| Endgame | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Studio album by Rise Against | ||||
| Released | March 11, 2011 | |||
| Recorded | September 2010–January 2011 at The Blasting Room, Fort Collins, Colorado | |||
| Genre | Melodic hardcore, punk rock[1], alternative rock | |||
| Length | 46:05 | |||
| Label | DGC, Interscope B0015325-02 |
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| Producer | Bill Stevenson, Jason Livermore | |||
| Rise Against chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Endgame | ||||
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Endgame is the sixth studio album by American punk rock band Rise Against. Produced by Bill Stevenson, it was released on March 15, 2011.[2] Rise Against began work on the album in September 2010, after completing touring in support of its previous album, Appeal to Reason, in mid-2010. The first single from the album, "Help Is on the Way" debuted on KROQ and KKDO on January 17, 2011, and was released on the band's MySpace and digital media outlets on January 25, 2011.
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Following the commercial success of the band's fifth studio album, Appeal to Reason, and the subsequent touring to support the album, Rise Against entered The Blasting Room in Fort Collins, Colorado (the same studio where all their albums, except The Unraveling and Siren Song of the Counter Culture, were recorded) in September 2010 to begin recording their next album.[3] Rise Against finished recording the album in January 2011, after they recorded some last minute guest vocals for the album.
The album deals with "the end of humankind as we know it," with lyrics addressing world events and politics, including Hurricane Katrina, recent LGBT teen suicides, and the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. According to McIlrath, "Endgame was a way to talk about the world in a different way than we have before. It is talking about the world from the perspective that it’s too late to recycle. It’s too late to drive a hybrid. It’s too late to decide whether you believe in global warming or not because global warming has devoured the planet."[4] Although the lyrics discuss grim topics, they actually take on a positive view and were written from the perspective of "What if the place on the other [side] of this transition is [a] place we'd all rather be living in?"[5]
Before the album's release, Spin Magazine labeled Endgame as a concept album and suggested that it may have been largely influenced by the Dixie Chicks, but on January 7, 2011, McIlrath tweeted a clarifying message stating that "the record is not a concept record and, fret not, has absolutely nothing to do with the Dixie Chicks."[6]
Endgame is notable for being the first album to establish Rise Against's stance against homophobia with the third song on the album, "Make It Stop (September's Children)", which references the September suicides of teenagers in the LGBT community, specifically mentioning Tyler Clementi, Billy Lucas, Harrison Chase Brown, Cody J. Barker, and Seth Walsh. The album's seventh track, "Survivor Guilt", features dialogue from the film Catch-22, which was also in .baxter.'s song "Burden".
The album's liner notes recommends the documentaries Collapse, Capitalism: A Love Story, Countdown to Zero, and The Cove, as well as two books, Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer and The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein.
In a question and answer session with the Chicago Blackhawks, McIlrath stated that the album would be released in March 2011. On January 12, 2011, Interscope announced the release date of Endgame as March 15, 2011,[2] followed with an announcement the next day by FMQB that the first single from the album, "Help Is on the Way," would be officially released on January 25, 2011,[7] although it premiered on the radio station KKDO, as their featured song on a segment called "New Music Heaven" and also on KROQ, on January 17 at 5 p.m. PST.[8]
Endgame was released in Australia on Friday March 11, 2011.
"Help Is on the Way" was officially released on iTunes and other digital media outlets on January 25, 2011.
In order to promote the album, Rise Against played a show in London on March 16, 2011.[9] In addition, Rise Against played two South American shows in Brazil and Argentina in late February and a run of European shows in March.[10] After touring South America, and Europe, Rise Against were back in the United States in April (Bad Religion, who once toured with Rise Against in 2004, and Four Year Strong supported this tour).
"Help Is on the Way" is named the official theme song to WWE Over the Limit 2011. WWE also used "Satellite" to promote the video game WWE All Stars. "Architects" was used on the Madden 2012 soundtrack.
