ARTIST: Rise Against
ALBUM TITLE: Endgame
RECORD LABEL: DGC/Interscope Records
RELEASED: March 22, 2011

By Chris Kromphardt
Staff Writer, Justice Administrator

Rise Against has long been a committed member of a group of contrarian rockers, which includes Rage Against the Machine and Against Me, who were so adamantly against something—the Man, likely—that they needed to adopt band names that really drove that point home.

Over several albums, they have rarely varied from their instantly recognizable song template—soaring vocals, passionate yet frequently platitudinous lyrics, and solid rock instruments. Theirs is an easily accessible type of hardcore, mixing screaming and loud instrumentation with familiar song structures; this approach to making music is further demonstrated by songs like the excellent, yet kinda emo “Swing Life Away.” For a band so antsy to be contrarian, Rise Against is remarkably—and Orwellian-ly—adept at branding themselves as the casual rock fan’s hardcore band.

None of this is negative criticism; I love Rise Against. Their music contains just enough piss-n-vinegar raging against the machine to scratch the radical itch developed during my teenage years that I never quite left behind. For me—someone who grew up in a small town just outside the Chicago suburbs—listening to Rise Against provides the same kind of vicarious thrill I get from rap like Eminem or Kanye West: an intense yet still safe pseudo-identification with a counter-culture of which I could never be a part.

Endgame is more of the same Rise Against I’ve always loved, and that’s a great thing; why mess with a winning formula? 2008’s Appeal to Reason was probably Rise Against’s greatest divergence from style, but even that was only evident in a few songs, particularly “Hero of War.” Endgame, then, is a return to the all-systems-go approach perfected in 2006’s The Sufferer and the Witness, a subgenre felicitously dubbed “melodic hardcore”: lack of dissonance characterizes these twelve songs to a “T”. There aren’t really any standout tracks either way — I’ve listened to Endgame beginning to end at least four times, only repeating a few songs, because each one’s solid. That in itself is an accomplishment — a well-paced album that rocks from start to finish.

If you listen to rock music, you probably already know whether or not you like Rise Against. With this review, I probably won’t persuade anyone to abandon those notions. But maybe, if you’re musically omnivorous, you’ll give Endgame a shot and perhaps appreciate the unique balance a band like Rise Against strikes between rock purists and an accessible sound.

RATING: 7/10

Front page photo from alterthepress.com, interior photo from interscope.com.