Album Review

Bad Religion – True North

• 18th Jan 2013

Bad Religion are the definition of ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’. Their current effort, True North, is almost clichéd in how much it sounds like a Bad Religion record, but somehow side steps from this with simply the quality of song found on this record.

Clocking in at just over half an hour, this 16 track album sees Bad Religion being their usual punk selves, with material that may be the best they’ve released since Stranger Than Fiction or Process Of Belief. It opens with the title track and, unlike most albums nowadays which contain some intro music or sample dialogue from a movie, True North gets straight to business.

With biting guitars and pounding drums, frontman Greg Graffin finds his voice in this thunderous song, where the chorus states “I can’t see the rationality/ The world’s not my responsibility”. The song almost seems to come to an end after the first chorus, only to thrust back to life for a second helping.

Like true Bad Religion tracks, many of the ones which appear here can be described as short bursts of energy, many lasting less than 2 minutes. One example of this is ‘Endless Greed’, a song displaying Graffin’s disgust with the way people live today. Hitting lyrics like “Everything’s for sale” go back to punk origins of years when this band were starting out. It’s hard to imagine that Graffin is in his late forties, and a professor, yet can still be seen sweating on stage in front of countless fans.

There are longer songs seen here also, such as the elegantly titled ‘Fuck You’. Graffin bellows “Sometimes [..] / the easiest thing to do / is say Fuck You” over the guitar efforts of Brett Gurewitz, Brian Baker and Greg Hetson. Gurewitz lends backing vocals, along with Bass player Jay Bentley, and their harmonies work well in countering Graffins rasping vocals evident in some tracks.

See final track ‘Changing Tide’ for evidence of this. The boys backing vocals laden behind the ever recognisable voice of Greg really work well, there’s little else that can be said about it. Other stand out tracks on the record include ‘My Head Is Full Of Ghosts’, ‘In Their Heart Is Right’ and ‘Hello Cruel World’, the longest on the album. Just shy of 4 minutes, it starts with a slower tempo than most of the album. It is also a change in that, as opposed to hearing the lead singer get angry with the world, he is in fact asking it for sympathy, comfort and help. Quite the change from what we are used to.

While many of the songs here sound like classic Bad Religion, you could say that this is their downfall – it’s just the same old song. Monotonous and boring. But, I can’t see why this should be an issue. With everything out there now so available and random, it’s nice to be able to bank on something, knowing that you’ve got a good album in your hands and ears. Hey, if it ain’t broke.

Download: True North, Land Of Endless Greed, Changing Tide, Hello Cruel World

Venue: True North
Support Band: Epitaph