Endgame (Rise Against album)
Encyclopedia
Endgame is the sixth studio album
Studio album
A studio album is an album made up of tracks recorded in the controlled environment of a recording studio. A studio album contains newly written and recorded or previously unreleased or remixed material, distinguishing itself from a compilation or reissue album of previously recorded material, or...

 by American punk rock
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...

 band Rise Against
Rise Against
Rise Against is an American punk rock band from Chicago, Illinois, formed in 1999. The band currently consists of Tim McIlrath , Zach Blair , Joe Principe and Brandon Barnes .Rise Against spent its first five years signed to the independent record label Fat Wreck Chords, on which it...

. Produced by Bill Stevenson, it was released on March 15, 2011. Rise Against began work on the album in September 2010, after completing touring in support of its previous album, Appeal to Reason
Appeal to Reason
The Appeal to Reason was a weekly political newspaper published in the American Midwest from 1895 until 1922. The paper was known for its radical politics, lending support over the years to the Farmers' Alliance and Populist movement before becoming a mainstay of the Socialist Party of America...

, in mid-2010. The first single from the album, "Help Is on the Way
Help Is on the Way
"Help Is on the Way" is a song by American punk rock band Rise Against. It is the first single from their sixth studio album Endgame. It was released onto digital media outlets on January 25, 2011, though it had its worldwide premiere on KROQ on January 17, 2011...

" debuted on KROQ
KROQ-FM
KROQ-FM — branded 106.7 KROQ — is a commercial modern rock radio station licensed to Pasadena, California serving the Greater Los Angeles. The call sign is pronounced "kay rock." It is the flagship station of Loveline hosted by Dr...

 and KKDO on January 17, 2011, and was released on the band's MySpace
MySpace
Myspace is a social networking service owned by Specific Media LLC and pop star Justin Timberlake. Myspace launched in August 2003 and is headquartered in Beverly Hills, California. In August 2011, Myspace had 33.1 million unique U.S. visitors....

 and digital media outlets on January 25, 2011.

Background and recording

Following the commercial success of the band's fifth studio album, Appeal to Reason
Appeal to Reason
The Appeal to Reason was a weekly political newspaper published in the American Midwest from 1895 until 1922. The paper was known for its radical politics, lending support over the years to the Farmers' Alliance and Populist movement before becoming a mainstay of the Socialist Party of America...

, and the subsequent touring to support the album, Rise Against entered The Blasting Room in Fort Collins, Colorado
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...

 (the same studio where all their albums, except The Unraveling
The Unraveling
The Unraveling is the debut full-length album by American punk rock band Rise Against, released on April 24, 2001, and distributed through Fat Wreck Chords. Mass Giorgini produced the album at Sonic Iguana Studios in Lafayette, Indiana, in December 2000. It is the only Rise Against studio album on...

and Siren Song of the Counter Culture
Siren Song of the Counter Culture
-Personnel:Rise Against*Tim McIlrath – Lead vocals, rhythm guitar*Joe Principe – Bass, backing vocals*Chris Chasse – Lead guitar, backing vocals*Brandon Barnes – Drums, percussionArtwork*Shepard Fairey – Cover illustration...

, were recorded) in September 2010 to begin recording their next album. 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
Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was a powerful Atlantic hurricane. It is the costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the five deadliest hurricanes, in the history of the United States. Among recorded Atlantic hurricanes, it was the sixth strongest overall...

, recent LGBT teen suicides
Suicide among LGBT youth
Researchers have found that suicide among lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning youth is comparatively higher than among the general population...

, and the Deepwater Horizon oil spill
Deepwater Horizon oil spill
The Deepwater Horizon oil spill is an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico which flowed unabated for three months in 2010, and continues to leak fresh oil. It is the largest accidental marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry...

. 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." 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?"

Before the album's release, Spin Magazine labeled Endgame as a concept album
Concept album
In music, a concept album is an album that is "unified by a theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, narrative, or lyrical." Commonly, concept albums tend to incorporate preconceived musical or lyrical ideas rather than being improvised or composed in the studio, with all songs contributing...

 and suggested that it may have been largely influenced by the Dixie Chicks
Dixie Chicks
The Dixie Chicks are an American country band which has also successfully crossed over into other genres. The band is composed of founding members Martie Erwin Maguire and Emily Erwin Robison, and lead singer Natalie Maines...

, 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."

