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| The RiseReclamation Process2004 Law Of Inertia 
 Review by: pwfanatic See others by this writer The Rise (link) Only registered users can post comments 
 
Published on November 19th 2004
I still don’t really understand it. When a hardcore band uses a keyboard or various techno effects, there seems to be some sort of unconscious desire by everyone to compare them to the Refused. That is exactly how I got my hands on The Rise’s new album Reclamation Process, and after listening to it several times, I still don’t see how anyone makes that comparison. What I understand even less about this album is how according to Ferret Records, the only way to pick up a copy of the record is to purchase issue #22 of Law of Inertia magazine. It may just be me, but that seems like a rather ridiculous advertising campaign. But enough about that, lets get to the record. The boys of The Rise open furiously with “Durational Expectancy,” relying on a plodding beat and little techno effects before tearing it all down with rough hardcore riffs and vocalist Cory Kilduff’s lovely yell. Most of the songs follow this standard formula, and for the most part, it works out pretty well for the band. Generally speaking, the keyboardist doesn’t overpower the music, but this isn’t always the case. “The Most Intense Second Guessing,” for instance, has effects completely smothering the rest of the song rendering it rather unlistenable. This unfortunately happens a couple times throughout the album. Reclamation Process is weird in some cases when they sacrifice almost all their hardcore sound, and make what seems to be a more industrial oriented song, specifically, “The Collapse of Hierarchy.” Now, my knowledge of what is industrial and what isn’t is solely limited to owning one KMFDM album, so my labelling of the song as industrial could be a bit off, but the song just blows. It almost retains a hardcore feel, but the vocals are so slathered with effects that they resemble bad Japanese-dance-club vocals. The song is a smorgasbord of so many different effects that the song is too heavy to even follow what is going on. It is not hardcore, but it isn’t techno either. And it doesn’t even feel like it belongs on the album to boot. The problem with The Rise’s new effort is that they seemed to have forgotten what kind of band they used to be in an attempt to evolve. From what I have heard from their last album (which isn’t all of it), they were better as a more hardcore punk oriented group. At over half an hour, Reclamation Process is just too short for what the band seems attempting to do. They call in too many elements of randomness, generally from the electronic end, that clutters many of the songs. When they leave it be, like in “Limits and Adaptability,” they actually have some pretty good hardcore going. Good vocals, good guitars, good drumming, it all works in those instances. However, songs like that are rare on the album. What is left is a techno-core (to dub my own genre or at least I think I am dubbing it) force of confusion where the band can’t seem to decide if they want their music or computer generated effects to take hold. Rather, they just crank both up and let them battle it out throughout the song, leaving it nothing more than an excessively noisy piece of garbage.
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i got this the other day. totally reminded me of the last refused record, until i listened more and now all i can think of is a mix of the first recover album and the postal service (simply for lack of knowledge in that style of music) Good music, bad hardcore(it just isnt sterotypical). Fuck y'all, I love it. i just wanted to drop in and say that giving this record away free was not an "advertising ploy" this record didnt even come out on ferret. we gave this record away free on principle and left all of our label affiliations behind. if you read the article that accompanies the cd in law of inertia, it explains our intentions in more detail. after the magazine runs its shelf life we will move the record to be sold very cheap on itunes or post the entire thing on our website for free still. why would we bother creating an advertising ploy for something no one is going to make money on? this was the worst review i've ever read. there's nothing wrong with a band experimenting. there's no point in a band existing if they don't do that somewhat. a band tries different styles, that's no reason to dislike them. try listening to the music for what it is without any preconception of what it should be. and claiming "there were too many effects" is not a good enough analyzation of the music. sorry. This band used to own when they DID rip off Refused. But now that they're just a plain gay band they're boring as hell. Its funny to me how the reviewer didn't say one thing about the lyrics in this album (little too over your head buddy?) and how everyone generally just ripped on it. Give it a chance, don't give it a chance, do what you must. But I found a lot of good moments in this album, just by chancing it. it's actually in issue #21 nov/dec. didn't care for the album at all, so if anyone wants the CD but not the magazine feel free to send me money for s&h and it's yours. (...i'm kidding, i just mean to say i don't like it) I like this band. their guitar player is now in ...And you will know us by the TRAIL OF DEAD. Is this the same "Rise" that tried their darndest to rip-off of the Refused a few years ago (With synths....gasp!). A little bit disappointed on 2nd listening... This band is awful to the max. I thought they broke up a while ago. this band sucks so hard. i bought the first cd, listened to 5 songs, and quickly sold it for $3. I'd say this doesn't sound like refused so much as it takes the eletronic parts of refused and mix it with a similar style of hardcore and focus on that. I own the 1st record and it really didn't do much for me. yeah, they really don't sound like refused. i think that's lazy comparisons on the part of many reviewers. anyways, i thought the first album had some interesting ideas but the songs weren't actually good. i'm not gonna bother with this one. I loved their first album. this one just isn't as good. one of the tracks, either 3 or 4, reminds me of Linkin Park and it drives me crazy |
