Having celebrated its' thirtieth anniversary in operation this year, the members of Bad Religion must have begun to take stock of where they were in their careers right now, where they'd been and where they might be headed. Who wouldn't? Thirty years is a milestone that most bands don't achieve. Something about the fact that they've not only outlasted but outlived many of their peers must have been on the bandmembers' collective mind when the writing and recording of The Dissent Of Man began, because two things are plainly apparent as “The Day That The Earth Stalled” slams the doors of the record open: here, the band looks back a bit to its' roots and beginnings, but the potency of that attack is tempered by a maturity which reflects the band's years. Simply said, The Dissent Of Man isn't an exorcism of some mid-life crisis for Bad Religion, it's simply an album that reflects where the band is now with all the steps that got them here included.
There's no doubting that Bad Religion knows precisely who it is and how many times the band's members have collectively been around the block as “The Day That The Earth Stalled” opens with the nostalgic line, “Do you remember when we were young, adventure had no end?” In that first stanza alone, singer Greg Graffin articulates affection for days gone by along with no small amount of reflection on those same times. Graffin's ever-more-folksy baritone will pull at the heartstrings of those listeners who have been around for a decent percentage of the last thirty years, and there's no chance of those hearts not getting a hair warmer in listening because it's the sort of romantic moment that Bad Religion almost never permits itself; in its' entire history, only a handful of times when the band has introduced a similar sentiment into their music spring to mind. Listeners won't be able to help wondering if the band might be going soft with age – until Graffin retracts the notion in the very next line of the song (“Those were the days my friend. But I'm not talking about that at all”) and the three-guitar assault of Brett Gurewitz, Brian Baker and Greg Hetson scorches a bit of earth in resolve behind him.
This both is and isn't the sort of thematic dialogue fans have come to expect from Bad Religion. In the strictest sense, the tones of Graffin as well as the back-up vocals remain the calling cards for the band that they've been since Suffer, and (outside of the fairly gauche and stylistically divergent approach taken for No Substance) the general tonality and style of guitarist Brett Gurewitz has remained unchanged since the same time – but The Dissent Of Man is not the same kind of record that fans typically expect from Bad Religion. The difference is twofold; Bad Religion has begun looking inward and analyzing themselves instead of glaring down the uniquely American sociological ills that have previously been the band's bread and butter and, instead of pointing to or waving a disapproving finger at everything the band deems worthy of criticism, Bad Religion has begun looking at themselves to see where thirty years has taken them and what they have to offer a society which, if it isn't happy, isn't talking hard about any significant or grave social injustice.
Without that “one thing wrong” for the band to contemplate, Bad Religion finds it must deal in comparative vagary for song subject matter, or on personal ruminations. It might not seem like it should be, but that new thematic course is refreshing because it amounts to a completely different songwriting and performance dynamic for the band; it's actually a really well-rounded record. Instead of focusing on just one thing and perhaps including a couple of offshoot asides as has been the case with Bad Religion albums previously (no disrespect – the band has done it very, very well), The Dissent Of Man is an album comprised of fifteen songs which each stand autonomous from each other with a focus placed on individual song craft rather than each having a thread that could be pulled together to present a single idea. That more open form affords a whole lot of freedom to the band and lets them try out a host of different ideas. On “Won't Somebody,” for example, Graffin translates some of the distinctly folk and almost country strains that he played around with for his solo album, Cold As The Clay, into a form that works incredibly well for Bad Religion's melodic hardcore background, but also keeps a heartland and soul approach to his vocal that makes the song accessible to both the folk and country camps (this becomes an ongoing theme throughout the run-time of The Dissent Of Man). Conversely, “The Devil In Stitches” plays much closer to melodic, heartland rock (think John Cougar Mellencamp, Bon Jovi, Bryan Adams or Bruce Springsteen) than the band has ever come before, and offers a lot of thought-provoking ideas for future releases, and both “Pride And The Pallor” and “Wrong Way Kids” tread a similar, but more distinctly punk, line which calls to mind Social Distortion singer Mike Ness' solo albums. All of these divergent threads would leave some readers feeling like The Dissent Of Man might be a little too diffuse to really have the kind of impact they'd expect of Bad Religion, but that isn't the case at all because the band has managed to seamlessly incorporate the sounds their long-time fans expect (“Only Rain,” “The Resist Stance,” “Meeting Of The Minds”) with some new growth that holds a few surprises (check out the the fly-wide-open, mildly Wallflowers or Tom Petty push of “Cyanide,” but also recognize that that the song is also cut with vintage BR) inserted as food for thought.
But what thought is it that Bad Religion is hinting at? Will The Dissent Of Man be looked upon later as the transitional record where Bad Religion treads away from the punk/hardcore they've been trading in for decades in favor of joining acts like Chuck Ragan and Tim Barry on the rougher-hewn, folkier side of the punk tracks? Maybe but, if that is the plan, the band is off to a great start here – The Dissent Of Man makes a winning case for the possibility that Bad Religion could transition smoothly out of the sound and ethic they've come to typify for decades if they so choose.
Artist:
www.badreligion.com/
www.myspace.com/badreligion
Further Reading:
Ground Control feature – "Bad Religion – Charting New, Infernal Courses" – 08/28/08
Album:
The Dissent Of Man is out now. Buy it here on Amazon .
