2025 is the year of Silverstein, apparently. Self-proclaimed, of course, but also not the comical overreach it could’ve been. They’ve had a stronger, more prolific run that many of their 2000s emo peers, recently doing an especially good job at legitimising themselves within the modern scene. Add on minimal lineup changes and a rare lack of significant breaks or hiatuses since forming in 2000, and you can’t blame Silverstein for wanting to celebrate their big two-five with a bang. Already ongoing is their own little Eras Tour to toast their existing 11 albums, with a further two to be released just this year. Antibloom puts forward their darker, angrier tendencies; its companion Pink Moon will be presumably—if naming conventions and the barest pattern recognition instincts are anything to go by—the more uplifting half of the whole project.
It’s a wildly ambitious roadmap, and Silverstein’s higher bar doesn’t instantly nullify any skepticism. They’re still the only band among their class who’d ever even dream up something like this. Hell, Shane Told still has the exact singing voice that’d be put on to make fun of this generation of emo frontmen. But at the same time, they never seem like old-timers, or on a perpetual nostalgia peddle. Even on a campaign purpose-built for clinging to the past, they’re still putting out two full albums, as if to obliterate any chance of being pigeonholed as Warped Tour antiques scraping some relevance together.
So while Antibloom isn’t an ‘important’ album, per se, it easily keeps pace with how Silverstein have been plugging forward. It’s honestly impressive how they’ve remained on practically the same wavelength all this time and have not only not worn themselves thin, but haven’t gotten stale or dated either. This is a band who, in 2025, after a quarter of a century of existence, has implanted the line “putting bullets in already broken hearts” on the chorus of a song, and have made it actually listenable without cringing into yourself multiple times over. The exact explanation is hard to pinpoint—saying that Silverstein’s version of things is more ‘adult’ is close but still nebulous—but it’s been there for a while. It also makes it noticeable when it doesn’t work, namely on A Little Fight, where Told’s voice tests the limit of tolerability for all it’s worth, and at times ends up a Korg line and some childlike naïveté from being an Owl City cut.
If you’re looking for a low on Antibloom, that’s it, but also the only one. You’d hope so, given its brief length—eight tracks, none of which have anything even approaching a strenuous runtime. That’s a result of a single session bisected into the two albums, and at least for Antibloom, keeping it lean and concise pays off. Weight on this darker half is well concentrated, and Silverstein’s common shocks of hardcore on Mercy Mercy and Skin And Bones land with greater agility. With the overall sound and style of production—sleek and smooth while avoiding unhealthy pop compromise—the lack of new tricks is evident, though Silverstein have a knack of not being held down by that. It’s especially true on Antibloom; you’d be hard-pressed to catch much of a creak or anachronistic rehash. With Stress, there’s even some sauntering into uncharted nu-metal territory, and the attempt made isn’t bad at all.
At the same time, Antibloom is never abuzz with ‘wow’ moments. The closest it gets is Don’t Let Me Get Too Low, where the pile-on of hooks is Silverstein ear-candy at its finest, but in a not-entirely-unusual way. It’s the hallmark of the mid-level band that Silverstein have always excelled at being, and that they still do. At this point, they can sustain themselves on being incredibly solid all-rounders for the space they’re in, which is what Antibloom feels as though it’s trying to embody. It’s the classic emo spirit made to feel contemporary and revamped with little loss. On the surface, you might feel apprehension towards the older guard writing about the mire of doomscrolling on Mercy Mercy, or an ever-fruitful examination of anxiety on Don’t Let Me Get Too Low, but you can’t deny they feel genuine. Silverstein are exceptionally good at making well-trod ground seem fresh, even if they themselves were the ones to do the treading.
But perhaps the most likable thing about Antibloom is that it doesn’t feel incomplete without its to-be-released partner. The pared-down length is far from the hurdle it could be when Silverstein clearly make the most of their time, and really zero in on what makes this side of themselves work. For a band who’ve been around this long, and who initially got their flowers among the 2000s post-hardcore bubble that was already running up the clock, that’s borderline miraculous. Like, Silverstein shouldn’t even be around, let alone be making good, impactful music over an increasing number of subsequent albums. Looks like all the celebration and fanfare is well-deserved, especially if they stick the landing with Pink Moon in the coming months. At this stage, there’s no doubt they will.
For fans of: Senses Fail, The Used, Hawthorne Heights
‘Antibloom’ by Silverstein is released on 21st February on UNFD.
Words by Luke Nuttall
