Coming out the next year, this album is very much Suffer part 2. 15 songs, 26 minutes – do the math, most of these songs are under two minutes, some even less than 1 minute long. And we have basically the exact same tone and feel as the previous album.
As a result I don’t really have much to say about this album that I didn’t already say about Suffer. If you like this band’s sound, this album is every bit as good as the last one ftr. The band has a terrific sense of energy and forward momentum throughout the whole album, with the same sort of “uncanny sadness” in the melodies as we’ve heard before.
Even though almost all these songs are so similar to each other in terms of rhythm/tempo, the album doesn’t wear itself out because it’s so short. They very occasionally change things up, like the song “Sanity” which is slower and at almost 3 minutes long, with two different guitar parts, it’s practically prog rock in comparison to the rest of the album. (Note: it’s not actually prog rock.) With these simple but effective power chord based songs, this band truly feels like they are carrying the torch of the Ramones-philosophy of punk rock (music-wise that is, not in their lyrics).
As before, this band’s relentless political message is that humanity is doomed and we’re a bunch of dumb idiots. Only on a couple of tracks do they get personal at all, such as “Billy” which is about a kid who gets hooked on drugs and is apparently semi-autobiographical by guitarist Brett Gurewitz.
Say what you will about Bad Religion but they fucking KNEW exactly what they wanted to do, and they did it. Their musical identity is fully cohesive and consistent. And I’m not gonna lie this shit is just enjoyable to listen to on a basic level.
Does Bang want to listen to this? YES.
The Davis Collective 