As the band’s first single written and produced under Geffen, it follows the pattern of many of today’s songs singled out as representations of the entire album, and is little more than a tainted and conformed version of what the music was meant to be about. The album’s first single, “Ready to Fall,” is almost depressingly decent. The Sufferer & The Witness follows the same line. It is a compilation of songs of society and relationships, ranging from nearly pure punk to almost emo, and everything in between. Their most recently written album, Siren Song of the Counter Culture (Geffen, 2004), was responsible for three Billboard standing songs. This, along with the novelty they present in sound and ideas, has earned the band a place at Geffen Records, on the Billboard charts, in the movie Lords of Dogtown, and in the CD collections of a generously growing fan base. Now, seven years after its creation, Rise Against have released their fourth album, The Sufferer & The Witness. In the time they’ve been together, the band have matured nicely in terms of genuine musical ability and creativity. Don’t be fooled, however, although emo-ism is kept at a safe level throughout many of the songs, Rise Against have given us a fair number of relationship-centered/fairly tragic songs. Growing up in the late 90’s wasn’t easy for a little band in a big marketplace luckily for Rise Against, they saw through the current fad of musical negativism and sought to bring a more positive feeling to their music, letting the world know that rebellion and depth don’t have to go hand in hand with despair, and defeating emo’s fault of simple, self-centered blind sadness. From their mother, they learned ways to cut out the melodic monotony so common in hardcore bands, and poetic, significant lyricism. From their dad they received a need to rebel, a social awareness, and a hardcore cutthroat basis for their sound. This halfling is an example of musical evolution at its best, the infusion of some of the best aspects of two contrasting genres. This is where the little half-breed band Rise Against was born. Imagine if you will, a happy little Chicago family punk father, hardcore mother, and big brothers like Pennywise, Braid, and Bad Religion.
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