CD Review: Bad Religion – True North
Epitaph
All Access Review: B+
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| Bad Religion - True North 2013 |
Outraged about so many things these days, from the Citizens
United ruling to corporate avarice, the regressive fascism of Tea Party
politics and – their favorite target – close-minded religious zealotry, punk
stalwarts Bad Religion air their latest laundry list of grievances on True North.
Still feisty after all these
years, as evidenced by the inclusion of a fiery expression of inarticulate rage
titled “Fuck You,” Greg Graffin, Brett Gurewitz and company are just as
intensely intellectual and righteously angry as they were when they came of age
in Ronald Reagan’s America in the early 1980s.
PhD. In hand, Graffin goes off in search of justice and
reason in an age devoid of both, as Bad Religion – a model of precision and control, with a multitude of guitars
blazing away – packs short, punchy bursts of incendiary, yet irresistibly melodic,
punk rock with rhetorical gunpowder into True
North, as “Land of Endless Greed,” “In Their Hearts is Right,” “My Head is
Full of Ghosts,” “Nothing to Dismay” and “The Island” go off like small grenades
full of barbed hooks. Dashing to the finish line in record time is 1:01 “Vanity,”
the fastest song Bad Religion has ever recorded, and the title track jumps out of
the speakers like a panther.
Some machines are just more finely tuned than others. Built for speed, Bad Religion’s engine is running at peak efficiency, with little wasted motion,
taut rhythms and those great backing vocals harmonies that serve as Bad
Religion’s secret weapon. These rapid-fire songs are tense and indestructible, although Bad
Religion loosens the nuts a little on the metallic, rumble “Dharma and the Bomb”
– which somehow sounds like The Clash’s “Brand New Cadillac” filtered through a
rush of the Foo Fighters’ adrenalized pop – and the gasping, slow-burn “Hello
Cruel World,” which lacks the cardiovascular strength of the rest of True North.
Speaking up for downtrodden, “Dept. of False Hope” is not
exactly a ray of sunshine for economically beaten up blue-collar heroes, but it
does fight for their dignity and exhorts communities to do what they can to
lift up the less fortunate. Bad Religion has always been idealistic, and age
hasn’t turned them into cynics. What they are is punk and hardcore’s version of
AC/DC or Motorhead, churning out the same albums decade after decade and still
managing to duck criticism for doing so. Though there is some diversity on True North, these old dogs don’t want to learn any
new tricks, and after a while, some of these songs tend to run together. In the
end, Bad Religion just wants to sharpen and streamline their guitar-driven attack
to the point where it serves as a perfectly designed missile delivery system for warheads of the
truth – at least as Graffin sees it. With True
North, Bad Religion is pointed in the right direction, and spoiling for a
fight. (www.epitaph.com)
- – Peter Lindblad
