Album Review
The Offspring - Rise And fall, Rage And GraceThe Offspring - Rise And Fall, Rage And Grace

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
 Band Members

Dexter Holland (vocals, guitar)
Noodles (guitar)
Greg K (bass)
Pete Parada (drums)
 Track Listing
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
 Band Related Links
The Offspring Myspace
The Offspring Official Site
 Review Score Code
- Top Cheese
- Brilliant
- Pretty damn good
- Ok I guess
- What Was That?