Rise Against – The Sufferer and the Witness.
This is the first album in a LONG TIME that I can listen to straight through, and the cover art looks like something Stephen Gammell would do. Google him and look at his stuff. He illustrated a book called Scary Stories, which I own, and it is good.
Anyway, I think my favorite song is Roadside.
**Edit**
So Amazon.com classifies Rise Against as “alienation rock,” whatever that means. I think I’d go with hardcore punk, but I’m sure all you musical genre nazis out there have a seven word compound for whatever you think they sound like. (I don’t go in for that multi-prefixed genre labeling.) And I liked “The Sufferer and the Witness” so much that I went out and bought “Siren Song of the Counter Culture” after John F. told me about “Swing Life Away” (which I remember hearing on the radio now that I’ve heard it again. It’s okay, but I prefer the ballad [Roadside] on Sufferer rather than “Swing Life Away”). “Siren Song” is rougher, and Tim McIlrath’s (lead singer) voice is more gravelly. I’ve listened to the Sufferer several times through already, so maybe I’ll post another edit once I’ve done the same with Siren Song.
“The Sufferer and the Witness”
1 – SUCK!
2 – I guess I should at least finish it…
3 – I kinda liked this one.
4 – Love it!
5 – One of my favorites of all time.
5 out of 5. w00t!
“Siren Song of the Counter Culture”
1 – SUCK!
2 – I guess I should at least finish it…
3 – I kinda liked this one.
4 – Love it!
5 – One of my favorites of all time.
Forthcoming.
September 15th, 2006 at 4:09 pm
What kind of music is the album? I’ve only heard that one acoustic song I was telling you about, but I’ve heard that it wasn’t really representative of their normal sound.
September 15th, 2006 at 11:30 pm
Check my edit. =D I think you’d like it. And I’d TOTALLY send you some burned copies. After I find your address. Which means I’ve found Treehouse of Horror, which I miss dearly. Weep.
September 21st, 2006 at 9:13 pm
Another edit–
My favorite song on “The Sufferer and the Witness” (it’s REALLY hard to choose) is “The Good Left Undone.”
September 27th, 2006 at 1:10 pm
Yet again you turn me on to an amazing band! Awesome!
It’s weird, whenever I get more into metal (like recently) I end up missing out on so much good punk, and vice-versa.
Have you heard Strike Anywhere? You’d probably definitely like them, if you like this band. Their first two, “Change Is A Sound” and “Exit English”, are both incredible as far as melodic and political punk goes. They just released a new one, “Dead FM”, which I’ve skimmed but haven’t yet listened to in-depth. Some indie-rock snob at the Synthesis gave it a really scathing and condescending review in the last issue, which kind of pissed me off because good music is good music regardless of genre labels or any of that other crap.
Also, if you want to hear some mind-blowingly fast and catchy epic power-metal (think Iron Maiden on crystal meth performed by a quintet of mostly teenagers from Omaha Nebraska), check out the debut from this band Cellador called “Enter Deception”. Or, go here: http://www.myspace.com/cellador
My jaw is still on the floor from it.
Ok I’ll shut up now.
September 27th, 2006 at 11:18 pm
I was watching some DVDs the other night; NoFX, Bad Religion, and something put out by Hellcat Records, with Dropkick Murphys, Rancid and Iggy Pop… I thought of you. The people I was watching them with were like “Yeah, Bad Religion is a good band and all, but they’re still trying to hide the fact that they’re all old men.” I was like “Dude! They’re sticking around to teach all us posers what we missed in the eighties cuz we were still in diapers!”
But I’m the same way, and it sucks; I’ll start getting really into one genre and neglect the others. So I pulled out all the mixed stuff you ever gave me. Hehehe. I want to get into punk more but I want to try and stay as well-rounded as possible. I hope that works out.
And I’ll totally check out those bands, thankee! I really tend toward the more political stuff too, and sometimes metal just scares me. It all depends. Heh.
I also checked out that Republican flash thingie you sent me. Yikes. =P
Y’all be good!
September 27th, 2006 at 11:21 pm
P.S. — Sick Of It All was on that Hellcat Records DVD. I think you may have sent me some of their stuff, but this just reminded me that it was really good. I hate how I forget about stuff I like.
And OMFG, Cellador is TOTALLY Iron Maiden! I LOVE IT.
September 28th, 2006 at 4:33 am
Man, I can remember about half of what music (and etc.) I’ve sent you over the years, but as for the other half… all I can do is offer a hesitant disclaimer- “I apologize in retrospect for my past self, whose resemblance to my present self is, uh, purely coincidental…”
*doesn’t know how to be good*
I think I might start posting up the Synthesis reviews I do on my LJ, thanks to your inspiration here.
October 1st, 2006 at 12:07 am
I love the stuff you’ve sent me. =P
Please do post your reviews, that’d be awesome!
October 19th, 2006 at 10:29 am
I’m listening to Sufferer right now and so far I think “The Approaching Curve” is my favorite.
They remind me a lot of a band called The Sleeping.