There was only a fairly short period of time when I considered myself a Rise Against fan - it started with seeing them in 2003 and ended sometime between 2005 and 2006. They had two albums out when I saw them in 2003, and those are the only two albums I have. The third they released in 2004 and I remember not being at all impressed by the song I heard from it. I couldn't tell you much about it, but I remember thinking they weren't a band for me anymore; I was at university and getting into American indie-rock bands like Hum and Modest Mouse (shortly afterwards I'd hear Broken Social Scene and the Canadian indie-rock phase would begin). I remember it sounding too polished, and I wasn't into that. I saw Rise Against again in 2006 and 2011 (at Leeds and Reading festivals, respectively). They were still a fun band, but I don't remember feeling bad that I'd given up on them. They've now released countless albums and my brother has most of them. Maybe I should give them a listen one day.
All that aside, I still have a lot of time for their debut, The Unravelling, as well as the second album, Revolutions Per Minute. Alive & Well is a huge opener and they keep the momentum going across all 16 songs (in true-punk style, they barely give you a moment to take a breath between songs). Six Ways 'til Sunday and One Thousand Good Intentions are particular highlights, as well as The Remains of Summer Memories which treads the line between metal-breakdown and Fat-Wreck-style punk seamlessly. The title-track is probably the slowest moment and painfully emo, but in a thoroughly enjoyable way. Everchanging was always a favourite too with the slowdown in the middle crying out for a sing-a-long. Following it up with the two shortest and most traditional-hardcore songs on the album was a good move.
When I was introduced to the band at college, my friend Steve loaned me his copy of this album and I recorded it onto a minidisc (that I still have somewhere). At the start of the second year of university I decided to blow a bunch of my student loan on a big order from Interpunk, a website I'd been stalking for a while realising I could fill some gaps in my The Paper Chase collection much more easily than I could by just relying on UK shops and eBay. I got a lot of great stuff, including End Transmission and an excellent Glassjaw t-shirt. I also took advantage of the ridiculous exchange rate and picked up this copy of The Unravelling to go along with my copy of Revolutions Per Minute. They'd released that third album by then, so I knew they were never going to be part of a bigger collection, but I wanted a copy nonetheless. Neither album gets a great deal of play these days, but they represent a certain period of time nicely. It's still a fun listen.
Format: 12", insert
Tracks: 16
Cost: £7.50 new
Bought: Interpunk
When: 06/11/04
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: none
