-vocals, Deon Rexroat is playing bass, Joseph Milligan & Christian McAlhaney are playing on guitars and Nathan Young is playing drums. Anberlin released three great full-lenght CD's on Christian Rock label Toothandnail Records before. Today the band has signed with major label Universal Republic and presents its newest effort "New Surrender". The record contains 12 slamming Rock tracks with a distinctive singer who is doing vocals. Lead singer Stephen Christian has such a beautiful and expressive voice. His voice reminded me a lot to Nathan Gray from Boy Sets Fire once. Today I have listen to a couple of Emo records. Afterwards I have put New Surrender in my player and I recoqnized for the very first time how powerful and dominant Anberlin seriously is. You may probably know about ex-major label band Autopilot Off [review: here], who also played pretty strong Rock tracks with amazing melodies. Today I really felt reminded to those strongs chords and those strong melodies that I alreday knew from Autopilot Off before. Producer Neal Avron, who worked with several bands like Yellowcard, New Found Glory and Fall Out Boy has put the album together and the result has turned out really great. It is really not simple to find out the "best-tracks" on this record, because the release turned out brilliant and almost every song topps the next. To me the most outstanding tracks are the opener track (The Resistance) because the dynamic guitar work reminds me to Andy Snyder's (Craig's Brother, Too Bad Eugene, Trush) guitar skills. "Breathe" is another stunning track - indeed a slow ballard - with wonderful guitar work and soft drums. "Younglife" is another track that is melting my heart. The dominant basslines are lancing through the whole beautiful track. The refrain on this song is so bittersweet and yes, I also love the passage when Stephen is singing: "La-La-La". "Hight-Street" is the coolest track in my opinion because it is an uptempo song with killer guitars, clapping hands in the back and a perfect refrain. Stephen, who teamed up with Aaron Marsh from Copeland, to found accoustic solo project Anchor And Braille definitely belongs to the very best singers that I know about. I also would like to mention that designer-team "We Are Synapse" designed Anberlin's Myspace site.

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Rank: (4 out of 5)

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