Revisiting and Ranking Rise Against’s 9 Albums

From the ashes of 88 Fingers Louie and Baxter rose Chicago’s own Rise Against, one of the biggest punk bands in the past two decades. The band quickly gained a following through their first 2 albums on Fat Wreck Chords and then moved on to international fame with the move to a major. Through their melodic hardcore songs and socially-conscious and political lyrics, they’ve etched out a devoted following for themselves.

The band formed in 1999 with ex-Baxter member Tim McIlrath on lead vocals (later becoming rhythm guitarist in 2002) and ex-88 Fingers Louie members Joe Principe on bass and Dan “Precision” Wleklinski on guitar. Rounding the band out was Kevin White on rhythm guitar and Tony Tintari on drums.

Before their first album, Kevin White left and Tintari was replaced with Brandon Barnes on drums. Rise Against has stayed with the lineup of Mcllrath, Principe and Barnes since, but has gone through a few guitarists before cementing their core 4 members. Dan Precision played on their debut but was replaced with Todd Mohney (of The Killing Tree & The Falcon) for the follow-up album. Mohney was then replaced by Chris Chasse for the next 2 records before finally settling on Zach Blair of Only Crime, Hagfish, and GWAR.

Rise Against has gone through 3–4 phases in their career and while not making enormous changes to…