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Review |
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The eighth full length Offspring album is finally
here and it’s been an extremely long wait
for it, the last full length Offspring album was
'Splinter' which was released back in 2003, the
album featured 12 tracks and was one of the weakest
Offspring albums ever released in my opinion, the
album was more filler than killer with only a couple
of stand out tracks which lead to a lot of talk
from people wondering if The Offspring could come
back from such a shoddy release.
Well it’s been a long time coming but the
new Offspring album 'Rise And Fall, Rage And Grace'
is here and it’s a total return to form
for The Offspring. The album has taken the best
part of 5 years to get here, well that’s
the time gap from the last Offspring album release
and the release of this album.
The Offspring previewed their new single 'Hammerhead'
a couple of months ago on their myspace to give
their fans a taster of what to expect from their
new material, the song knocked up thousands of
listens within the first week of being online,
the song proved to be popular and a hit with the
majority of people who checked it out. 'Hammerhead'
shows Offspring back at their best but sounding
a little more serious and a lot louder and heavier,
'Hammerhead' is a song that’s best listened
to as loud as possible so you can enjoy fast meaty
guitar riffs, along with Dexter Holland’s
fast flowing distinctive vocals, if you think
'Hammerhead' is good then you are going to get
a lot of enjoyment from, 'Rise And Fall, Rage
And Grace' as there are much better songs on the
album than 'Hammerhead'.
The album kicks off with 'Half Truism', the song
has a classic Offspring feel about it, starting
off fast with Dexters vocals fastly flowing throughout
the song, by the end of the song you will probably
find yourself singing along the following lyrics
"If we don't make it alive it's a hell of
a good day to die", without knowing it.
With the release of 'Rise And Fall, Rage And
Grace', The Offspring haven’t really moved
on with their sound, they have basically gone
back to the drawing board and gone back through
everything they have made since they have been
together and have simply worked out what worked
for them and what went wrong for them, they have
always had there own fast punk rock sound and
a pretty constant strong fan base but it was when
they released 'Americana' and the really catchy
yet cheesy single of 'Pretty Fly (For A White
Guy)' that The Offspring were at their peak and
no matter what they did they couldn’t do
wrong, but ever since then the song writing went
sloppy with more jokey songs appearing on albums
rather than the fast serious punk rock from the
days of 'Smash', thankfully The Offspring have
got their act together for 'Rise And Fall, Rage
And Grace' there are no jokey moments on offer,
just seriously fast punk rock sounding better
than ever.
There are many highlights throughout the album
such as 'Trust In You' the song has the classic
fast and catchy Offspring formula that we can
all just about remember, but the best thing is
everything is knocked up a notch or two in sound,
the guitars running throughout the song sound
faster and louder than ever. 'Stuff Is Messed
Up' is another highlight from the album, Dexters
vocals are full of attitude and extremely fast
singing over the music which is strumming along
at what feel's like 2000 miles an hour. The biggest
highlight from the album is 'You're Gonna Go Far
Kid' the song has hit single written all over
it and The Offspring are bound to release the
song pretty soon, if they don’t then I will
eat my guitar and that’s a promise. The
song is a full on high energy fast paced punk
rock song, it’s melodic and radio friendly
minus the odd swear word that Dexters screams
out and the chorus "Now dance fucker dance.
He never had a chance and no one even knew it
was really only you." is the most sing along
moment from the whole album and will be in your
head well into the future.
What I have noticed from listening to the album
many times over now is how some of the songs sound
so much like Green Day, for example take a listen
to the last song from the album 'Rise And Fall'
the opening sounds pretty much like the classic
Green Day track 'American Idiot', and the riffs
cropping up throughout the track sound pretty
similar to the riffs running throughout 'American
Idiot' as well. The opening to 'Fix You' sounds
quite similar to 'Wake Me Up When September Ends'
from Green Day, if you listen carefully you will
see the similarity. Now I’m not quite sure
why The Offspring have decided to use pretty much
the same riffs and musical structure on their
song as Green Day used 4 years ago, it is a blatant
rip off and is quite disappointing to hear such
a talented band doing this especially when they
have such a good sound themselves.
Despite the Green Day rip off moments, 'Rise
And Fall, Rage And Grace' is a brilliant album
from The Offspring and the best album they have
released since 1997's 'Ixnay On The Hombre'. The
Offspring have always been one of the most important
punk rock bands up there with Green Day and Blink
182, Blink 182 are no longer and Green Day are
at the top of their game but currently on a long
break, it’s now the Offspring’s time
and chance to climb back up to the top of the
punk rock scene.
4/5
Review by Trigger |
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| Band
Members |
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Dexter Holland (vocals, guitar)
Noodles (guitar)
Greg K (bass)
Pete Parada (drums) |
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| Track
Listing |
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1. Half-Truism
2. Trust In You
3. You're Gonna Go Far, Kid
4. Hammerhead
5. A Lot Like Me
6. Takes Me Nowhere
7. Kristy, Are You Doing Okay?
8. Nothingtown
9. Stuff Is Messed Up
10. Fix You
11. Let's Hear It For Rock Bottom
12. Rise And Fall |
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| Band
Related Links |
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| Review
Score Code |
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- Top Cheese
- Brilliant
- Pretty damn good
- Ok I guess
-
What Was That? |
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