Bad Religion | New Maps of Hell
I’ve been pissed lately. Not about personal things. Love life is great, work isn’t terrible, I even got a full night’s sleep last night. But I’m increasingly more upset with every over the top news story, every reported failure of the government, and every demonstration of society’s ignorance and apathy. And when I’m feeling this way, I personally find comfort in punk rock. And when one album won’t suffice, I need to dig in deeper. Like 20 albums deep. Yes, I’ve spent the last couple weeks commiserating with Bad Religion.
There are a lot of good things about Bad Religion: intelligence, aggression, melody, longevity. It’s easy to pick nearly album to write positively about, but I’m going with 2007’s New Maps of Hell because I feel it is often overlooked. Coming 25 years after their first album, it doesn’t lose anything that the band stands for and actually stands out as the most effective usage of backing vocals, ooh and aahs, call and responds, harmonies, the works. This may seem silly, but, it really helps flesh out some of the songs. Did they set out to make this their stand out backing vocal album? Probably not, but that doesn’t mean it should be ignored.
New Maps of Hell contains a few of my favorite songs both musically and lyrically. Like any true punk band they call for people to speak up in “Requiem for Dissent”: “Oratory of hope and glory a whisper and a rhyme/An effigy, a solider out of time/Citizen and patriot you can’t be far behind/The funeral is weight heavy on your mind/ (Requiem)Bring the the dissident from slumber/ (Requiem)Raise the revel from its grave/(Requiem)Sound the revolution’s thunder/A monumental blunder averted and betrayed. Why are we afraid of dissent in America? Almost a decade later we’re still shaming people for protesting, a few days before we celebrate civil rights activist Martin Luther King no less. Speak up people! “The New Dark Ages” keeps it simple but understands that rationality is suffering and the idiots are still winning. “A pall on truth and reason/ It feels like hunting season/So avoid those lines of sight and we’ll set this right/Welcome to the new dark ages/I hope you’re living right/These are the new dark ages/And the world might end tonight.
Bad Religion have been delivering their wordy, political messages for over 30 years but continued exposure doesn’t mean they have any less of a point now than they did in the early ’80s. The world is still a messed up place and someone has to point this out even if it’s harder to write songs that begin “Lacerate eviscerate and perforate and mutilate/We all fall down, all fall down/Deprecate repudiate ameliorate adjudicate/The wisdom found, the wisdom found” (“Germs of Perfection) instead of “There’s a stranger in my bed/there’s a pounding in my head/Glitter all over the room/Pink flamingos in the pool/I smell like a minibar” (Katy Perry’s “Last Friday Night”). These particular punk songs are not only a great source for meaningful lyrics and stellar backing vocals (hey, it matters) but a nice metal edge to several of the songs mixing it up so that 400 songs into their career it doesn’t sound exactly the same. It you listened to their older stuff and just lost track of them, or maybe you’re just sick of hearing people ignore real issues because they’re too upset about who won on The Voice last night, give this album a listen.
The Drink: This isn’t an album to drink to. This is an album to smash bottles to. Or to smash inequalities. But probably bottles, that’s easier right?
Bake
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