BAD RELIGION: THE PROCESS OF BELIEF (2002)
1) Supersonic; 2) Prove It; 3)
Can't Stop It; 4) Broken; 5) Destined For Nothing; 6) Materialist; 7) Kyoto
Now; 8) Sorrow; 9) Epiphany; 10) Evangeline; 11) The Defense; 12) The Lie; 13)
You Don't Belong; 14) Bored And Extremely Dangerous; 15*) Shattered Faith.
No more Todd Rundgren, but a whole lot more
Brett Gurewitz, back full time not only as guitar player, but also as one of
the two chief songwriters — although, frankly speaking, decades of living
either under or in the shadow of the Bad Religion banner has pretty much
neutralized the styles of the two: I am not strong enough to easily discern
between Brett's and Greg's signatures. Lyrics-wise, Graffin tends to be more issue-specific
than Gurewitz and more prominently show off his educated intellectualism in his
radicalism, but musically, these melodies are almost totally interchangeable
between brothers-in-arms.
Anyway, the reunion, the sacking of Rundgren,
and the label move from Atlantic to Epitaph resulted in some predictable nano-changes.
The ensuing album is a little less pop, a little faster, and a little crunchier
in terms of guitar tones. Select opinions — and with each passing year,
opinions on Bad Religion's new albums become more and more «select» — suggested
that here was a deliberate move in the backwards direction of Suffer. Who can really tell without a
microscope? All I know is, the production still sounds 2002 rather than 1988, with
the guitars all muffled rather than «trebly», and what other difference could
there be?
As usual, let us talk in terms of singles.
ʽSorrowʼ managed to become a minor hit, but the only interesting thing about it
is that it starts out as a reggae number — the band's first foray into the
genre thus far — before quickly shifting gears and launching into the usual
«folk-punk» mode à la «Woody Guthrie
goes hardcore». ʽBrokenʼ is a tune about human relationship between actual
humans (no shit!) that switches to near-complete acoustic backing for the
verses — another first? Not too memorable otherwise. ʽSupersonicʼ is classic
quintessential Bad Religion: as fast as the title suggests, energetic, and
kinda meaningless: "I gotta go faster, keep up the pace / Just to stay in
the human race" — is that why
they keep on releasing a new album every two years?
Best of the bunch is probably ʽThe Defenseʼ,
for which the band cooked up a little atmosphere: backward guitars, Mid-Eastern
/ symph-metal chord changes (well, maybe not quite), a far more tricky than
usual vocal architectonic structure, and a suitably apocalyptic set of lyrics.
Without overrating its complexity or effectiveness, I could safely say, at the
very least, that it is just a good song, and that it stands out on its own —
something that you very, very rarely get on any given BR album (I mean, unless
you are a religiously devoted fan, how many different BR songs can you actually
single out from the rest and remember as individual entities?).
Curiously, all
four singles were credited to Gurewitz — maybe in a fit of gratitude on
Graffin's part. In fact, the songwriting is evenly split in half, but out of
Graffin's material, I could only say something about ʽBored And Extremely
Dangerousʼ ("With nothing better to do / I woefully conclude / To take it
out on you" — aw come now, Greg, you have been taking it out on us for
twenty years now), which has a few seconds of «non-music sounds» interrupting
the flow to further impress us with how bored everyone really is; and about
ʽKyoto Nowʼ, which is the only straightforward pro-Protocol piece of
propaganda dressed in the form of popcore that I know of (there must be others,
I guess), but has no other merits to speak of.
Okay, so that's about it. Faster, louder,
crunchier than they used to be over the past several years, so if you're only
in it for the ass-kicking, The Process
Of Belief might be right up your alley. But the usual problems won't go
anywhere any time soon, either, and now that they have entered the middle age
of dynamic compression, this is not
going to be the Bad Religion of old. So yes, it does matter whether you are
buying The Process Of Belief or Against The Grain as your introduction
to America's chomskiest rock band.
Check "The Process Of Belief" (MP3) on Amazon
Once again I can't help comparing with Therapy? Ass-kicking? Try this:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PSY_Snpj-o
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dU4PPpvsIKI
and Therapy? was on the decline as well - the albums where these songs come from (2001 and 2003) are not at all thát good.