Rise Against - The Black Market (Expanded Edition) (2014/2020)

After spending the last 12 years waging war against society's ills, Rise Against square up against their own inner struggles on their seventh album, Black Market. Rather than a rallying cry against the status quo, the album finds the band looking inwards, exploring the dark places they need to go to in order to create music meant to rally others to get fired up and take action. Writing about what makes them tick rather than what ticks them off, Rise Against offer up an album that feels more intimate than their past work. Musically, the album feels like an extension of Endgames driving, but not quite as furious. While this might disappoint fans pining for the intensity of their early work, their current sound beautifully marries the Black Market's narrative angle, making room for emotions other than outrage with its (relatively) slower pace. Although Black Market might not go down in history as the band's greatest album, it's a strong contender for the most timeless effort, avoiding the "you had to be there" outrage of their politically charged work and replacing it with something more universal. The message of a song like "I Don't Want to Be Here Anymore," which examines those moments when you look at your life, realize that you're not in the place you want to be, and resolve to change your situation, is one that most anyone can relate to. Black Market may not be the enraged political album that fans want, but it most definitely feels like the cathartic self-examination Rise Against needed, proving that a move doesn't have to be loud to be bold.