This Wiesbaden (Central Germany) based quintet was founded in 2009, and went through two bassists and two drummers before settling to the current line-up consisting of singer Johannes Schöbinger, guitarists Yannick Zobus and Jonas Römhild, bassist Markus Straussner, and drummer David Willmes (the latter two joining the band during 2013), each bring in his own background and personal taste to the final product.
Throughout the line-up changes, the band also grew from an oldschool Metalcore to something between Melodic Hardcore and contemporary Metalcore. In their original line-up the guys already self-recorded the demo tape Inhum Society, which they released within the same year as being formed. I'm not sure whether the first line-up change (bassist) had already occurred when the band next released a split EP (and I have no idea – found no further info about it – with which other band!) entitled Between Life And Death, in 2010, but it was again a DIY affair. At any rate, it generated enough waves within the scene for Bastardized Recordings to take notice of the band, and as a first installment of the deal betwixt the two, the label sent the band into a proper studio for the recordings of their 6-track EP A Grave Of Dignity, which was released in September 2011.
So there we are today, listening to the band's debut full-length offering...11 tracks (including the atmospheric opening and shorter – meant as an intro, I'm sure – “Earthlings”, which includes a vocal sample, the origin of which eludes me somewhat) with a total playing time of just over 39 minutes. Vocally, the band remains within the strict Hardcore realm (with only an occasional more clean passage somewhere toward the end of the album), and instrumentally the guitarists manage to bring that nice melodic touch (thanks to lavish lead parts) in an otherwize relatively aggressive whole. However...regretfully there's rather a lot of bands out there whom might have given you exactly the same thing. In other words: the experienced listener into the genre will hardly find anything original about Rising Anger, and I'm certain (s)he might name a number of bands with exactly the same qualities.
Should we therefore dismiss this band's offering as “middle-of-the-road”? Nah! Don't you dare! I mean, the album IS good, you know, and I'm sure the kids will be jumpin' up 'n' down and singing along with the lyrics. The genre purist will certainly add the album to his/her collection without complaint, and people not familiar with the type of music should be all means check the album, rather than just endorsing the “big” names! You know, support your “local” scene and all that? You'll find a couple of videos by the band (two off the current release) posted at (www.) facebook.com, and in he “MP3 Download” section you're re-directed to the band's BandCamp page for more audio!