I looked this definition up before I wrote this: “Anti-blooming: A phenomenon that occurs when an image sensor is overexposed. Blooming can cause inaccurate data in neighboring pixels, which can reduce image quality.” Keep this definition in mind as we go through this album review.
It has been over 25 years of making music for Silverstein. They started off this year with a tour showcasing a song from every album. That wasn’t the end of the celebration, though. This band also decided to record two albums: Antibloom and Pink Moon. Totaling eight songs, Antibloom is the first to be released this year and no one is ready for the masterpiece I listened to.
The album starts off with the vibrating of a cell phone.
Silverstein doesn’t just ease you into this record. It comes in full force with complete chaos as Shane Told screams, begging for mercy from the torture he describes. He yells, “One down, a billion more to go” — implying that the torture is slow and never-ending. The chorus is sung cleanly, with Shane demanding to be buried in celebration of the slow death he endures. The breakdown at the end of the song is haunting, like he is in an old church; I can see Shane at the altar begging for mercy while slowly decomposing up there, as the wind picks up the dust on Shane’s corpse and carries it away. I would like to think that this song could be a sequel to “The Altar/Mary”.
The second song on the album is one of the singles that was released ahead of the album drop, “Don’t Let Me Get Too Low”. This is the sound of Silverstein that we all know and love, with Shane starting off clean as he describes hanging himself — the weight of the world has become too much for him to bear. Even through that, he isn’t sure how he has made it as far as he has. Everything starts to fade as he dies, but then he asks someone to not let him get too low, like this person is a lifeline or the voice of reason.
The third song off, “Confession”, is also one with the Silverstein sound we all know and love.
This one is about a person who should’ve been kicked out of your life forever ago… but wasn’t because both parties have been toxic. It’s evident in this relationship the only reason these two people are together is to try to ‘complete’ each other and put each other back together. Instead, they are “putting bullets into already broken hearts”.
“A Little Fight”, to me, is like an intermission for this album. Imagine a small slice of life film, where you are in the house with your spouse and a small argument is about to start. No big deal, right? Let’s just deal with it super quick. Just kidding, it’s too late. Now you’re casually dealing with losing control of everything and it’s all falling apart.
The first song, after the little intermission, is “Skin and Bones”. This song straight up addresses how the world sucks — it’s unfair and no one cares. We are just skin and bones — nothing less, nothing more — that will eventually decompose, so none of it matters. Throughout the song, this is the entire theme, that is, until we get to interlude. The guitar sounds like a shot through the galaxy, which feels inspiring as Shane says a reminder to the listener: even though things seem bad, there is a light at the end of the tunnel and all the pain shapes who we are as people. The pain isn’t meaningless after all. “Skin and Bones” is the first single that Siverstein released off of Antibloom; it was the perfect choice, too, as its subject matter perfectly fits the album as a whole.
“I Will Destroy This” is one of my favorites of the album…
Imagine this: you’re in a basement alone, contemplating everything going on in your head. Someone comes in asking if you’re okay and you’re not sure what to say, not wanting to admit what is going on. They keep asking and asking and you break down. It’s too late, the behavior is already starting to come out — all the red flags and darkness. The friend tries to stop it, but you beg them to stop trying, as you want to destroy your darkness yourself. After all, you did this to yourself, right? So it’s you who has to fix it.
The album continues with “Stress”, which, dare I say, is heavier than “The Altar/Mary”?? It is definitely the most aggressive and chaotic of the album. I like to consider “Stress” the consequences of “I Will Destroy This”: your friend is shocked as they try to help you as you spit out everything going on in your head, trying to defend your bad behavior. You try to reel it back in, but you blame yourself instead, thinking you are just faking being okay. Whichever way you choose, you won’t win and continue in a vicious cycle of misery. It gets worse and worse to the point you just want to stop everything, and shut your brain off from it all. Dark stuff.
“Cherry Coke” sticks with this theme, only taking a completely different tone.
I see it as this: you wake up in a dreamlike state, lying in the grass staring at the stars, calming down from the chaos. You ask yourself ‘what if’ questions, staying in this dreamlike state for a bit. So, when reality finally hits you, you’re not mad — you’re at peace with it.
The title Antibloom is the best way to describe the entire album. We live in a world where we, in a way, overexpose ourselves to information, whether it’s from the Internet or even through gossip, thinking it will make our quality of life better. Our brains end up putting pieces of information together, leading to wrong conclusions. We see things we aren’t supposed to see and react when we aren’t ready. We end up overthinking into a crippling oblivion. We end up being so angry and stubborn and waste so much energy on things that don’t matter that we end up dead inside, too tired to get back up if we fall down. The vicious cycles form and what else is there left to do? Silverstein did a phenomenal job conveying this conundrum, while sticking with their true sound. Not many artists can accomplish this, but they did.
Silverstein – “Confession”
Track listing:
- Mercy Mercy
- Don’t Let Me Get Too Low
- Confession
- A Little Fight
- Skin & Bones
- I Will Destroy This
- Stress
- Cherry Coke
Stream ‘Antibloom’ album:
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Disclaimer: All views presented in this album review are those of the reviewer and not necessarily those of Top Shelf Music.
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