When the melodic hardcore outfit Rise Against switched from Fat Wreck Chords to the “evil” major label Geffen Records in 2004, cries of “sellout” were uttered by mohawked suburbanites everywhere, even before the album was released. Siren Song of the Counter Culture‘s new addition of poppier guitars, strings, and an acoustic track confirmed for many the fatal prognosis. While such additions may have exposed the band to ridicule, in truth, the hardcore heart of the songs was still there, only in a more accessible form.
The Sufferer and the Witness, Rise Against‘s second album for Geffen, picks up where Siren Song left off, with 13 tracks of hard-nosed punk focused on melody, crunchy hooks, and shout-along choruses. Unlike Siren Song‘s opener “State of the Union”, the loudest, angriest, most bare-bones hardcore on the album (perhaps an attempt to show that the band hadn’t softened their attack on a major label), TSATW opens with the less acerbic, and all around more mediocre “Chamber the Cartridge”.