Let's get this out right up front: Bad Religion is the greatest punk band to ever walk the face of the Earth. Period. No debate in my mind. That's what makes their new album The Dissent of Man, out September 28th, so disappointing.
It would be wrong to ever describe a Bad Religion record as 'lazy', but there's a feeling of that with The Dissent of Man. The blistering guitars that open the album on "The Day the Earth Stalled" are clichéd, and make many appearances throughout. Greg Graffin seems almost winded delivering his parts on tracks like "Only Rain". As a result the entire band needs to dial everything back. The result are an abundance of blase mid tempo (mid punk tempo anyway) numbers like "The Devil In Stitches" and "Ad Hominem".
Even Graffin's lyrics aren't as sharp as we've come to expect. There may be a couple of slightly clever song titles, but the lyrics themselves are incredibly predictable. Beyond that I nary had to reach for a thesaurus. Frankly, I listen to Bad Religion albums to expand my vocabulary. There's no such luck here.
The album does have some bright spots. The choppiness of "Someone To Believe" is a nice variation on the standard punk sound. The riff on "Cyanide" is as close to classic rock as Bad Religion have ever come, but it strangely works. They also show a pop side with the poignant closer "I Won't Say Anything". A handful of tracks over the course of a 15-song album isn't enough to garner a recommendation though.
If ever you could listen to an album and clearly state that here's a band in desperate need of a recharge, The Dissent of Man would be it.
1. The Day That the Earth Stalled
2. Only Rain
3. The Resist Stance
4. Won’t Somebody
5. The Devil in Stitches
6. Pride and the Pallor
7. Wrong Way Kids
8. Meeting of the Minds
9. Someone to Believe
10. Avalon
11. Cyanide
12. Turn Your Back On Me
13. Ad Hominem
14. Where The Fun Is
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