Wolves (Album) - Rise Against

A Formula That Works

Rise Against has been one of my favorite bands for years, their first albums shaped my teenage angst and I have many stories of intense energy involving their music. However, lately I've found their music to be less impressive and just more of the same songs over and over again.

This isn't so bad though, it is nice to here the same power throughout their newest album as previous years. This is the double edged sword that most bands have to face, do they stay the same, producing good music that follows the same sound and design? Or do they change things up? Rise Against chose to keep things the same, the guitar, bass, drums and vocals are all good for sure, although it is basically what we have heard before (except the last song).

Rise Against's Wolves is a good album, every time I listen to it, I am enjoying it more and more. Song like "House on Fire," "Politics of Love," and "Miracle" stand out as my favorites so far on the album. "The Violence" and "Welcome to The Breakdown" are also great, but the rest of the album more or less fades into the largely similar library of Rise Against music.

My verdict for Wolves would be as follows, it's good, but not nearly as good as their other albums. Pick it up if you want some new lyrics to learn and love this genre with an undying passion, otherwise just check out their earlier albums The Sufferer and The Witness, Appeal To Reason or The Black Market. 

Originality: 6

Instruments: 7

Vocals: 8

Longevity: 5

Red Score: 6.5

Run - Foo Fighters

GUEST REVIEW

Hey my RMR family, instead of one of my favorites for this Friday, my friend Tommy Williams from Poor Man Pedals is here to review the newest Foo Fighters song. Let me know what you think and check out his awesome channel here, he does great reviews of pedals that sound amazing without breaking the bank. Without further delay, here is the review!

A Great Run

The Foos are back! Foo Fighters have been my favorite band for several years now, so it is always exciting to see new music come from them. What made this one a real treat is the surprise factor. No one knew (or at least I didn’t see any hints) that they were going to drop a new track and they’ve been on hiatus since November 2015. Anyways, let’s get to the song!

When I first started playing the song I noticed it was very melodic, pretty and soft. I was ready to be disappointed by them just as other bands I enjoy have let me down with their latest releases. Then the song started to grow and become more anthemic. I became more interested and my hopes began to rise. Finally, the heavy guitars came in, this is the Foo Fighters I was expecting. Not to say anthems and soft songs are bad, nor to say the Foo Fighters can’t do them (they totally can); I just always expect the first single off a record (hopefully there’s a whole record coming to follow this) to feature the core sound of the band. This song has it all, melodic intro, heavy riffs, screaming vocals, calmer breakdowns. It is very much a Foo Fighters song and that is great. Also, the music video is hilarious to watch!

The intro has a nice shimmer to it that makes me believe there’s a bit of chorus involved. If you like that sound, check out the FAB Chorus pedal from Danelectro. When the heavy parts hit, I’m pretty sure a heavy distortion pedal kicks in on top of overdriven amps. The Boss DS-1 may get you close if you have your settings right. If you need some overdrive under the distortion, consider the Behringer OD400 or Joyo Ultimate Drive.

Originality: 8

Instruments: 9

Vocals: 9

Longevity: 8

Overall: 8.5