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The newest album from The Offspring brings new change to their sound but leaves such a rush that you can’t help but feel that this change is for the best, leaving Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace another great success for one of the best and highly influential punk bands out there to date.

The Good : First album in a long time, great variation of tracks, great intro song, very catchy, new sound but keeps to The Offspring’s old ways at same time, addictive vocals, long effort paid off, impressive guitar and drums performances, some heavy solos

The Bad : Same old lyrics, loss of drummer Atom Willard and Ron Welty, no Pete Parada to be found either, one or two songs could have been done without

Now if you’ve never heard of The Offspring before,you’ve probably been on Mars with your fingers in your ears, and your eyes closed tight. The Offspring has been one of the most influential punk bands out there to date recently and have hit huge success with albums such as Americana as well as Smash with some of their more popular songs ranging anywhere from “The Kids Aren’t Alright” to “Self Esteem”. Now with their latest album having taken just over 4 years to put together, The Offspring are back and better than ever.

Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace may have taken a while to finally be released after going through some rough patches and a period where the project was going to be fully dropped, but now that it’s out, it has hit big and delivers fans just what they have been craving.

Even though the sound is a bit different then what we’ve been used to listening to The Offspring all these years, a change of pace here was definitely needed and fully worked to their advantage. There is tons of variation spanning the whole entire album from intro to finish ranging across a multitude of various genres such as punk, ska, nu metal, rock, and alternative. There’s basically a track on here to please every music connoisseur.

Right as soon as you pop this album into your car, you’re going to find yourself immediately hooked by the very first song “Half-Truism” which just makes the album right there. It’s just got such a catchy tune to it and is such a great sing along song that it grabs your attention and just never lets go, ultimately persuading you to go through and listen to the entirety Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace. If you take that time to listen to the rest of the album, you’ll be surprised that most of the other other tracks are all just as good if not even better than the intro song including “You’re Gonna Go Far,Kid”, “Hammerhead”, and “Stuff Is Messed Up”, just to name a few.

The vocals on this album are as addictive as cigarettes and give you twice the rush. There’s just always been something about Dexter Holland’s voice that has that catchy tune and pitch to it that he could sing “Row Row Row Your Boat” and make it even catchier than it was back when I was a toddler. Although Noodles doesn’t make as big as an appearance on vocals, he can still blow you away with his vocals on “A Lot Like Me”, another great track off this album. But as always it’s Dexter Holland who ultimately steals the show away with his vocals.

There is also a multitude of different instruments used among just the normal guitar, drums, and bass used to create the variation of genres throughout the tracks but looking at the album as a whole, it’ll be the amazing performance of Noodles on guitar and Ron Welty on drums that you’ll be thumping along to the entire time. Talking about guitar, Noodles displays his excellent guitar skills throughout the entire album through some very heavy and incredible guitar solos that leaves you stunned and wishing that it would never end.

Now it’s not fair to say that this entire album is amazing, it is ultimately one of their best albums to date, but seeing as nothing is perfect in this world there are flaws with this album just as everything else has flaws. Suffice to say though, there aren’t too many flaws.

The lyrics are tired and worn and although they remind me of the older Offspring, I know Dexter Holland could have come up with something more than just his usual complaints concerning everything and the political strife plaguing the States. This is the one main concern I have with this album and I think that since they were heading in a new direction anyways, I wholly believe that Dexter Holland could have improved his writing skills over the last four and a half years and come up with something entirely different but still sublime at the same time.

Although Ron Welty was the drummer for this album, he left shortly afterwards, leaving Pete Parada to take his place, but is nowhere to be found on this album. I ultimately think that Atom Willard was the best drummer that The Offspring will ever have, and he’ll be sorely missed by myself and others, but Ron Welty does prove that he had the talent to take The Offspring in a new direction with some serious beats and a new booming fast speed, but surely enough he left and we’re now left on seeing what direction Pete Parada will take with his drumming on the next album.

My last concern with the album isn’t that big at all and I just feel that one or two of the songs on the album just didn’t mesh to well with everything that was going on and felt that they could have been done without. Mainly just “Kristy, Are You Doing Okay?”, if that track had of been left off the album, I feel it would have been their best album to date.

All in all Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace comes off as a huge success, proving that all their hard work and effort over the last couple years to make this album totally paid off. This is an album that will be remembered as a classic in years to come and one of The Offspring’s best albums which I recommend to not only Offspring fans but to anybody looking for a good album to listen to on a lazy Sunday afternoon. The Offspring may have switched directions, but they still feel like the same band and I don’t know how they will be able to top this one, but I’m sure they’ll find a way.

9.0/10

Half-Truism by The Offspring
Hammerhead by The Offspring
Stuff Is Messed Up by The Offspring

Tags: album