No Substance - Atlantic 1998

 7 / 10

I absolutely DESPISED this record on first listen. The riffs are generic and at times completely ripped off from earlier Bad Religion material, the tempos are slowed, and Greg's arrogance is completely out of control in holier-than-thou diatribes like "Mediocre Minds" and "The State Of The End Of The Millennium Address" (not to mention in his claim in the liner notes that Bad Religion are "the best band in the world"). See, I'm fine with arrogance if it's deserved. But it's not in this case. Bad Religion used to be the world's greatest popcore band -- but in 1998, they WERE NOT AT ALL. They were still perfectly enjoyable from a listener's standpoint - harmless, cute fun with nice vocal harmonies and the occasional high-speed melody - but they were breaking NO new ground at all, and their soapbox whining was getting really, really tired. Next time Greg wants to bitch about somebody with a "mediocre mind," I'll ask him to kindly not rip off the melody of "Yummy Yummy Yummy, I've Got Love in My Tummy" in doing so.

The songs are simple and catchy, with the occasional cool lead guitar line boppin' in there to make it a bit more interesting. However, they're clearly old men operating on autopilot here, so don't pick this up expecting an awesome punk rock experience like No Control or Against The Grain. Again, basically an enjoyable record, but not nearly as great as the band seems to think it is, the fools.

- Mark Prindle