Bad Religion – The Dissent of Man

By now there’s no excuse for you to not know who Bad Religion is – even more so if you call yourself a punk fan in the slightest. Celebrating their thirtieth anniversary, Bad Religion have been all over this year – a world tour, a deluxe vinyl box set featuring every single one of their albums (including the rare and controversial Into the Unknown), a free live album, and a covers tribute album. If you didn’t know them before, the amount of news about them this year should surely have sparked your interest.

To cap of their thirtieth anniversary, the Californian punks are releasing their fifteenth studio album: The Dissent of Man (a nice play on Charles Darwin’s The Descent of Man). Now, thirty years and fifteen albums into their career, you know what Bad Religion sounds like and you either like it or you don’t. On The Dissent of Man, the six-piece doesn’t pull out any surprises but instead delivers a solid, fifteen tracks of their signature punk rock songs who’s only true fault is that it runs a little long. So if you liked them before, you’ll dig this; if you thought they were overrated and weren’t a fan, The Dissent of Manwon’t change your mind.

This is their first album since 2007’s New Maps of Hell which saw the band trying to speed things up and take it back to their earlier days with short blasts of angry punk. It was a solid album but felt a little forced at times, The Dissent of Man reels things in a tad and feels more natural. A slower tempo works as the backbone of the album that falls somewhere in the middle of The Empire Strikes Back, The Process of Belief and Stranger than Fiction.

Front man Greg Graffin’s iconic vocals are in full force as he delivers some of the strongest work in years – even more impressive for a guy pushing fifty. He’s melodic and reserved but able to pick up the pace when necessary as he sings his pointed, socio-political commentary. Unlike many of Bad Religion’s albums, The Dissent of Man isn’t as confrontational as they normally are. A few songs are, that’s for sure; but here Graffin seems to take the Descent of Man theme a step further and merges his lyrical storylines with his evolutionary teachings at UCLA and his recent book (Anarchy Evolution). The songs speak more of evolution, religion and the impact they have on society than war or politics; although, Ad Hominem is definitely a scathing look at the Afghanistan war.

The album has the potential to become a classic Bad Religion album – one that people will happily talk about for years to come. It won’t come out and blow you away (it definitely didn’t win me over on my first listen) but a few listens and it becomes a classic Bad Religion album – with the same hooks, melodies, woahs and riffs that the band is known for.  Before you know it, the lyrics are in your head and you’re humming along with Graffin on tracks like The Resist Stance, The Day That The Earth Stalled, Cyanide, I Won’t Say Anything and Won’t Somebody among others.  There’s a confidence here, a more controlled energy with flourishes that pushes the tracks forward and keeps Bad Religion on the top of their game. They’ve found their stride in the more mid-tempo rockers rather than the faster bursts of albums like Suffer; and at this time in their career, it’s the perfect sound for them.