Review Summary: New Surrender is disappointing, but there are enough moments of greatness here to make it recommendable to every ANBERLIN fan
Prior to this release, ANBERLIN put out two excellent albums which received both commercial and critical success. Never Take Friend Personal had a great mix of energetic pop-rock and hard-rock songs that were extremely catchy and had stronger songwriting than any other band in the genre. Cities brought the same sound back but with added electronic sounds and a darker vibe throughout. It also featured what the majority think is their best song ''Fin''. After these two wonderful albums, everyone had extremely high expectations for the album. Sadly, most people seemed to be let down by New Surrender, and I needed to find out why...
Sadly, the general opinion was right, New Surrender is a lackluster album when compared to his two direct predecessors. However, ANBERLIN is still ANBERLIN, and their fans will still enjoy plenty of material here.
The album starts off remarkably well with the hard-hitting ''The Resistance''. Up there with their heaviest songs (Paperthin Hymn, The Feel Good Drag, Hello Alone and Reclusion), it starts the album marvelously with its great guitar work and lyrics. The only problem with the song is that it's quite misleading to what the rest of the album will sound like. The next song, ''Breaking'', is ANBERLIN as its simplest format and it just works. It's a song that could have been on NTFP without sounding out of place. The song is incredibly addicting, and while the string section felt a bit disjointed from the rest, it's still beautiful on its own.
Sadly, the album goes downhill from here. ''Blame Me! Blame Me!'' and ''Retrace'' are okay punk rock songs on their own, but Anberlin are too talented songwriters to content themselves with being ''okay''. After these songs comes ''The Feel Good Drag'', the album's slap in the face. I don't want to go too much into ''rant'' mode, but it's the laziest thing I have heard them do. Basically nothing changed from the original, aside from the different drum beat and the non-aggressive vocals on the bridge which only take away some heaviness from the original song. They really didn't do anything meaningful enough to make the listeners view the song on another perspective. The song is still one of their best, but its inclusion in the album is clearly because they needed another heavier song and didn't have the time/inspiration to write a new one.
Because yes, the album is really soft overall. After the fast and angry ''Disappear'' (which is only track 6), the album goes into soft punk-rock and ballad territory from the wonderful (albeit slightly cheesy) ballad ''Breathe'' to the second-to-last song ''Soft Skeletons''. Nothing after ''Breathe'' really catches me or interests me in any kind of way, it just feels like Anberlin going through the motions without trying to experiment or grab us with sincere emotions. For example, ''Soft Skeletons'' starts well enough but ends up being another soft song with a particularly boring chorus.
BUT! After the extremely disappointing second half comes ''Miserabile Visu (Ex Malo Bonum)''. If the whole album would have had the atmosphere, the progression, and the purely incredible songwriting this song has, New Surrender could have been the impossibly hyped album everyone expected it to be. It starts with the simplest drum beat you can imagine, followed by simple atmospheric guitar chords. Stephen Christian then shows why he is one of today's finest vocalist with a calm delivery to complement a haunting vocal line. After that comes the chorus, where the drums just stop and let the melody bring chills down your spine. The next verse repeats the first one before exploding in the second chorus with heavy guitars and hard-hitting yet still very simple drums. The bridge section that follows is simply amazing and climaxes in a wonderful shred solo. The song may seem similar to ''Fin'' because its structure actually is, but the melodies and moods are completely different. ''Miserabile Visu'' ends the album in the same epic manner than ''Dance Dance, Christa Paffgen'' and ''Fin'' did with their respective albums and is just as amazing.
In summary, New Surrender is disappointing, but there are enough moments of greatness here to make it recommendable to every ANBERLIN fan. It's also fairly good as a first entry into the band's discography because it represents them well without giving away their best material right off the bat.
Highlights:
-The Resistance
-Breaking
-Miserabile Visu (Ex Malo Bonum)
