"Live to Rise" by Soundgarden [Ignite]

Any person can press a piano key. That doesn’t make them a musician. Welcome to Additive Noise, the official Spectator source for music reviews and recommendations. We’re here to bring you music you may not have ever heard, to broaden your horizons, or to bring you new information about the music you already love. We hope to enrich your college experience through one simple act: We’d like to give it a soundtrack.

In the fall semester, everyone’s excited and ready to get to work in their new classes. In the spring, however, it’s a bit harder to get off the ground. Feeling some spring semester jet lag? We’ve got the perfect song for you. If you saw Marvel’s ‘The Avengers’ when it released in theaters in May 2012, we hope you stayed to see the credits. If so, you may remember today’s subject: “Live to Rise”, by Soundgarden.

Wait, Soundgarden? Weren’t they done in the 90’s, when did they release something new? It’s true! Soundgarden is back. A Seattle-based grunge band, Soundgarden originally formed in 1984, and played a strong career until their disbanding in 1997. Most of us remember them as creators of the entire grunge-alternative genre, along with similar bands such as Nirvana and Pearl Jam. Unfortunately, it seems that not every group is designed to spend their days on tour. After some internal issues, tour stress, and a twelve-year hiatus, Soundgarden returned to the studio. “The Knights of the Soundtable ride again!” they wrote on their website.

Like students returning the school, the band had to really feel like they were coming back to life. Their dormant career needed a kickstart, which came in the form of “Live to Rise”. The song is a strong and steady testament to those rising from their ashes. This explains why they chose to use it for ‘The Avengers’, given that the movie features some excellent ‘risers’.” Like the sun we will live to rise; Like the sun we will live and die and then ignite again” the lyrics read. While there are two verses and a bridge to the song, these first lines from the chorus are the most important, and thus the most repeated.

Students, we know it’s cold. We know getting up in the morning is a pain. We know you have that one class you just didn’t even want to register for. Do yourself a favor and just live to rise. If you burn out one night, ignite yourself again in the morning. Keep your head up, and kickstart yourself when you need to.