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)
Make It Stop (September's Children)
"Make It Stop " is the second single from punk rock band Rise Against's sixth studio album, Endgame. The single was released digitally to digital stores on May 30, 2011. The single's peak at number seven on the U.S. Billboard Alternative Songs charts and number thirteen on U.S. Billboard Rock...

", 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
Catch-22 (film)
Catch-22 is a 1970 satirical war film adapted from the book of the same name by Joseph Heller. Considered a black comedy revolving around the "lunatic characters" of Heller's satirical anti-war novel, it was the work of a talented production team which included director Mike Nichols and...

, which was also in .baxter.'s song "Burden".

The album's liner notes recommends the documentaries Collapse
Collapse (film)
Collapse, directed by Chris Smith, is an American documentary film exploring the theories, writings and life story of controversial author Michael Ruppert...

, Capitalism: A Love Story
Capitalism: A Love Story
Capitalism: A Love Story is a 2009 American documentary film directed, written by and starring Michael Moore. The film centers on the late-2000s financial crisis and the recovery stimulus, while putting forward an indictment of the current economic order in the United States and capitalism in general...

, Countdown to Zero
Countdown to Zero
Countdown to Zero is a documentary film released in 2010 which argues that the likelihood of the use of nuclear weapons has increased since the end of the Cold War due to terrorism, nuclear proliferation, theft of nuclear materials and weapons, and other factors.The documentary film was set for a...

, and The Cove, as well as two books, Eating Animals
Eating Animals
Eating Animals is the third book by the American writer Jonathan Safran Foer, published in 2009. It is a work of non-fiction.-Themes:Foer explores the topics of factory farming and commercial fisheries...

by Jonathan Safran Foer
Jonathan Safran Foer
Jonathan Safran Foer is an American author best known for his novels Everything Is Illuminated and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close...

 and The Shock Doctrine
The Shock Doctrine
The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism is a 2007 book by Canadian author Naomi Klein, and is the basis of a 2009 documentary by the same name....

by Naomi Klein
Naomi Klein
Naomi Klein is a Canadian author and social activist known for her political analyses and criticism of corporate globalization.-Family:...

.

Promotion and release

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, 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, although it premiered on the radio station KKDO, as their featured song on a segment called "New Music Heaven" and also on KROQ
KROQ-FM
KROQ-FM — branded 106.7 KROQ — is a commercial modern rock radio station licensed to Pasadena, California serving the Greater Los Angeles. The call sign is pronounced "kay rock." It is the flagship station of Loveline hosted by Dr...

, on January 17 at 5 p.m. PST.

Endgame was released in Australia on Friday March 11, 2011.

"Help Is on the Way" was officially released on iTunes
ITunes
iTunes is a media player computer program, used for playing, downloading, and organizing digital music and video files on desktop computers. It can also manage contents on iPod, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad....

 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. In addition, Rise Against played two South American shows in Brazil and Argentina in late February and a run of European shows in March. After touring South America, and Europe, Rise Against were back in the United States in April (Bad Religion
Bad Religion
Bad Religion is a punk rock band that formed in Los Angeles in 1979. Their current line-up consists of Greg Graffin , Brett Gurewitz , Jay Bentley , Greg Hetson , Brian Baker and Brooks Wackerman . Gurewitz is also the founder of the label Epitaph Records, which has released almost all of the...

, who once toured with Rise Against in 2004, and Four Year Strong
Four Year Strong
Four Year Strong is an American pop punk band from Worcester, Massachusetts, formed in 2001. The group consists of vocalists and guitarists Dan O'Connor and Alan Day, bassist Joe Weiss, and drummer Jackson Massucco...

 supported this tour).

"Help Is on the Way" is named the official theme song to WWE Over the Limit 2011
Over the Limit (2011)
Over the Limit was a professional wrestling pay-per-view event produced by WWE, which took place on May 22, 2011 at the KeyArena in Seattle, Washington. It was the second Over the Limit event...

. WWE also used "Satellite" to promote the video game WWE All Stars
WWE All Stars
WWE All-Stars is a professional wrestling video game published by THQ and developedby THQ San Diego for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 systems and Subdued Software for the PlayStation Portable, Wii, Nintendo 3DS and PlayStation 2 systems. The game features current and former WWE wrestlers competing...

