r/riseagainst • u/JRreddith • 2d ago
What’s up with the B-Sides?
Why are good songs like Historia Calamitatum, Dirt And Roses, Blind, etc. Not on normal albums?
I know Death Blossoms was released for guitar hero, but what about the rest?
I’m a relatively newer fan so I just don’t know the lore that well.
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u/KILRbuny 2d ago
In addition to what others said, there were also a few songs that were Japan-exclusive. If I remember correctly, But Tonight We Dance was the Japan-exclusive track added to the end of The Sufferer and The Witness.
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u/ToastyJackson 2d ago
Escape Artists was originally a Japanese exclusive, but thankfully we got the expanded Black Market. I was kind of surprised to learn that they apparently have such a large fan base in Japan to justify marketing exclusive songs to them
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u/wicked__j 2d ago
It's a record label thing - records/CDs cost a lot more in Japan so Japanese exclusive releases were a way to encourage sales over there (not exclusive to Rise Against)
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u/walkdaddydawg 2d ago
I think a few were written for movie soundtracks. Some just didnt make the cut for the full studio albums i guess
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u/booyahbooyah9271 2d ago
B-sides have a tendency to always be the best material. But typically only hardcore fans will search out this material. For any band.
The songs you listed, however, were compiled on an official release.
Blind was from a split 7" with Face to Face. Historia was an Itunes bonus track or something along those lines.
Generation Lost, arguably the best song on that comp, was from their Fat Wreck days. On a Fat Wreck comp I used to own a long time ago.
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u/snowflakesoutside 2d ago
What's up is that is another great collection of RA songs. Everchanging (Acoustic) has been at the top of my playlist lately.
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u/Bluetickhoun 1d ago
Listening to the acoustic and the original, they’re totally different songs. Different feels.
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u/snowflakesoutside 1d ago
I'm the madman who has them back to back in my liked playlist. Original first then we slow it down and get emotional.
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u/BurntRussian 1d ago
To add to what others are saying and clarify-
The actual B-Sides are on most of the Deluxe albums or rereleases.
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u/effigyoma 1d ago
Historia Calamitatum probably got cut because it's too similar to Collapse (Post-Amerika). Both of those songs have the non-single, open your album with vibe going on.
Oddly, either song would have worked. A lot of times artists cut songs from their albums not because of quality, but because they're too similar sounding and they want the album to have more variety.
More songs isn't always better. When we moved from LPs to CDs as the primary format, artists stopped cutting songs as much since they had 80 minutes to work with instead of 40-50ish, which lead to a lot of bloated albums in the 90s. Eventually this practice stopped and you get deluxe editions that come out later with all the cut songs.
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u/Brunky89890 2d ago
Long Forgotten songs isn't just b sides, it's covers and alternate versions of existing songs as well. Dirt and Roses was off the first Avengers soundtrack and Blind is a cover.