The ninth full-length outing from the veteran punk outfit,
Nowhere Generation is both apoplectic and refined. The band's social-political fervor remains front and center -- themes of social inequality, climate change, and income disparity loom large -- but after two decades spent raging against the machine,
Rise Against no longer need the sonic exclamation points to back those positions up. To be fair, the 11-track set is far from tame, as evidenced by the fiery opener "The Numbers," "Broken Dreams, Inc.," and the anthemic title cut, all of which hit hard. Cut from the same tattered, inclusive cloth as
Bad Religion and
Against Me!,
Rise Against have never favored aggression over melody, and
Nowhere Generation is generously stocked with hooks, as well as deep currents of nostalgia. Regret casts a long shadow on the sparse, chamber-punk ballad "Forfeit," which echoes the orchestral re-imaginings of 2018's
Ghost Note Symphonies, but it's a relative outlier, as the remainder of
Nowhere Generation focuses on the marriage of melody and might. Over the years,
Rise Against have remained true to both their old-school melodic punk style and their human/animal rights beliefs, and while they may be getting longer in the tooth, their incisors are still sharp enough to draw blood.
Nowhere Generation may lack the nervy zeal of peak efforts like
Siren Song of the Counter Culture and
Appeal to Reason, but it most certainly has the gravitas. ~ James Christopher Monger