Reviews

The new Rise Against release, The Sufferer and the Witness, is out in a week (July 4th).  I’ve been sitting on this cd for over a month and still am not sure how to write this review.  I keep warring with myself over what I expected and why I am so disappointed, trying to give the new cd some time to wriggle into my head.  I keep wondering if I am just getting jaded or whether they just lost it.  Rise Against hold that place in my heart.  I hate that I don’t like this cd.  I hate that their music has changed and hate myself for expecting them to stay the same.
 
But things are different now.  Unlike Revolutions Per Minute and the Unraveling, these lyrics lack believability.  Tim sets himself apart as a vocalist now only with his voice and not with his lyrics or his passion.  There is a certain restraint here, a hesitancy which is palpable.  The last release, Siren Song of the Counter Culture, saw the beginning of the slow ballad structure (MTV hit Swing Life Away), but also had some of the hardest songs they’d ever written (Give it All, State of the Union).  Tim’s scream hadn’t disappeared into the background yet, although it was noticeably absent from much of the cd.  This album lacks even those moments of recognition which shone out of the last album, those moments where you could tell that this still meant something more than a living to them.  I fear the success of Swing Life Away has created different priorities, different standards and motivations that move further away from the brilliance I found in the Unraveling growing up into this music.
 
The concrete version of my thoughts is this: the songs are still fast, but not as fast; the vocals are still gritty, but not as gritty or powerful as they once felt; the melodies are still catchy, but now are more basic and accessible.  The tempo is broken between slow songs which cannot find a way to build into something more and fast songs dominated by Tim’s restrained voice.  There are, however, some few moments of brightness.  Worth Dying For, Left Undone, and Chamber the Cartridge all have fast parts and something new to them, speeding along into building breakdowns. 
 
Unfortunately, even these are hurt because the single worst part of this album is the lyrical content.  It feels rushed and just doesn’t drive the songs anymore.  Sticking with their musical style from Siren Song, the absence of harsh vocals and believable lyrics leaves a mediocre blend of melodic hardcore which only manages to be listenable.  On the songs which follow from Swing Life Away, like the monotonous, mostly spoken Approaching Curve, the painfully weak ballad Roadside, and the desperately slow and overproduced last song, Survive, Tim’s voice and lyrics take center stage and the album absolutely dies.  The duet on Roadside is the low point lyrically and artistically.  It is so out of character and unbelievably camp that I can’t understand how it could have possibly made the cut.  That stands for the final repeated chorus in the last song too.  “All smiles and sunshine, a perfect world on a perfect day, everything always works out, I have never felt so fucking gray” followed by the chant along “Life isn’t like this…” repeated until the breakdown changes out of nowhere, without the drums or guitar strum building to repeat the original chorus for the fourth time.  It makes me sad to see what was vital and visceral has turned into something at best generic and at worst poor.
 
And because I have loved them for so long I still fight myself.  What happened to the passion?  Do I just not believe it anymore or is it really this bad?  There are points where I am sure it is one of both, but after a month waiting I still don’t listen to this cd.  I know it shouldn’t have to stand up to their past work, but grab the unraveling or revolutions per minute and compare them yourself and I think it will highlight the reasons why this new cd is not only a poor rise against effort, but a poor effort in general.