Rise

Sometimes the revolution isn’t televised; sometimes the revolution is in slow motion. More often than not in these constraining times, the revolution doesn’t crash like a roaring wave, but trickles at a snail’s pace. When the Refused offered their landmark and genre expanding The Shape of Punk to Come in 1998, it seemed inevitable that a musical revolution had arrived, only to quickly sputter and sink into remission. Fast forward to 2002, and that revolutionary sound of jagged hardcore, relentless punk, catchy rock and unorthodox electronica merged with insistent vocals spouting semi-political poetry is once again clamouring for change, only this time the rallying cry is emerging from Texas, and the latest signings to the Ferret Records roster, the Rise. "I think it’s fair,” states vocalist Cory Kilduf on the Refused comparison, "but only to an extent. We all love Refused and we didn’t really like a lot of typical hardcore, plus we listened to a lot of what I hear as their influences: Born Against, Rye Coalition, Ink & Dagger and Nation of Ulysses. I thought Refused was great, but only as great as the bands that they got their sound from.” And while there are the aforementioned and undeniable similarities between the Rise and the Refused, the Rise stamp their influences with their own identity, offering a catchier and slightly more linear style of musical rebellion while working diligently to incorporate and expand the electronics seamlessly into their sound. "We never set out to make The Shape Of Punk To Come part two, but if they really thought that was what was to come of punk, shouldn’t a few bands actually do it?” questions Cory. "Real Refused was so short lived once they actually put out a great record, I wish more bands sounded like them. It takes one band to do it again to be a rip-off, but when more bands get on it, it makes it a genre.”