Lowborn

Anberlin for the past five years has been one of my favorite bands. It is always upsetting to see a band you really enjoy finally end. I own every album and was hoping for another great one in Lowborn. Unfortunately Anberlin's last is one of their most disappointing albums. As a whole, the Lowborn is decent record (hence the 3 stars) but attempts to try new styles on their final effort feel messy. Personally the vocals seem quieter compared to the rest of the band in Lowborn than in previous albums. I have listened to it my car, computer, and headphones and still get the same general sound. To me, it makes the album seem unpolished or unfinished.The first half of the Lowborn starts off stronger with "We Are Destroyer." A harder rock song than most of Anberlin's past efforts. More attune to Vital & Dark is the Way, Light is a Place. As a fan of heavy metal, I enjoy the fast paced song with strong drums and guitars. With "Armageddon" & "Stranger Ways," the classic Anberlin returns with solid songs. The fourth song "Velvet Covered Black" feels like a hybrid of the styles of the first three songs. "Attonement" once again returns to the classic Anberlin with strong deep vocals, with solid sounds from the band and sound effects.The second half is where the Lowborn begins to fall apart. "Bird of Prey" falters from the beginning with to much on the synthesized effects and strange vocals. The song to me feels rough and unfinished. By far the worst song on the album is "Dissenter." This horrible effort at something trying to approach heavy metal is a total failure. The vocals are terrible and guitar work feels misplaced. The drums sound great and the only thing worth noting. "Losing It All" is a traditional Anberlin song and it is the strongest of the second half of the Lowborn with "Hearing Voices" following not far behind. Finally finishing with "Harbinger," the song starts with an out of place sound effect. The lyrics of this song seem to be just repeating themselves throughout and is a very weak finish for their final album.Lowborn is Anberlin going out with a whimper instead of a bang. An album more like Dark is the Way, Light is the Place would have been a more fitting end for the band. Lowborn is not an album that will draw in new Anberlin fans and want them to go and listen to their previous records. Is it a terrible record? No. Could have Lowborn been better? Yes, the potential is there but the execution was not. In the future, I hope to hear Anberlin back together making music, because again I am really disappointed in their final effort.

I love, love, love Anberlin. I own nearly every album, and I am a flexible fan (not the kind who always says "Their first album was the best" and hardly likes anything after that). I really like them as a BAND, and I like how they've grown and changed while still liking their older stuff, too. I personally think "Devotion" is probably their best and most versatile body of work to date (If you have Vital but not Devotion, still get Devotion; there's enough other material on it to make it worth your while), but I love the older stuff, too. I can go on and on about reasons I like these guys.All of that said, I am frustrated with this album. And, I don't think it was the songs. Most of them are great. I think it's the mastering. It is especially bad on "Armageddon". Whoever mixed this down mixed Steven Christian so far back in the mix as to make him often incomprehensible. I keep turning it up to hear what he's saying, but of course, that means the other things go up, too, and then the whole thing is excruciatingly loud, and I still can't hear him very well, which is sad, because he has one of the best voices ever known to rock/alternative music. I think they may have even cut the EQ on his voice at about 12khz (about where you can hear consonants clearly) which was also a huge mistake. The whole dynamic makes the vocals almost seem incidental to the album. There are moments where it almost feels like I'm listening an album that was made to be instrumental, or that the the person who mastered it didn't understand the band, or hadn't worked with them before, or thought the vocals should just be mixed like a third guitar. I don't know. I immediately went back and listened to other stuff by them (including other recent work) to compare them, and I was right, this one is different when it comes to how the vocals were mixed, and NOT in a good way. Maybe someone can enlighten me one why this is a good idea, (or anything other than a huge oversight), because I sure can't see it as anything other than that. I have listened to it all the way through probably 10 times now, and my opinion has not changed. I'm dying for remastered album.

I actually had to listen to this album a few times before I started to really like it. It could have also been my friend's car speakers weren't that great the first time I heard it.I didn't like the last two albums before this "Dark is the Way" and "Vital", as much as I liked this one, and this is the one I actually bought. "Hearing Voices" and "Losing it All" are constantly in my playlists. It's actually a rather uplifting album to listen to altogether, and it has this great ethereal, soft booming sound to it, you feel like there's thunder outside.