The Offspring - Rise And Fall, Rage And Grace
Record Label: Columbia
Release Date: June 17, 2008

Album Review By Chris Fallon. Courtesy of Absolutepunk.net

There is a certain whiff of familiarity that exudes from Orange County punk rock veterans The Offspring and their most recent effort, Rise And Fall, Rage And Grace. The distinct and capricious vocal harmonies of front man Dexter Holland, the three-chord punch of lead guitarist Kevin "Noodles" Wasserman and the smooth, fast-driving bass lines from Greg Kriesel; like Pavlov's dog, their blend of SoCal skate punk and modern rock ring a certain bell within all of us as one of the most successful, seasoned bands who is oftentimes lost amongst the crowd. Best known for their novelty tracks such as "Pretty Fly (For A White Guy)," "Hit That," and "Self-Esteem," it has been nearly five years since their last major release of all-new material.

As quiet as The Offspring have remained this past decade compared to their 90's contemporaries Foo Fighters and Green Day, the band has been working feverishly with producer Bob Rock (Metallica, Motley Crue, Simple Plan) for the past two years on Rise And Fall, Rage And Grace, a disc that thoroughly combines familiar melodies with anthems concerning the same course of lyrical imagery the band has tinkered with since their initial inception in the late 1980's.

Rock's meat-and-potatoes style of producing doesn't offer much more than a larger scope of sound for the band. Juggernaut lead single "Hammerhead" rips through its nearly five-minute length, yet still sounds too long. "You're Gonna Go Far, Kid" exhibits shades of Finger Eleven's "Paralyzer," incorporating dance-floor grooves to punk rock territory, while "Fix You" goes where no other Offspring song has truly gone before: the ballad zone. The song plays as nice-guy sequel to "She's Got Issues," from 1998's Americana, taking an even slower course-of-action that "Gone Away" (the only other song they have written that resembles an honest-to-God ballad) had. The lyrics tell of a girl from a broken home, with Holland achingly crying out, "I wish I could heal you / And I wish you could heal me," coming to grips with his own flaws while wishing he could fix her own. While it's not quite the style of music fans have associated them with, it works better than expected; Holland takes a cue from Dave Grohl and Billie Joe Armstrong by adjusting his dynamic vocals a few octaves to fit the piano-layered verses. Keeping in line with the Green Day references, Holland anxiously belts out what sounds like a leftover song from the American Idiot sessions with second-single "Kristy, Are You Doing Okay?" The song suffers from the same head-scratching rationale "Fix You" does as it doesn't necessarily fit the band who has pigeonholed themselves after eight studio releases.

While it is increasingly evident the band is slowly going the way of the buffalo (in this case, buffalo meaning the contemporaries previously mentioned), The Offspring refuse to let go of their past sound, etching many new songs from the foundations of older ones. "Nothingtown" is basically "Want You Bad" sung at mid-tempo and "Trust In You" starts out much like "Smash," the title track from the band's 1994 landmark debut. Holland continues to have a knack for smart**** tongue-in-cheek songs about "**** [being] ****ed" ("Stuff Is Messed Up") and the band as a whole is obviously enjoying themselves (as is showcased on the Goldfinger-ish "Let's Hear It For Rock Bottom"), however, this group of talented individuals cannot decide which way to go: arena-sized punk rock, a la Green Day or stick-to-your-roots SoCal punk rock, a la Pennywise.

The album has nothing inherently wrong about it. Plain and simple, it's a predictable record that has nothing fresh to give its audience. After a five year period of no new material, it's nice to hear from an old friend but eventually, you realize that not a whole lot has truly changed and it's clear why you forget about them over time in the first place.