It’s not often that an album comes along and knocks you on your ass musically and lyrically. Then again, it’s also not often that a band that has been around for over 20 years puts out their 14th album. What’s even rarer is that band sounds just as relevant and invigorated as they did during their inception. My friends that is indeed the case with Bad Religion’s New Maps Of Hell.
The boys have taken their time with this album, delaying it an insurmountable number of times, and giving the fans the smallest amounts of information about it except to say that, “the fast songs are some of the fastest we’ve ever crafted.”
They weren’t kidding.
The longest song on the entire album is a mere three minutes and forty seconds, and four of the songs here don’t even make the two minute mark. “Honest Goodbye,” while an incredibly brutal and great choice for a first single, really gives listeners no impression of the speed found in the full album. And unlike their contemporaries like NOFX, and MxPx, Bad Religion still strike that incredible balance between furious
For as fast as this album is, it is fascinating to see how Greg Graffin and Brett Gurewitz sneak in those gorgeous back up harmonies in songs like “New Dark Ages.” With a quick drum roll and rumbling bassline, we’re treated to an epic wall of sound that brings to mind the best of Bad Religion’s previous album, The Empire Strikes First. And while the instrumentation is tight, we cannot forget that Bad Religion is a band of ideas and Graffin supplies them in the aforementioned track with calculating precision, “Yeah can you hear the call/In our rambling land/Susurrations/That can expand beyond all hope of light/And plunge us into unrelenting night…” While the album’s lyrics fall into two camps (telling us how backwards the world’s become, or calling us to make it right), there is no other singer in punk that can express it as eloquently as Graffin. What other figure in American punk can pull of a line like “Modernistocrat Horatio Alger” and still seem in touch with the masses? Few, if any.
The band’s longevity is also truly something to marvel at with Graffin, Gurewitz, Jay Bentley and Greg Hetson all being around since the 80s, but not enough is said about the young man behind the skins. Brooks Wackerman, to put it bluntly, is the best thing to happen to this band. He’s single handedly responsible for bringing the speed and energy back into their infectious songs and Bad Religion itself out of their lean years in the 90s. He’s fluid too, balancing some impressive rapid fire but precise beats with drumlines that just seem to keep going. Wackerman dominates the robotic “Submission Complete” giving us an impressive variety of rolls, kicks, and cymbal work that leave listeners simply in awe. It’s as if the band don’t want to leave him hanging either, for Gurewitz, Hetson and Brian Baker dazzle listeners with some impressive riffs and solos. “Requiem For Dissent” sports an impressive call and response all over blistering fast guitar lines from these great axe men. If they’ve gotten old, the music itself shows no sign of it.
New Maps Of Hell is ultimately a synthesis of what Bad Religion does best, and sports smatterings of all the great aspects of their career. The music here draws from the catchy choruses of Stranger Than Fiction, the folk experimentation of Recipe For Hate, the speed of No Control, and the complexity of Against The Grain. Ultimately, with an album his good, the old fans that disowned them before will have to accept their punk heroes back with open arms. Other punk bands have come and gone (mostly due to their fans' fickle tastes), but it’s apparent that at this point Bad Religion are a punk institution. They adhere to their own rules and craft their the most engaging music that genre has to offer. In closing, if the music on New Maps Of Hell is the soundtrack for the apocalypse, part of me hopes the world gets worse before it gets better.
Sounds Like: All Hallows E.P. (A.F.I.), Against The Grain (Bad Religion), Insomniac (Green Day)
Key Cuts: Heroes & Martyrs, New Dark Ages, Requiem For Dissent
