[REVIEW] RISE AGAINST – ‘RICOCHET’ LP.
‘Ricochet’ album cover art-Loma Vista Recordings
Author: Mal Keecher
Veteran Chicago melodic punk rockers Rise Against have released their tenth studio album, titled ‘Ricochet’.
2025 marks Rise Against’s 25th year since their debut album ‘The Unraveling’ (2001). What unfurled thereafter has been a steady career of solid songwriting and worldwide touring.
Sometime shortly after 2006’s ‘The Sufferer and the Witness’ was released in Australia, I got my hands on the hard copy CD and listened to it on repeat. Iconic tracks like Prayer of the Refugee stood out when contrasted with the plethora of emo rock bands I was listening to at the time.
‘Ricochet’ is set to be released 15 August 2025, coinciding with the exact same day 10 years ago in 2015 when I excitedly saw them perform live, backed by Killswitch Engage at the sold-out Fillmore in Denver, Colorado. Since then, I have relished their performances at festivals, and the most recent time when they supported Blink 182 on their Australian tour.
Like me, you'll likely nod along to most tracks on ‘Ricochet’, especially the three singles released in the last six months of 2025–Nod, Prize Fighter and I want It All.
Overall on ‘Ricochet’, the lyrics are high quality, with lots of metaphors and deep social commentary, to be expected of a Rise Against album. On the whole, it does feel like it’s geared toward an increasingly dystopian worldview, with messages of dire urgency spread throughout.
Nod deserves the volume turned up to ten to appreciate its dynamics, as does I want It All, not to be confused with 2000's Give It All. This is a power chord riff-heavy track that seems to be harking back to a melding of Nirvana and Foo Fighters, particularly with its punchy lines such as:
Can't run, if we never crawl
Big wave, get your head above
Loose change, don't you want it all? Yeah I want it all...
I thoroughly enjoyed having this one on repeat:
Ricochet, the album's title track, is an infectious nod-along track with a catchy chorus and lyrics including:
Don't turn away, as the bullets ricochet...
Don't ask me to stay down, don't ask me to get out of the way...
Are we OK, are we alright?
I really liked the stripped back acoustic moments in amongst the heavier musical artillery that i've come to expect from Rise Against.
Damage Is Done highlights the main reasons I initially became hooked on Rise Against with its melodic rock appeal, soaring vocals, crunching guitar and high quality, thought-provoking lyrical content and a scream and catchy riff to close-out this gem:
I can't keep up this pace
Waiting for answers to fall from the sky
Picking up pieces
The damage is done...
This place is so familiar
But feels so so strange.
Us Against The World is another lyrically superior song:
Paralysed and comatose
We're killin’ time and seeing ghosts...
I know you're scared, but you're not alone.
Personally, I wanted to hear the chorus have much more punch than it did, but the overall message came through, regardless.
Black Crown redeems the record at this stage, during its much more soaring and uplifting chorus with a big enveloping sound. Lyrically, it feels like a bemoaning, a regret, a dire outlook and a reminiscing.
Retracing all my steps
Wish I told you that I loved you
But I locked you out instead...
This black crown growing heavy on our heads
The worst is on its way.
Sink Like A Stone is toe-tapping and sounds like a light Offspring song with its catchy lead guitar, well-placed at track seven on this twelve track record:
I suppose we should have seen this coming...
Everybody's crying on your shoulder
You're gonna sink like a stone
If you carry this weight on your own
You're gonna break down.
Forty Days is top-tier lyrically, but overall feels lacklustre until it unexpectedly builds to a powerful and exhilirating pinnacle in the last third:
Tell me all your stories,
Tell me what the world was like
Tell me how to fake my death...
When was the last you cried?
The Woah-oh's work well on State Of Emergency, instilling solid head nods throughout. It's the kind of song you might expect to hear as you approached the hoards of fans assembled at Rise Against's set at an open -air summer festival:
I was ready when it came for me.
Gold Long Gone is an acoustic ballad that sounds meandering and melancholic:
Tell me what the hell is going on, we're digging in our minds...
How do we hold on?
Pulling at the brakes, some things will recover, while others can't be fixed
Tell me what the hell is going on
Everything we thought we knew, turns out wrong.
Soldier is a slower tempo rock song that progresses into a zesty shout-along with some cool riffs to boot:
I'm not your soldier anymore
Just holding onto threads...it's a long way to fall
I'm not your soldier, anymore.
Soldier, along with Prizefighter, ensure that the record lands on its feet, and on a resoundingly solid high note:
Prizefighter is a reverb-heavy, anthemic and charging song, while also being especially familiar sounding. Perhaps to its detriment, many online comments note that the mixing is off on this song, despite its likeability factor:
I'm drowning in your wave
Is this fruit here for the taking...will you watch this building burn?
I don't belong to you, or anyone else.
‘Ricochet’ might not become an iconic sonic wonder like some of Rise Against's other creations, but it's certainly worth listening to, and most songs are easily identifiable as uniquely Rise Against.
The verdict: 3.5/5 Stars.
Label: Loma Vista Recordings
Official release date: August 15
Genre/s: Melodic Rock
Producer: Grammy winner and Australian Catherine Marks
Mixed by: Alan Moulder
Vox: Tim McIlrath
Lead guitarist: Zach Blair
Bassist: Joe Principe
Drummer: Brandon Barnes