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Anberlin

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Florida band that came up in the early-2000s Christian-adjacent alt-rock wave, split mid-decade and returned — Stephen Christian's high, urgent vocals over widescreen guitars.

Anberlin grew out of SaGoh 24/7, a punk band Stephen Christian and Deon Rexroat formed in high school in Winter Haven, Florida. When that group wound down, Christian, Rexroat and guitarist Joseph Milligan began writing under a new name with a fuller rock sound, recorded demos with producer Matt Goldman, and signed to Tooth & Nail Records within a year.

The band's early albums, Blueprints for the Black Market in 2003 and Never Take Friendship Personal in 2005, built a following before Cities, released in 2007, became their commercial breakthrough and their most cited record. The following year Anberlin signed to Universal Republic and released New Surrender, whose single "Feel Good Drag" topped the Alternative Songs chart after 29 weeks.

Fronted by Stephen Christian, the band paired hook-driven alternative rock with layered guitar work, and their records were often read against the wider Christian-adjacent rock scene of the period even as they resisted being defined by it. By the time of 2010's Dark Is the Way, Light Is a Place, the band had sold over a million albums.

The group announced their end in 2014, following the release of Lowborn on their original label, Tooth & Nail, and played farewell shows before reconvening for tours in 2018 and 2019. They released the EP Silverline in 2022. In 2023, Stephen Christian stepped back from touring and was replaced by Matty Mullins.

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