"Dark Age" by Acceptance, Saturday, November 26, 2021

Listening to the songs on Acceptance's 2020 album, Wild, Free, I really like them in playlists. Of course, "Cold Air" is the best track on the record. However, this album now ties with Acceptance's Phantoms for the most songs chosen for my blog, and Acceptance follows Anberlin (11 entries) and Copeland (7 entries) with six entries for "Song of the Day," tying with Sufjan Stevens. Getting to the end of the year, there are so many songs I still want to write about, but there are only thirty-four days left in the year. I haven't even had a chance to talk about Acceptance's 2017 Colliding by Design, which is a far superior album to Wild, Free.

YOU'RE MY ONLY FAILURE. "Dark Age" encapsulates the mood that Wild, Free gives. The album's cover art and darker-toned songs offer a much less hopeful tone than the band's previous effort, Colliding by Design, an upbeat, colorful album. Some fans rejected Colliding by Design for its late 2010s pop sound. The 12 years the band was away from the scene isn't remotely the subject of Colliding, and it would appear that everything was fine--the bandmates were just enjoying their lives. Three years later, the band released Wild, Free, which seems to be more about the "Dark Age" during the band's hiatus. In April when I wrote about "Wasted Nights," I referenced the episode of Billy Power's Urban Achiever Podcast in which he interviews Jason Vena of Acceptance. In that episode, Vena talks about how his ex-wife "didn't want to be married any more" and filed for divorce. The band struggled with their identity as a Christian or secular band. In 2013, then former guitarist Garret Lunceford accused the band of kicking him out when he came out as gay. Other band members claimed that Lunceford decided to leave the band. Vena claims that Lunceford was "having a hard time" keeping up with his duties as a drummer due to personal problems at the time. Meanwhile, Ryan Zwiefelhofer told the band that he is an atheist. Little by little, the boys of Acceptance grew up into their own beliefs and philosophies. 

WELCOME TO MY HONEST EYES. The boys of Acceptance, while apart, seemed to be experiencing something similar to what Aaron Gillespie said on the BadChristian Podcast. He said that when Underoath started out, "It was like we were all the same dude." I was struck by that comment because I think about how similar many of us try to be in middle and high school. Even if we're part of the weird group or the individualists, we try to find others who are just like us. We find people who like the same music, wear similar styles, like similar art, and have the same fundamental beliefs as us. I'd imagine that would be the case when forming a band with some of your best friends. If you're a Christian band, you'd all make a pact not to compromise the core beliefs of the band, but as you get out among people with different beliefs--or you're just simply handed a beer or a joint--that can start to erode the uniformity of the band. Christians would say that the band's message is now compromised. Acceptance, a wildly successful local band-turned mainstream-chasing act-turned defunct act, with a lead singer who would rather work a 9-5 than to use his skill at making near-perfect vocal takes, could have just been remembered as the band that reached for the stars through difficulty, only to fail miserably. However, in a act of reconciliation, the band got back together, Christian McAlhaney, no longer playing with Anberlin; Vena's vocals sounding perfect as ever; Zwiefelhofer still an atheist playing in a band that makes music marketed to Christian Rock radio; Kaylan Cloyd on lead guitar; and Garret Lunceford on the drums, maybe the only openly gay drummer to be played on Christian Rock radio. This story about Acceptance makes me think about how time can heal so many wounds. Time makes us open to saying sorry. "From a dark age, white light set free."
 

Read “Dark Age” by Acceptance on Genius.