Category: | Review - Internet | Publish date: | 10/3/2010 |
Source: | thenumberoftheblog.com (United States) | ||
Synopsis: |
The Dissent Of Man
by GroverXIII
thenumberoftheblog.com, October 3, 2010
Bad Religion have, in their day, gone from punk rock up-and-comers to elder statesmen, with 2010 marking their thirtieth year as a band. For a thirty-year-old band, they’ve been remarkably consistent, even as their sound has softened somewhat in the latter half of their existence. Still, Bad Religion’s last album, 2007′s New Maps Of Hell, was a great album that recalled the aggression of their earlier work and was, to me, their best work since 1992′s Generator. So, I had high hopes for The Dissent Of Man, needless to say, as it seemed the band were moving in a good direction.
And all in all, this is a Bad Religion album, filled with everything that has made them great. Greg Graffin continues to write some of the most intelligent, insightful lyrics in modern music, although I would expect no less from a dude with a PhD who teaches classes at UCLA. (How awesome would it be to have him as your teacher?) The choruses are chock full of the multi-layered three-part vocal harmonies that have become the band’s calling card. The band’s triple-guitar attack (which always seemed a bit excessive, really, although I can see not wanting to kick someone out back when Brett Gurewitz returned to the band) is still rock solid, as is the rhythm section.
The album starts out strong, too, with the upbeat ‘The Day That The Earth Stalled’, ‘Only Rain’, and ‘The Resist Stance’ (on which the opening guitar riff sounds suspiciously like Rush’s ‘Working Man’). ‘Won’t Somebody’, while a slower song, has one of the album’s catchiest choruses. The album maintains a more moderate pace for a few tracks, and while the songs are still really good, I’m reminded of the band’s mid-90s style a bit more. Things do pick back up a bit on ‘Meeting Of The Minds’, which also features some nifty guitarwork and an interesting vocal harmony on the verse; this track might be the highlight of the album for me. ‘Someone To Believe’ actually carries the pace forward, as does ‘Avalon’.
The speed is dialed back a bit on ‘Cyanide’ (no relation to the Metallica track of the same name), and the chorus (and the overall feel of the song) is rather poppy, with some countryish guitar twangs here and there. It’s funny, really, because tracks like this illustrate how much of an influence Bad Religion had on all of the pop-punk bands out there. ‘Turn Your Back On Me’ maintains a similar pace, as does ‘Ad Hominem’, and again I’m reminded of the band’s mellower material. (Interestingly enough, it would appear that a lot of the mid-paced tracks were written by Gurewitz. Hmmmmm…) The album ends on a weaker note with ‘I Won’t Say Anything’, which actually features some acoustic guitar alongside the normal instrumentation and at times on the chorus kinda reminds me of that song The Rembrandts did for Friends, only less annoying.
The overall mellower pace of the album, in the end, feels like a step backward for Bad Religion. New Maps Of Hell felt like progress, and were I reviewing it right now it would get a solid 5.5. While The Dissent Of Man has plenty of moments that show Bad Religion haven’t lost their edge, I can’t help but be a little disappointed. Still, this is a Bad Religion album, meaning that it’s better than pretty much any punk release in recent years… it’s just that Bad Religion have set the bar for themselves so high that it’s difficult to really meet my expectations. I think it’s time to put Suffer on my iPod, but The Dissent Of Man will have its place here for a while as well.
4.5 / 6