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Review Summary: Rise Against's best album and a paragon of mid 2000's punk, that remains enjoyable, infectious and interesting over a decade later. Punk is an incredibly divisive genre to most people. It's tendency towards short, politically charged aggressive songs is pure genius to some, and pure annoyance to just as many others. Due to this divisiveness it hasn't always been the easiest thing to get a pure punk band into the spotlight. However every now and then a band comes along and due to a combination of their pure charisma, talent and luck, they are catapulted right to the top. Such is the case with Rise Against a Chicago based hardcore punk band that since it's 2001 release "The Unraveling" has been pleasing listeners with their combination of both hardcore and mainstream punk, that in 2004 reached it's peak form in their album "Siren Song of the Counter Culture".
Right out of the gate "Siren Song of the Counter Culture" explodes with it's opening track 'State of the Union', an incredibly high octane, hardcore punk song, that sets the tone of the album very well. Lead singer Tim McIllrath's shout, is as melodic as it is aggressive, and when it's combined with his cutting, politically charged lyrics, it creates a song that absolutely demands that you sit down and listen to what it has to say. Songs like 'The First Drop', 'Tip the Scales', 'To Them These Streets Belong' and 'Life Less Frightening' all follow this formula, albeit to a less aggressive degree and all mange to be thoroughly memorable and enjoyable. Other songs like 'Paper Wings', 'Give It All', 'Blood to Bleed' and 'Rumors Of My Demise Have Been Greatly Exaggerated' have a much heavier mainstream punk influence, and when combined with some of the most interesting lyrics and melodies on the album, they all manage to be major highlights. Special props to 'Paper Wings' for it's short but incredibly enjoyable guitar solo and 'Rumors Of My Demise Have Been Greatly Exaggerated' for some incredibly interesting and thought provoking lyrics.
While "Siren Song of the Counter Culture" has many great and enjoyable songs, there is one that I feel I need to give special attention to. That song is 'Swing Life Away', an acoustic track that Rise Against have not bested to this day. It can be an incredible risk for a hardcore punk band to release a soft acoustic song but here it pays off in spades. Not only does it allow the listener some time to breathe on the album, but when combined with a wonderful acoustic melody, fantastic lyrics about being content with life, and McIllrath's fantastic clean vocals, it all comes together to make a song that is, in my humble opinion, completely perfect. I mean that in the most sincere way I can.
I do wholeheartedly believe that "Siren Song of the Counter Culture" is an amazing album, it isn't with out it's small and potential flaws. The album can tend to be a little homogeneous and some songs can blend together in places, which will turn a few people off. As is the case with all albums with any political themes, if your views don't line up, it may impact your enjoyment. Finally if you don't like rough vocals, this probably won't be your thing. Outside of 'Swing Life Away', McIllrath rarely calms things down and has a very rough and shout-y voice on this album.
With all of that being said though, I don't think those small and potential flaws impact the enjoyment of "Siren Song of the Counter Culture" one tiny bit. It's an incredible combination of hardcore and mainstream punk, that constantly impresses, with just enough variety to keep things interesting the whole way through. It is in my opinion Rise Against's best album to date, and it hasn't lost a bit of steam in the thirteen years since it's release. If you haven't had a chance to check this out yet, I highly recommend giving it a spin.
Most Recommended tracks:
Swing Life Away***
Rumors Of My Demise Have Been Greatly Exaggerated
State of the Union
Paper Wings
Tip The Scales
Give it All
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Album Rating: 5.0
That was a well-written review. You remained objective on a lot of the points. I'm surprised you didn't list "Dancing for Rain" on the recommendations. It's arguably one of the best songs on the album.
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Good first review, pos
| | | Album Rating: 5.0
Rise Against's best album
[citation needed]
| | | Album Rating: 3.5
Good first review man love this album
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g00d @lbum
| | | Album Rating: 4.5
I DON'T ASK FOR MUCH
TRUTH BE TOLD I'D SETTLE FOR
A LIFE LESS FRIGHTENING
| | | Album Rating: 5.0
Thank you DropTune! Yeah I really wanted to, but honestly it was incredibly hard not to just list the album track for track here. It's a really good song, it's just that the five I listed are my personal album highlights.
| | | Album Rating: 4.5
something of a modern classic this, my fave Rise Against
| | | Album Rating: 4.5
Top 3 Rise album for sure. Nice review man.
| | | Album Rating: 3.5
#2 for me, personally enjoy RPM more.