. "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)"

Critical reception

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." Rock Sound's review called the album "bona fide awesomeness". 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!
Against Me!
Against Me! is an American punk rock band formed in 1997 in Naples, Florida and relocated to Gainesville, Florida in 1999. Their first full-length album, released on No Idea Records in 2002, was Against Me! Is Reinventing Axl Rose. They have released music on Misanthrope Records, Crasshole Records,...

's "I Was a Teenage Anarchist
I Was a Teenage Anarchist
"I Was a Teenage Anarchist" is a song by the Gainesville, Florida-based punk rock band Against Me!, released as the first single from their 2010 album White Crosses...

" almost word for word), the singer-guitarist just sounds like he's trying to win back an ex-girlfriend."

Commercial performance

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. It's also the band's first album to enter the UK top 40 album chart, debuting at no. 27.

In Canada, the album debuted at #1 on the Canadian Albums Chart
Canadian Albums Chart
The Canadian Albums Chart is the official album sales chart in Canada. It is compiled every Wednesday by U.S.-based music sales tracking company Nielsen Soundscan, and published every Thursday by Jam! Canoe and Billboard, along with its sister charts the Canadian Singles Chart and the Canadian BDS...

, selling 17,000 copies.

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.

Track listing

Personnel

Rise Against
  • Tim McIlrath
    Tim McIlrath
    Timothy "Tim" James McIlrath is an American punk rock musician. He is the lead singer, rhythm guitarist, songwriter and co-founder for the American punk rock band Rise Against. McIlrath is known to support animal rights and actively promotes PETA with his band...

     – lead vocals, rhythm guitar
    Rhythm guitar
    Rhythm guitar is a technique and rôle that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse in conjunction with singers or other instruments; and to provide all or part of the harmony, ie. the chords, where a chord is a group of notes played together...

  • Joe Principe
    Joe Principe
    Joe Principe is the bass guitarist, backing vocalist and co-founder of the punk rock band Rise Against. He primarily uses Fender basses, Mesa amps and cabinets, and he uses pick-playing exclusively....

     – bass guitar
    Bass guitar
    The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....

    , backing vocals
  • Brandon Barnes
    Brandon Barnes
    Brandon Barnes is an American musician and producer from Denver, Colorado. He is best known as the drummer for the punk rock band, Rise Against. Barnes is the only member of the band who is not straight edge.-Biography:...

     – drums
    Drum kit
    A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....

    , percussion
  • Zach Blair
    Zach Blair
    Zach Blair is the lead guitarist and backing vocalist for Chicago-based hardcore punk band Rise Against. He is originally from Sherman, Texas.Before joining Rise Against in early 2007, Blair was a member of hardcore punk group Only Crime along with his brother, Doni Blair, who currently plays with...

     – lead guitar
    Lead guitar
    Lead guitar is a guitar part which plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs within a song structure...

    , backing vocals

Additional personnel
  • Matt Skiba
    Matt Skiba
    Matthew Thomas Skiba is the lead singer and guitarist of Alkaline Trio.-Early life and family:...

     (of Alkaline Trio
    Alkaline Trio
    Alkaline Trio is an American punk rock band that formed in McHenry, Illinois, in 1996. The band's line-up consists of Matt Skiba , Dan Andriano , and Derek Grant...

    ) – backing vocals on "Midnight Hands"
  • Chad Price
    Chad Price
    Chad Price is best known for being the lead singer for the pop-punk band All and alt-country band Drag the River.He joined ALL in 1993 as the band's third singer, after Dave Smalley and Scott Reynolds. He has appeared on the four most recent studio albums, as well as one live album...

     (of ALL
    ALL (band)
    All is an American punk band originally from Los Angeles, currently residing in Fort Collins, Colorado, formed by Descendents members Bill Stevenson, Karl Alvarez, and Stephen Egerton.-Formation and Cruz Records Years:...

    ) – backing vocals on "Broken Mirrors"
  • Travis Stevenson – backing vocals on "Make It Stop (September's Children)"
  • Maddie Stevenson – backing vocals on "Make It Stop (September's Children)"
  • Stacie Stevenson – backing vocals on "Make It Stop (September's Children)"
  • Tess Young – backing vocals on "Make It Stop (September's Children)"
  • Jade Reese – backing vocals on "Make It Stop (September's Children)"
  • Kaullin Sigward – backing vocals on "Make It Stop (September's Children)"


Production
  • Bill Stevenson – production
    Record producer
    A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...

