About a year ago, I stumbled across a song called “Open Fire” by Anchorlines on YouTube. It was just the intro track for their debut EP, Choices, but I really liked what I was hearing so I looked for their EP. I listened to the EP a few times, but it was nothing that I hadn’t heard before. With that being said, I knew that I had come across something worth keeping an eye on. The new EP, Twenty Twelve, is set to release on November 13th. Just a few seconds into the EP, I noticed a slight change in the band’s style. “Spineless” opens with an ambient and passionate intro followed by a spectacular guitar lead which sets the tone early. The chorus in “Spineless” is catchy, the verses are heavy, and there is almost always some kind of melody going on whether it be at the forefront or in the background during the chorus. Also, there is a huge breakdown at the end of “Spineless” that is bound to wreak havoc at a show, and for the EP’s sake, it sets up the next song perfectly. “Reset” is even more impressive than “Spineless” with an even catchier chorus, stronger riffs and leads, better drumming, and immaculate vocals that also tell a story. The only thing that I wasn’t too fond of on the EP is the clean vocals near the end of this track. They sound a little bit forced and weak compared to the other cleans heard on this release. Despite that little hiccup, “Reset” is a very strong track and it gets better from there. The final track is “Funeral”, another mammoth of a song. “Funeral” combines everything that the previous two songs had offered; melody, passion, heavy verses and breakdowns, and a catchy chorus. After a build up near the middle of the track, ” Funeral” reaches its high point. The vocalist passionately delivers the lyric “I will never be sorry for this/The heart wants what it can never have/I wish I never fucking existed/I wish I never knew you” while an excellent guitar lead is heard in the background. The EP comes to a close with a piano outro.
Their are two notable changes between Anchorlines’ last release and Twenty Twelve. Choices was basically a metalcore release while Twenty Twelve is much more melodic and seems to be highly influenced by bands like The Ghost Inside and Gideon. It’s not a direct rip-off of either of those bands, though. There are times when you can hear the influence but not once do you say to yourself “I’ve heard this from someone else”. The other notable change is the production. The quality of both music and production is much better than it was last time around, I just wish there was a bit more quantity-wise. Twenty Twelve is a nice taste of what Anchorlines has been working on in the past year or so, but it’s only 11 minutes long. I’m hoping for a full length at some point in the near future because I can imagine that it will also be something that I listen to daily.
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