The band that was formerly 88 Fingers Louie, now simply Rise Against looks to do just that in the finest Punk Rock tradition while also rising above the oft oppressive nature of genre classification.

They're charged up and emotional alright, and have some amazing chops going for them amidst an uptempo even keeled manner of playing that from time to time let's go of the throttle and becomes a full bore wrecking machine-"Alive and Well," "My Life Inside Your Heart," and then… "Great Awakening," and "Six Ways 'Til Sunday," the latter two waving the flag in full glory, epitomizing the more natural surroundings of the Hard-Core extreme.

Having not the familiarity with 88 Fingers Louie, I might suggest it was probably a little looser than what we're getting here-I mean with a name like that, who doesn't immediately recall that Flintstones episode where Fred buys Wilma the piano for her birthday only to later discover it was hot?

Well anyway, before we move into thinking there's some self-indulgent wide ranging cause they're unloading, the lyrical shape of "The Unraveling" is not overly serious, does burn a few bridges but mostly delves into, out of and back again, good ol' heavy Rock with blazing melodies, rigid rhythm section and out front vocals that recall the likes of the dude from The Offspring… and slightly less so, Anti-Flag, however musically, right on that same level with either of those two and even Bad Religion.

So for all the indications pointing to Rise Against's surroundings bearing strong resemblance to the glut of So. Cal based Pop harmony-based Punk rockers, they are in fact leading the charge for the sometimes overlooked Chicago scene-have to admit I was a bit put off seeing their Chicagoan background-lately everything's Boston, New York or San Fran…

Rise Against comes off as an edgy, authoritative and conscientious band capable of doing more with a song than merely filling the cracks between barbs, the new record represents a step above most of what we're hearing today.

Released by Fat Wreck Chords

Review by Vinnie Apicella [va85@columbia.edu]
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