    , engineering
  • Jason Livermore – production, engineering
  • Sean Demey – engineering
  • Justin Berlin – engineering, additional production
  • Chris Lord-Alge
    Chris Lord-Alge
    Chris Lord-Alge is a mixer who has worked on various albums. He is the brother of Tom Lord-Alge, another audio engineer. Chris Lord-Alge is known for his extreme use of dynamic range compression in both hardware and software plug-in versions....

     – mixing
  • Ted Jensen
    Ted Jensen
    Ted Jensen is an American recording engineer. Jensen is the chief mastering engineer at Sterling Sound. He started his career as a mastering engineer in 1976 and is currently the most active Mastering Engineer in the industry...

     – mastering
  • Brad Townsend – additional mix engineering
  • Johnathan Shubert – additional mix engineering
  • Evan Hunt – photography

Region Date
Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

March 11, 2011
Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

March 14, 2011
Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

March 15, 2011
United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...


Chart positions

Chart (2011) Peak
position
Australian Album Chart
ARIA Charts
The ARIA charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling singles and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA commenced compiling its own charts in-house from the week ending 26 June...

2
Austria Albums Chart
Ö3 Austria Top 40
Ö3 Austria Top 40 is the name of the official Austrian singles chart, as well as the radio show which presents it, aired Fridays on Hitradio Ö3. The show presents the Austrian singles, ringtones and downloads chart. It premiered on 26 November 1968 as Disc Parade and was presented by Ernst Grissemann...

3
Belgium Albums Chart
Ultratop
Ultratop is an organization which generates and publishes the official record charts in Belgium, and it is also the name of most of those charts...

 (Flanders
Flanders
Flanders is the community of the Flemings but also one of the institutions in Belgium, and a geographical region located in parts of present-day Belgium, France and the Netherlands. "Flanders" can also refer to the northern part of Belgium that contains Brussels, Bruges, Ghent and Antwerp...

)
23
Belgium Albums Chart (Wallonia) 75
Canadian Albums Chart
Canadian Albums Chart
The Canadian Albums Chart is the official album sales chart in Canada. It is compiled every Wednesday by U.S.-based music sales tracking company Nielsen Soundscan, and published every Thursday by Jam! Canoe and Billboard, along with its sister charts the Canadian Singles Chart and the Canadian BDS...

1
Dutch Albums Chart
MegaCharts
MegaCharts is responsible for the composition and exploitation of a broad collection of official charts in the Netherlands, of which the Mega Top 50 and the Mega Album Top 100 are the most known ones. Mega Charts also provides information to the Stichting Nederlandse Top 40, of which the Dutch Top...

47
Finnish Albums Chart 42
German Albums Chart
Media Control Charts
The official music charts in Germany are gathered and published by the company Media Control GfK International on behalf of Bundesverband Musikindustrie...

1
Irish Albums Chart
Irish Albums Chart
The Irish Albums Chart is the Irish music industry standard albums popularity chart issued weekly by the Irish Recorded Music Association and compiled on its behalf by Chart-Track. Chart rankings are based on sales, which are compiled through over-the-counter retail data captured electronically...

96
New Zealand Albums Chart
Recording Industry Association of New Zealand
The Recording Industry Association of New Zealand is a non-profit trade association of record producers, distributors and recording artists who sell music in New Zealand...

6
Norwegian Albums Chart
VG-lista
VG-listen is a Norwegian record chart. It is weekly presented in the newspaper VG and the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation program Topp 20. It is considered the primary Norwegian record chart, charting albums and singles from countries and continent around the world. The data is collected by...

28
Spanish Albums Chart 72
Swedish Albums Chart
Sverigetopplistan
Sverigetopplistan, earlier known as Topplistan and Hitlistan and other names, is since October 2007 the Swedish national record chart, based on sales data from Swedish Recording Industry Association ....

6
Swiss Albums Chart
Swiss Music Charts
The Swiss Music Charts are Switzerland's main music sales charts. The charts are a record of the highest-selling singles and albums in various genres in Switzerland.The Swiss Charts include:* Singles Top 75...

12
UK Albums Chart
UK Albums Chart
The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart...

27
UK Rock Albums Chart 1
US Billboard 200
Billboard 200
The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...

2
US Billboard Alternative Albums 1
US Billboard Digital Albums 1
US Billboard Hard Rock Albums 1
US Billboard Rock Albums 1
US Billboard Tastemaker Albums 2
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK