punk

In 1990, The Casualties formed to resurrect the sound of true street punk, a sound that they thought was abandoned in the mid eighties. It’s an important task that the band took on, attempting to keep alive the spiritual successor to the Ramones and Black Flag, the sound that laid the foundation for much of American rock and metal during and after the Cold War. To that end, The Casualties are on a one band crusade to keep that image alive and they’re returned with another studio album of to-the-core gritty punk called “Resistance.”

Fewer things test the patience of a rock or metal fan more than hearing the word 'pop' used to describe the music they love. Is it a stereotype? Yes, but not without merit. Rock and metal fans love their music for the power and aggression, the aspects that keep their favorite bands from breaking into the mainstream in almost every case. When they hear the word 'pop' come from a reviewer, or a press release, there's fear dripping from their pores. Pop music is for teenagers and people who never had the good taste to discover Led Zeppelin, not for tenured fans of 'real music'.

Coming off two gold certified efforts and 2008’s largely successful “Appeal to Reason,” Rise Against is back, fresh from The Blasting Room in Colorado with twelve new tracks. The end result, “Endgame” is an ambitious and varied effort that showcases the multiple facets of Rise Against’s personality.

It had been a long time since I had been to a punk show. Maybe it had been too long. I had practically forgotten what it was like to stand among the punk loyalists, to feel their visceral attitude. Metal, for all its harshness and machismo, is also sometimes guilty of being turgid with bravado and showmanship.

Punk, true punk, not the sparkly, image conscious punk of the past decade, is bereft of all the pomp and circumstance, and even though the Misfits have costumes and a decided image, there’s still something stripped down about them. The Misfits, the Dead Kennedys, Black Flag, the Ramones, MC5, Bad Brains; these are the names that signify the best of American punk rock.