“Hero of War” by Rise Against from the album Appeal To Reason tells a very distinct story of, as you can guess from the title, a soldier. The singer Tim Mcllrath acts as if he is the soldier going to war saying in the beginning of the song that it sounds like joining the army would be a great idea; he would get to see the world and he would even get paid to do it. But he quickly realizes that maybe the war isn’t what it’s all cut out to be. He obviously knew it was dangerous and that he could possibly die, and he was okay with that; he just wasn’t prepared for all of the hard decisions he would have to make and all the horrible acts he would have to perform. All in all, I like this song; I like the melody of it, but I don’t really like the message it is portraying. I highly respect the army and all they do for this country and this song kind of takes a bash at them. This song is basically saying that the army is cruel to their prisoners and they unnecessarily torture and kill people. I think that maybe the army has done some questionable things, but I also think that torture and killing is required in war. America is in the war for a reason, soldiers are going to have to kill people in order to win.

The music for this song is mostly Tim playing the acoustic guitar and singing but also a little bit of drums here and there. I think this song should definitely be acoustic because it’s really supposed to be about the story; Rise Against wants you to listen to the words. They did this purposely to give the effect of sadness and seriousness; they want you feel sympathetic to the character but also to kind of hate him. In the music video for this song, it starts off with Tim sitting by a swing set playing his guitar, and then it switches back and forth between him and a soldier in war.

This song is very typical for Rise Against. They are very political in their songs, which makes sense because all the members in the band are Democrats. They also promote animal rights, being that all members are vegetarian and all members except one are straight edge. In many of their songs they have liberal views hiding, or not really hiding, in the lyrics. For example “Re-Education Through Labor”, also from Appeal To Reason, is about people who work really hard that don’t get many benefits. This song takes a stab at the upper class that, they think, doesn’t really work for their money and don’t really deserve it. I love this song, but again I don’t agree with this.

I would say this song doesn’t really fit in any specific categories of when to listen to it. It’s a great song, I would definitely put it on your iPod and listen to it often but it’s not specifically for break-ups or workouts or anything like that really. For me, whenever I have to go on a long drive by myself, I have a specific playlist of songs that are really good to belt out the words really loud and sing from the heart (I only do this when I’m alone because my singing voice is actually treacherous). This song is definitely on that playlist; it’s perfect to sing in the moment, feel the story and become one with the main character. Other than that, I would say to just listen to your iPod on shuffle and when it comes on, enjoy it!

Works Cited:

Mcllrath, Tim. Perf. Zach Blair, Joe Principe, and Brandon Barnes. Hero of

         War. Rise Against. Bill Stevenson, Jason Livermore, 2009. CD.

Music Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DboMAghWcA

Lyrics: http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/riseagainst/heroofwar.html