Category: | Review - Internet | Publish date: | 10/7/2010 |
Source: | chartattack.com | ||
Synopsis: |
Bad Religion - The Dissent Of Man
by Kate Harper
chartattack.com, October 7, 2010
Album: The Dissent Of Man
Label: Epitaph
Rating: 3.5 / 5
Bad Religion's The Dissent Of Man is being released at the same time as singer Greg Graffin's new book, Anarchy Evolution: Faith, Science And Bad Religion In A World Without God. Graffin has a zoology PhD and teaches life sciences and paleontology at the University Of California-Los Angeles.
I bring this up because Bad Religion have always been different from most other punk bands in that they've always recognized that it's not simply enough to be pissed off about things that are wrong in the world. You have to be smart about your anger, too.
Of course, The Dissent Of Man, the band's 15th studio album over 30 years, wouldn't be a Bad Religion album unless it took an intellectual view of social and political issues.
"Ad Hominem" finds Graffin mentally trouncing someone who doesn't understand how to argue. "Meeting Of The Minds" is the only anti-religion track I can think of that actually references 325 BCE and the First Council Of Nicaea, which is where the Nicene Creed (or profession of Christian faith) was first adopted (leading to all other sorts of arguments within Christianity later and, of course, persecution of non-Christians).
The songs here might be pretty middle-of-the-road for Bad Religion, and this disc is no Suffer or No Control by any means. But given the power right-wing, religious fundamentalist nutjobs still have worldwide, it should at least remind everyone why Bad Religion are still relevant and important, 30 years in.