MERCIFULLY, NEW BAD RELIGION SOUNDS JUST LIKE OLD BAD RELIGION

Bad Religion are like the Slayer of punk; for the most part they release the same record over and over again, and that’s just the way the band’s fans want it. If Bad Religion ever tried to “branch out” or “experiment” I’m sure they’d be met with strong rebellion, which is kind of ironic given the supposed punk ethos the band’s fans live by (same for Slayer… but I digress). Really though, would we want it any other way? Just as you want your new Slayer record to sound like fuckin’ Slayer, all you really want from a new Bad Religion album is for it to sound like good ol’ Bad Religion, which is to say full-throttle four-chord punk songs with catchy, anthemic choruses, layered “ooo ahhh” vocal harmonies and Greg Graffin’s highbrow socio-political lyrics.

I mention this, of course, because Bad Religion’s new album The Dissent of Man comes out next Tuesday, September 28th.

It was produced by Joe Baressi (Tool, QOTSA, Muse) which is something of a curveball, but overall I find the PR claims that the album finds the band “pushing the boundaries” and stretching “outside [their] comfort zone” to be utterly ridiculous; come on guys, just say it’s another f’n Bad Religion album! There’s nothing wrong with that; it’s exactly what we as fans want.

Find out exactly what I’m talking about by streaming the entire record on Bad Religion’s MySpace page. It’s chock full o’ exactly what you want out of a new Bad Religion record, aka another solid record full of tunes that sound just like Bad Religion. And thank the lord for that. The last thing we need in this crazy ever-changing world is a Bad Religion album that doesn’t sound like Bad Religion. Amen.

Check out the “Album of the Day”-ish column I wrote about BR’s landmark album Stranger Than Fiction a few months back. You’ll like it.

-VN