Over the course of their history as a band, ANBERLIN has always just been there. They quietly released a solid debut in the form of Blueprints For The Black Market, followed it up with another generally good album with Never Take Friendship Personal, and are now banking their continued existence on Cities, their latest twelve-track album for Tooth And Nail.

While ANBERLIN has progressed a bit from album to album, the basic formula they founded the band on is still intact and relevant. By combining soaring vocals with hooks galore, this quintet has always succeeded in making big-sounding rock songs. The crisp production that Tooth And Nail releases always seem to have doesn't hurt either. This formula is heard all over Cities and especially in standout tracks like "Adelaide," "Godspeed," and "Alexithymia." However, as they did with Friendship, ANBERLIN likes to incorporate a few ballad-esque tracks to keep the album diverse. This is best heard in "The Unwinding Cable Car," "Inevitable," and to an extent the massive closer "(*Fin)." And then at times, the band does their best to mesh the two sounds, as heard in "Dismantle. Repair." As one of the last tunes on Cities, this song acts as a huge boost because of its incredible chorus and lead guitar riff.

ANBERLIN isn't a bad band to root for. They write good songs, put together decent albums, and spend a significant amount of time touring. With that said, they are three albums into their career and have yet to write a completely great and lasting album. Granted, if you took the best songs from each of their discs and compiled them into one, the end product would be concrete. With the release of Cities, ANBERLIN isn't there yet, and this far into the game, who knows if they ever will be.