“We Are Destroyer” by Anberlin, Wednesday, May 25, 2022

 

In the welter of the ever-changing music industry, Anberlin decided to call it quits in 2013, but not before a final record, Lowborn, and a farewell tour. The band started to feel that they were hitting the glass ceiling of what a rock band could achieve in the 2010s. On the Your Favorite Band podcast, lead singer Stephen Christian revealed that after Universal Republic Records failed to promote radio singles from Vital, the band was able to take their record to an indie label, Big3 Records, re-releasing Vital as Devotion, a massive three-disc deluxe edition of Vital. The band formed a radio team to promote the opening track, "Self-Starter," as a rock radio hit. But the song didn't catch on.

SHUT UP AND ACTUALLY TRY. Stephen Christian often attributes the success that the band had and that he has had in his solo career to a daily "hustle." I've written about the band that debuted and experienced success, but Anberlin worked steadily and experienced growth slowly. The problem was just as they experienced the height of their success, a number one single at the top of the Alternative Rock charts, the music industry stopped promoting rock music. The next album had a #3 single. But the band wouldn't recapture the radio play and recognition of when harder rock was king. With the rubric for success thrown out the window, personal issues wore on the professional lives of the bandmates, and Stephen informed the group that he wanted to call it quits. The final record, Lowborn, would be all about experimenting with recording techniques the band had never tried before, from the vibey sounds that drummer Nate Young and producer Aaron Marsh came up with to the most heartbreaking breakup song lyrics that Stephen Christian could write--the end of a relationship that took all of his creative energy for over a decade, but ultimately that relationship failed. It was time to walk away.

IN JUST A MATTER OF MINUTES…WE COULD LOSE IT ALL. "We Are Destroyer" opens Anberlin's 2014 record. The song was also released as a single in early 2015, just after Anberlin played their final show in December 2014. Most of Anberlin's records have a similar formula of a fast opening number with speed guitar work by Joseph Milligan, a slower, ambient middle, and an epic or anthemic ending. "We Are Destroyer" sets the album up this way. The gritty guitars sound similar to where guitarist Christian McAlhaney and bassist Deon Rexroat would take their solo project Loose Talk. Unlike other Anberlin records, the band chose not to play many of the album's tracks live on their farewell tour, instead focusing on fan favorites from previous records. The band didn't even play the album's lead radio single "Stranger Ways" live. The exception was "We Are Destroyer" which opened their tour many nights. The band released a video of live footage of the band playing the song to accompany the single. "We Are Destroyer" stays on the album's theme in explaining why the breakup was imminent. But taking a broader look at the song, we can hear two contrasting truths. The first is that entitlement is destroying the world. The second is that we are much more than our accomplishments which can be taken away from us "in a matter of moments." The Sisyphean struggle of "us against the tides / And will be until we die" feels exhausting at times. Despite the struggle and the burnout, Stephen Christian has a final burst of energy for what was supposed to be the final Anberlin record.      

Read the lyrics on Genius.

Music video:

Under a Dying Sun livestream version: