The InBetween
by
Scarlet White Black or white. Hot and cold. Good and evil. Dead or Alive. Extremes on continuums. And in-between? An infinite series of points on the scale. Something that seems to define Scarlet White....
If the internet era has bequeathed artists anything, it is the ability to find and grow an audience, and from there attract notice from the music industry. The independent musical landscape is...
C.S. Lewis is one of modern Christianity's greatest philosophers, wit and apologists. His writings offer insight and honesty that can be both bluntly brutal, yet in the same instance offer hope and consolation. Twilight, the debut from Future of Forestry, is infused with much of the same two-edged observations about life- sort of a modern, musical companion piece to Mr. Lewis' wisdom; synthesizing the reality of the mundane and hurt with hope and the wonder of grace.
The songs of Twilight wrestle with the truth that "God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing." They are also like fleeting glimpses from frontman Eric Owyoung's personal journal: these songs are personal, vulnerable disclosures about everyday struggles, questions and hurts, but also offerings of tangible hope- like the sun's rays silhouetted against the breaking storm clouds promising a brighter reality above and beyond the temporary, horizon-obscuring storms of life. Owyoung's lyrics are both down-to-earth and strikingly poetic. Grace and hope suffuse Twilight's lucid contemplations of the everyday intersected by The Infinite, or as "All I Want" puts it, "where glory meets the crude and weak."
Future of Forestry's sound shares many similarities with its previous incarnation, Something Like Silas. That's not to say that they are the same band operating under a new moniker. Instead, the band has moved away from the contemporary sonic trappings of modern worship and grown into a more approachable sound. Much like twilight is the in-between time of day and night, Future's sound is best described as reverential alternative/ modern rock.
Just as C.S. Lewis reminds us, "(t)hough our feelings come and go, God's love for us does not," the songs of the aptly titled Twilight hold out the same promise. Caught somewhere between the past, behind, and ahead, the future, Future of Forestry's Twilight is a very "here and now" release. May the future hold more from this talented band.
Cities. Calcutta. Johannesburg. New York. Chicago. Seattle. Barcelona. Paris. Dublin. All major cities. All distinctly unique. All sharing traits that make them similar. Anberlin's latest, Cities, can be described by both of the previous statements.
Cities' soundscape shares enough in common with Blueprints for the Black Market and Never Take Friendship Personal (Anberlin's previous two releases) that fans and listeners will detect the comfort in the familiar. Stephen Christian's vocals continue to charge between passionate, emotion-drenched intonation and ragged, sonorous cries. Nathan Young's crisp and pulsating drum-work welded to Deon Rexroat's deliberate and solid bass lines provide the underpinnings that drive Cities from (Début) to (*Fin). Joseph Milligan's massive and distortion drenched guitars are incredible, without being overpowering.
Cities has a distinctively different rhythm from their prior, unrelentingly paced projects that justifiably earned Anberlin their emo/screamo tag. Make no mistake though, there is no lack of intensity on this CD. Tracks two though four and six through nine chew up ground at an unrelenting pace. It's when Stephen and Co. become more reflective that the band's maturity becomes evident. "The Unwinding Cable Car," "Inevitable" and "(*Fin)" demonstrate the band's willingness to experiment with their songwriting and delivery, as well as illustrate their musical growth and spiritual boldness.
With Cities, Anberlin continues to cement their reputation as a (musical) force to be reckoned with. They continue to successfully build on what's come before and are becoming a recognizable, permanent fixture on the modern-rock skyline. This album has the potential to be one of the best modern rock releases of 2007... at least from this fan's perspective.
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