Ready, refreshed and still raging

War. Climate change. Occupy. Terrorism. Religion.

No topic is too challenging for Rise Against, the Chicago-based punk band set to play Sacramento’s Aftershock Festival on Sunday.

That’s obvious with the band’s seventh album, The Black Market, which dropped in July. While Rise Against takes on the aforementioned issues—and then some—frontman Tim McIlrath also turns inward. The result is unusually personal, exploring how these big, global problems affect his state of mind.

It might stem from the band’s recent hiatus, which began a year-and-a-half prior to writing The Black Market. Rise Against’s members went on vacation, hung out with their families and more or less ignored music for the first time in 15 years. They returned refreshed, but apparently still pissed off at the world.

The first single, “I Don’t Want To Be Here Anymore,” is a prime example of McIlrath’s new direction, exploring the broad culture of violence, but also how it feels as an individual surrounded by it.

“There are so many guns in this country that it should be concerning to anyone,” says drummer Brandon Barnes. “We all have kids and nowadays people are shooting up schools—it’s pretty terrifying. As parents, that’s something we want to talk about.”

The music video starts with a couple of kids in Chicago talking about all the shootings they’ve seen like it’s no big deal. Then it quickly cuts between footage from the U.S., Iraq, Nigeria, Mexico and other violent hubs—soldiers, police cars, politicians, candlelit vigils, crying families. Statistics pop up: 1.6 million people lose their lives to shootings each year; 120,000 dead in the Mexican Drug War; the U.S. averages one school shooting every five years; the world has been at peace for 8 percent of recorded history.

All the while, McIlrath sings: “I don’t want to be here anymore / I know there’s nothing left worth staying for.”

The imagery alone makes it one of the strongest statements the band has ever made. Naturally, the YouTube comment section is full of people who say they love Rise Against but strongly disagree with this video’s message.

Those same fans will probably have a tough time accepting the rest of The Black Market. “A Beautiful Indifference” attacks critics of the Occupy movement: “Protests are drumming while you turn your nose and roll your eye / Knee-jerk reactions so ingrained / Judging from an armchair.”

Likewise, the acoustic track, “People Live Here,” moves through several heady topics, but McIlrath’s first lines address blind religion: “My God is better than yours / And the walls of my house are so thick / I hear nothing at all.”

The band isn’t worried about losing fans, though. Riling people up is just part of Rise Against.

Barnes says the band found its political voice gradually over time. Its members certainly had political opinions when they first got together in their 20s, but the band was mostly about having fun. Then they started seeing the world and growing up. McIlrath is the youngest at 35; guitarist Zach Blair is 39, and Barnes and bassist Joe Principe are both around 40 years old.

“We realized we could use our voice to give back to charity work and have lyrics that touch on sensitive topics that we thought were important,” Barnes says. “That became a whole other part of the band—and equally important.”