The Black Market by Rise Against

The Black Market, Rise Against's seventh studio album, came out in July 2014 after the Chicago punk band took a year off following the Endgame tour. They cut it at the Blasting Room in Fort Collins, Colorado, starting in January 2014, with Bill Stevenson producing, and tried some new tricks on the gear side, including an Evertune bridge to keep the guitars locked in tune.

It's melodic hardcore with the throttle eased back to mid-tempo, twelve songs leaning on hooks and big bridges, but the real turn is in the lyrics. The band best known for social and political broadsides looks inward here, into dark and personal territory. Critics liked that shift; the music split them, some calling it stale, others hearing a subtler band. "I Don't Want to Be Here Anymore" and "Tragedy + Time" both landed on countdowns. It debuted at number three on the Billboard 200 and hit number one in Canada. Wolves came next.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.