Album Review: RISE AGAINST - Wolves

01. Wolves

02. House on Fire

03. The Violence

04. Welcome to the Breakdown

05. Far from Perfect

06. Bullshit

07. Politics of Love

08. Parts Per Million

09. Mourning in Amerika

10. How Many Walls

11. Miracle

12. Megaphone (Bonus Track)

13. Broadcast[Signal]Frequency (Bonus Track)

When it comes to political, modern melodic Hardcore Punk, I can't think of a band better than Rise Against. I really can't. They are consistently as close to perfect as a band of this genre can be. The top notch production, along with well crafted songs and intelligent lyrics have propelled them to the frontlines of their genre.

I heard them for the first time when The Sufferer And The Witness was released in 2006 and I was won over immediately. I have all their records and have seen them live several times. I never get bored of these guys. They have a formula, but manage to always sound contemporary, largely due to the poetic lyrical content that is always relevant to the current political climate, in addition to the crisp, big budget production.

They generally write about social injustice, inequality and the environment, so the rise of Donald Trump clearly fuelled their fires during the writing of Wolves, particularly on tracks like the superb How Many Walls, Bullshit and Mourning in Amerika. They vent about important topics that people can relate to and are deeply concerned with, providing a soundtrack to the rage felt by thousands worldwide.

My personal favourites from this record are the first single The Violence, and the aformentioned How Many Walls, which easily stand up to anything they've released before.

If you liked Rise Against before, you'll love Wolves. It's another solid and essential album in their almost flawless catalogue of political Punk Rock.