Epitaph (label)
07 July 2007 (released)
12 July 2007
In the punk world these days there are few bands which can be said to be truly hardcore; Bad Religion though can raise their fists to that proudly.
After 13 studio albums a tally of line-up changes to rival the mighty Iron Maiden, the Californian punk legends have returned with New Maps of Hell.
When wondering what to expect here, all the essential boxes are ticked. Political lyrics, guitar driven melodies and vocal harmonies are scattered across the 16 tracks, which offer a combination of intense furious outbursts, barely over a minute long, to more considered and rounded songs.
The first single to come from the album, Honest Goodbye, takes things a little too far. The two key songwriters for the band Brett Gurewitz and Greg Graffin collaborated, unfortunately with disappointing results.
It’s a shame, because if it wasn’t for this stylistic blip, which sounds a little too much like the pop side of New Found Glory, the album would be solid.
Unmissable tracks include Prodigal Son, a story of a boy living in fear of his father’s expectations of him, and the social commenting Scrutiny.
A must have for fans, coming within a hair’s breadth of The Process of Belief in terms of style and bringing out some of the anger and energy which made Suffer so memorable.
Despite all this though, you can’t avoid the fact that the band is who they are, and they never stray far from the ground they’ve already trodden time and time again.
