:: Anberlin - Dark Is The Way, Light Is A Place

Anberlin

2008 was a big year for alternative rock act Anberlin, with the Florida based outfit proving that their move up the label ladder to Universal Republic Records didn’t signal an end to their trademark sound, or a watering down of their ideals. Instead, ‘New Surrender’ eventually went on to maintain the band’s standing amongst their loyal fan base, and even garnished some well deserved mainstream success. Two years on, the five piece act have returned with their fifth full-length album ‘Dark Is The Way, Light Is A Place’. Anberlin open up the album in a dynamic and heavier sounding way, with ‘We Owe This To Ourselves’ standing out as one of the album’s more rocking and guitar orientated tracks. Christian’s own performance sounds particularly inspired, while the band themselves are in top form, with all involved sounding determined to put everything into the song, resulting in one punchy number. The compact and tight sound of the opener flows on to ‘Impossible’, which brings to mind the kind of stunningly simple and rockier sounding songs that Jimmy Eat World effortlessly produced around the time of ‘Bleed American’ (2001), while the semi-acoustic ‘Take Me (As You Found Me)’ sees the band and producer Brendan O’Brien experimenting more with the song’s huge backdrop of percussive instruments with resounding success. The darker and louder ‘Closer’ is a definite favourite with its edgier and heavier overtones (Especially in the backup vocals during the choruses), with the all out aggression of ‘To The Wolves’ following close behind, while the sombre feel within ‘The Art Of War’ and the band’s now trademark cinematic closer ‘Depraved’ give the album some balanced contrast in terms of sounds and moods. ‘Dark Is The Way, Light Is A Place’ also has its moments of experimentation, with the foot stomping/hand clapping percussion within ‘Pray Tell’ seeing the band trying something a little outside their comfort zone, while the orchestral strings added to the stripped back and acoustic based ‘Down’ highlights Christian’s emotive vocal presence, and the showcases band’s powerful song writing. Although there’s few genuine surprises to be found on ‘Dark Is The Way, Light Is A Place’ in terms of a radical change of direction and sound, Anberlin’s latest release is at the very least of the same high calibre as their last couple of albums. And that alone in itself is a remarkable achievement.