Guitars, Drums, Tones, and Saxophones

Bad Religion - New Maps of Hell

Keeping with my Election Day theme, one more review from a band largely known for its politics. And of course, one of my personal favorite bands. Bad Religion.

(Note: wow, this is a long-ass review)

I’m also kind of sick of seeing Dead to Me so overrepresented in the tag cloud, simply because there are two reviews of theirs, as of this writing. This should balance it out a bit.

Bad Religion follow-up their critically applauded return-to-form, The Process of Belief, with the timely and topical The Empire Strikes First. While many of the songs contained their trademark calls to arms that aren’t time-specific, many of the songs here were reactions to the current state of affairs at the time of its release in 2004. Here, the band seems less concerned with igniting the populace into immediate action, and is getting back to their usual attack between the ears.

The album opens with the 58-second opener, “52 Seconds.” Yeah, I don’t know either. But it’s a furious blast of the early-’80s LA hardcore that Bad Religion has specialized in and refined so thoroughly in the nearly 30 years since they got together, and leads into the brief, but single-worthy “Heroes & Martyrs.” Actually, the first five tracks of this album are all excellent, culminating with the absolutely stellar “Requiem for Dissent.” The first time I listened to this song, I had an incredible urge to be in a pit, pumping my fist and shouting along. Anyway, the album opens with these five speedy, pounding slices of profound punk rock; exactly what I want from the most erudite aging punks in existence.

The band slows it down some with the actual single, “Honest Goodbye,” which is more reminiscent of Weezer than Bad Religion. I get some flashes back to the more alt-rock lean the band adopted around the Stranger Than Fiction era. It sticks out, but works within the context of the album.

Things kick into gear again, speeding through 8 more tracks- including the minute-long distortion-fest of “Murder”- before the album closes itself out with the relatively soft “Fields of Mars.”

The music on this album? Solid Bad Religion. Some complain that the band hasn’t really changed its style much in… well, ever. That’s not entirely true, but it’s easy to see where they’re coming from; the hurtling punk anthems from this album wouldn’t feel too out of place on most of their other albums. There’s something to be said, though, for doing it very well, which, when Bad Religion is on, they do better than just about anyone else.

As for the lyrical content, this album is the third reminder that damn, it is good to have Bretty Gurewitz back in the band. The competition between the two songwriters, while not unfriendly, I can only imagine helps the best songs rise to the top. Here we find another book of lyrics that millions of punks will pore over, reading and singing and mulling over on message boards and in their bedrooms. And of course, they’re delivered by the fantastic, instantly recognizable voice of Greg Graffin.

Not everything on the album works, of course; this isn’t 16 tracks of pure joy. Around the end, leading up to the great closer (“Fields of Mars”), things get a bit muddled. It’s not awful, but some of the tracks aren’t as distinctive.

All in all, Bad Religion has been cranking out great albums since the return of Mr. Brett back in 2001, and this is another fine example of that. Some say they should hang it up, but it’s a hard argument to make if they keep putting out material like this.

Rating: 4 stars

Tags: bad religion