On Tuesday June 21 2011, Rise Against released a video to "Make It Stop (September's Children)"
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Aggregate scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Metacritic | 79%[11] |
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AbsolutePunk | (78%)[12] |
| Allmusic | [1] |
| Alternative Press | [13] |
| Blare Magazine | [14] |
| Crave Online | [15] |
| IGN | [16] |
| Kerrang! | |
| Rock Sound | [17] |
| Rolling Stone | [18] |
| Spin | [19] |
Early critical reception to the album has been mostly positive, with the band praised for polishing the musical style from Appeal to Reason. Thomas Nassiff says "Rather than returning to their old form, the band solidifies an evolved style with this record."[12] Rock Sound's review called the album "bona fide awesomeness".[17] Although many critics have praised the polished sound, some critics feel as if Rise Against have gotten too far away from their punk roots. Kenny Herzog was critical about the single "Architects" saying "as soon as frontman Tim McIlrath bridges the half-time breakdown of "Architects" by earnestly imploring, "Don't you remember when you were young / How you wanted to set the world on fire" (echoing Against Me!'s "I Was a Teenage Anarchist" almost word for word), the singer-guitarist just sounds like he's trying to win back an ex-girlfriend."[19]
Endgame is Rise Against's highest charting album on the US Billboard 200, debuting at no. 2 and selling 85,000 copies in its first week.[20] It's also the band's first album to enter the UK top 40 album chart, debuting at no. 27.[21]
In Canada, the album debuted at #1 on the Canadian Albums Chart, selling 17,000 copies.[22]
As of October 2011, the album has sold around 233,000 copies in the US alone. It is the 93rd-best-selling album of 2011 in the USA so far.[23]
All lyrics written by Tim McIlrath, all music composed by Tim McIlrath, Joe Principe, Brandon Barnes and Zach Blair.
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Architects" | 3:42 |
| 2. | "Help Is on the Way" | 3:57 |
| 3. | "Make It Stop (September's Children)" | 3:55 |
| 4. | "Disparity by Design" | 3:49 |
| 5. | "Satellite" | 3:59 |
| 6. | "Midnight Hands" | 4:18 |
| 7. | "Survivor Guilt" | 4:00 |
| 8. | "Broken Mirrors" | 3:55 |
| 9. | "Wait for Me" | 3:40 |
| 10. | "A Gentlemen's Coup" | 3:46 |
| 11. | "This Is Letting Go" | 3:41 |
| 12. | "Endgame" | 3:24 |
|
Total length:
|
46:05 | |
| iTunes bonus track | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Title | Length | |||||||
| 13. | "Lanterns" | 3:49 | |||||||
|
Total length:
|
49:54 | ||||||||
| Australian/New Zealand edition bonus track | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Title | Length | |||||||
| 13. | "The Good Left Undone" (Live) | 3:02 | |||||||
|
Total length:
|
49:07 | ||||||||
| Region | Date |
|---|---|
| Australia | March 11, 2011 |
| Germany[25] | |
| Poland[26] | |
| United Kingdom | March 14, 2011 |
| Canada | March 15, 2011 |
| United States[2] |
| Chart (2011) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australian Album Chart[27] | 2 |
| Austria Albums Chart[28] | 3 |
| Belgium Albums Chart (Flanders)[29] | 23 |
| Belgium Albums Chart (Wallonia)[30] | 75 |
| Canadian Albums Chart[31] | 1 |
| Dutch Albums Chart[32] | 47 |
| Finnish Albums Chart[33] | 42 |
| German Albums Chart[34] | 1 |
| Irish Albums Chart[35] | 96 |
| New Zealand Albums Chart[36] | 6 |
| Norwegian Albums Chart[37] | 28 |
| Spanish Albums Chart[38] | 72 |
| Swedish Albums Chart[39] | 6 |
| Swiss Albums Chart[40] | 12 |
| UK Albums Chart[21] | 27 |
| UK Rock Albums Chart[41] | 1 |
| US Billboard 200[31] | 2 |
| US Billboard Alternative Albums[31] | 1 |
| US Billboard Digital Albums[31] | 1 |
| US Billboard Hard Rock Albums[31] | 1 |
| US Billboard Rock Albums[31] | 1 |
| US Billboard Tastemaker Albums[31] | 2 |
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