One would think that with George W. Bush leaving office in a matter of months and a minor political revolution going on in the United States, politically active punk rock outfit Rise Against would have a short list of things to scream about.
Not so, evidently, as they released Appeal to Reason, their fifth full-length album, last week. And they clearly have some things they need to get off their collective chest.
The album follows the band’s melodic-hardcore sound. Lead vocalist Tim McIlrath doesn’t overuse the scream, as some hardcore singers do, and that makes Appeal to Reason palatable to those of us who don’t frequent the mosh pit, but the music is tough enough to cater to those who do.
Their themes also have double-sided appeal, with some songs concentrating on socio-political issues and commentary and others concentrating on people and relationships, a sort of micro and macro approach to human turmoil.
The album hits its high point near the end, with two songs back-to-back that are among the best Rise Against has ever written.
The first is “Entertainment,” which as the name suggests, is about the culture of entertainment in the Western world, and how in the band’s eyes people use entertainment to escape from the real world.
McIlrath sings, “Is this only entertainment? / Pull the curtains, places please / We’ve learned to sing and dance and cry on cue / But this is more than entertainment / In a world so sick with pain / This is the only thing that’s real or true.”
The second is “Hero of War,” which shows off Rise Against’s ability to write an acoustic song that doesn’t suck. It tells the story of a soldier from recruitment into training, from bloody battle to returning home, and it does it in a compassionate way to the soldier who gets immersed in the horrors of war and has to deal with the aftermath of battle.
On the whole, Appeal to Reason isn’t as good as earlier Rise Against albums, but it’s a good album in its own right. One has to wonder, though, what they’ll write about once we actually have an administration not full of crooks.
Not so, evidently, as they released Appeal to Reason, their fifth full-length album, last week. And they clearly have some things they need to get off their collective chest.
The album follows the band’s melodic-hardcore sound. Lead vocalist Tim McIlrath doesn’t overuse the scream, as some hardcore singers do, and that makes Appeal to Reason palatable to those of us who don’t frequent the mosh pit, but the music is tough enough to cater to those who do.
Their themes also have double-sided appeal, with some songs concentrating on socio-political issues and commentary and others concentrating on people and relationships, a sort of micro and macro approach to human turmoil.
The album hits its high point near the end, with two songs back-to-back that are among the best Rise Against has ever written.
The first is “Entertainment,” which as the name suggests, is about the culture of entertainment in the Western world, and how in the band’s eyes people use entertainment to escape from the real world.
McIlrath sings, “Is this only entertainment? / Pull the curtains, places please / We’ve learned to sing and dance and cry on cue / But this is more than entertainment / In a world so sick with pain / This is the only thing that’s real or true.”
The second is “Hero of War,” which shows off Rise Against’s ability to write an acoustic song that doesn’t suck. It tells the story of a soldier from recruitment into training, from bloody battle to returning home, and it does it in a compassionate way to the soldier who gets immersed in the horrors of war and has to deal with the aftermath of battle.
On the whole, Appeal to Reason isn’t as good as earlier Rise Against albums, but it’s a good album in its own right. One has to wonder, though, what they’ll write about once we actually have an administration not full of crooks.