Good review!
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Agreed with everything here, this has always been my favorite Rise Against album
| | | Album Rating: 5.0
"Revolutions Per Minute" was a good album. Both "RPM" and "Siren Song of the Counter-Culture" represent the starting era of Rise Against. It's hard to pick a favorite when considering "RPM," "Siren Song..." and "The Sufferer and the Witness" collectively contain the best Rise Against songs ever written. For that reason I like all of them equally.
| | | Album Rating: 5.0
This may be an unpopular opinion but I actually think "The Unraveling" is better than "Revolution Per Minute" but not by much
| | | Album Rating: 5.0
If I had to rank the Rise Against albums (excluding Wolves, it's just too new for me to have a concrete opinion on) it would go like this:
Siren Song of the Counter Culture
The Sufferer and the Witness
The Unraveling
The Black Market (FIGHT ME)
Revolutions Per Minute
Appeal to Reason
Endgame
| | | Album Rating: 3.5
RPM has "Torches" on it and that's my favorite Rise Against song, right next to "Blood-Red, White & Blue". So that certainly gives it more personal appeal to me, although I do think all the songs are great.
But yeah the first 4 albums are fantastic.
tbh I stopped following this band after Sufferer, but I still jam them pretty often. State of the Union goes hard
| | | Album Rating: 5.0
"The Black Market" is a rather underrated Rise Against album. I found "The Black Market" to be a great listen. "Awake Too Long" is arguably one of Rise Against's best songs and is in my personal top 3 from the band. Though, when judging the band in terms of albums, its always a safe bet to name either "The Sufferer and the Witness" or "Siren Song of the Counter-Culture" among the best because they delivered in general terms. "The Black Market" had noticeable filler, which drags it down a bit, but I agree it doesn't deserve to be ranked as among their worst. It's a solid 7/10.
| | | Album Rating: 5.0
Personally, when I think of the Black Market, I only really think of one filler and one LARGE MISTAKE. I'll probably touch on this more when I inevitably review the album, but I'll state it briefly here. The only filler song I think of is Sudden Life. Its not even that bad of a filler song, especially when you consider how boring filler tracks from Rise Against can be.
The biggest mistake the album makes is the ending. Bridges is not a bad song, but it is a horrible way to end the album. Personally I think "People Live Here" should have ended it, but if they really wanted a heavier ending, Zero for Visibility or even the title track would be better ending choices.
Still I think it's one of their better albums and I only like it more after each listen.
While I want to review every RA album, I don't think I'm going to do "The Sufferer and the Witness" next, simply because reviewing 2 fantastic albums back to back is hard.
| | | Album Rating: 5.0
I might tossup a review at some point, but I don't find a point in doing so. I can see your point about the ending, but taking into consideration the tracklist wasn't balanced correctly, it isn't surprising. "People Live Here" should have either started or finished the album because the song carries the largest impact. The singles released for the album was also poorly done. "I Don't Want to Be Here Anymore" and "Tragedy + Time" were generic songs and carried little impact. I felt they should have chosen "Zero Visibility" and "People Live Here." I have more to say, but I'll wait until your review.
| | | Album Rating: 4.5
Black Martket is underrated but the best songs are Eco-Terrorist In Me, Great Die-Off, People Live Here, and Bridges imo.
My ranking is Sufferer>RPM>Siren Song>then it becomes a mess tbh.
| | | Album Rating: 5.0
"Eco-Terrorist in Me" was another gem from The Black Market, but that contributes to my point that their mistake with the album was tiering the songs incorrectly. I felt if they had showcased the right songs, the album would have done better. Though, I still believe "Awake Too Long" was the best song on the album.
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