‘Dark Is The Way, Light is the Place’ is the fifth studio album from Florida based, alternative rock band, Anberlin. This album recently made it to Number 9 in the US charts so they must be good.. surely?
At first I was not sure, and branded them as just ‘same old same old’. They didn’t seem to really have much individuality and I thought they sounded like just any other American band. I should not have been so presumptuous.
I soon found myself swaying along to tracks and, after a few listens,felt enticed in and overcome by the sound they have produced. As I let myself indulge, now that they had my attention, I could honestly picture myself watching their live performance. If the band has the power to make somebody’s imagination run wild, surely they are talented musicians.
Starting with an upbeat track like ‘We Owe This to Ourselves’ was a really good move. The up-tempo tracks do not stop there and continue through-out the album with my favourites being ‘To the Wolves’ and ‘Impossible‘.
The best song on the album for me is ‘The Art of War’, a beautiful, sensual track that has hypnotising guitar riffs mixed with beautiful and sensual lyrics. I found myself singing along in no time. With the addition of an epic guitar solo and some tambourine, this really made the track individual. I single this track out so much as I truly believe it to be crisp, clean and pure easy listening material. They, in a way, remind me of The Script, as this is how I felt after listening to their new album.
So if you can shift 700,000 albums you must be pretty good right? and with Grammy award-winning producer Brendan O’Brien (ACDC, Pearl Jam, Bruce Springsteen) producing your album, it is no wonder really.
I do not really understand why this band have not really made it big in the UK. If they produce such good music like this then surely they deserve more credit than the British public is giving them? So do yourself a favour and go get into some Anberlin!
Reviewer: Steph Knight
