Rise Against'Appeal To Reason' is Rise Against' fifth full-length and follow-up to 2006's 'The Sufferer And The Witness'. A quick look back at the band's progression over their previous four albums gave me a hesitant approach to buying this album the day it came out. They are, however, one of my favorite bands and made my way to the store to pick it up when it was released last month. I told myself that I would give the CD a long listen before jumping into a review.
I've been listening to Rise Against since I saw them at the Warped Tour years ago just before 'Revolutions Per Minute' was released. This was their second album and it took the aggressively melodic political punk of their first record, 'The Unraveling' and spliced in some more pop melodies and better songwriting. From those albums, Rise Against jumped to the majors and released 'Siren Song Of The Counter Culture' on Geffen Records in 2004. In my personal opinion, this was their masterpiece! There weren't any duds on this album. They incorporated a ton of melodies and catchy-as-hell choruses, with first-class production, while keeping plenty of urgent aggression throughout the record. That aspect of perfected balance between melody and aggression is what makes or breaks this band.
On 'TSATW', half the album achieved this and showcased some of their best songs to date, however, on the other half of the record they suffer from a lack of aggression or downright emotion, while other tracks try to bull ahead without attention to the catchy melodies that make Rise Against who they are. So I move into the new album with some hesitance and find that I am pleasantly surprised with the record as a whole and in particular some of the individual efforts on certain tracks.
The simple fact that they included another acoustic track without resorting to a repetition of their past success with "Swing Life Away" was a high point on this record. Whereas "SLA" was more of a relationship/love song…"Hero Of War" is an unabashed political song that shows the hardships that our soldiers have to go through in the face of a thankless job. The beauty of the song, in my opinion, is that it's not excusing our soldiers for their mistakes yet it makes it clear that said mistakes are only human in the face of an unjust war that places our military in unnecessary and unfair situations that leave them as thankless heroes when they return from service. This album is not as good as 'Siren Song' yet better than 'The Sufferer'. 'Appeal To Reason' only has a couple weak and forgettable tracks in comparison to 'The Sufferer' which half was unmemorable. After a brief step backwards…this CD is a step in the right direction from a band that set the standards extremely high after 'Siren Song'. Hopefully, their next album will be released by a large indie now that I believe their commitment to Geffen is complete. Though they released their 'masterpiece' on a major…I feel they will benefit from leaving the cutthroat mentality of the flailing music industry.
Rating: 4.5/5
Songs Worthy of Replay: "Hero Of War", "Savior" & "Re-Education (Through Labor)"
Synopsis: One of, if not, the best punk bands out there right now getting back on the right track. Perhaps as a music reviewer and big fan, I have set the bar too high for this band, but I know they can easily make another masterpiece in the near future. 'Appeal To Reason' was close but I still want better. What it comes down to is that this album is still good enough to top plenty of year-end lists and may even be my album of the year, but I still want more from these guys. Do I sound demanding? Yes, but any true fan should hold their favorite bands up to the high standards they created for themselves.