While many bands would take their 20-year anniversary as an opportunity to rest on the laurels of nostalgia, Silverstein saw the landmark as a time to appreciate how far they’ve come, while also channeling all those years of experience into something new. Their latest album, 2020’s A Beautiful Place To Drown found the band deftly balancing their core sound—an intensely dynamic mix of melody and aggression, rooted in the energy of hardcore punk and the unabashed earnestness of emo—with their natural growth as songwriters and evolving inspirations.
Forged in their longevity, the confidence Silverstein has in one another enables the band to find this sort of careful songwriting alchemy. “Everyone has carved out their role,” Koehler says. “And we trust each other in those roles.” Rousseau, the “newest” member of Silverstein (after joining in 2012 following four years of touring as the band’s guitar tech), found his songwriting duties expanding along with his enthusiasm for pushing the band into new territory. “The only clear objective I have when I start writing is to not repeat myself,” he says. “This far into our career, I was feeling a lot of freedom because we already have this large back catalog. It felt like a hall pass to see what Silverstein could potentially sound like.”
A Beautiful Place To Drown fulfills that potential, seamlessly merging the band’s evergreen strengths with a daring approach to composition and production. Recorded with producer/engineer Sam Guaiana, the album’s 12 tracks blend vibrant contemporary sonics with walls of distorted guitars and pummelling drums to create a sound that’s stunningly cohesive, and undeniably Silverstein. The latter songs feature two of the album’s numerous guest spots, which seem particularly representative of the band’s past, present, and future. Old friends (Underoath’s Aaron Gillespie, Beartooth’s Caleb Shomo, and Simple Plan’s Pierre Bouvier) and new ones (Interval’s Aaron Marshall, Princess Nokia) make appearances that feel like a celebration of the band’s wide-reaching impact as well as their ability to win over listeners in all worlds of music.
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