Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Most tracks are great classic BR, though Overall: Uneven album, 5 Jul 2007
If you're looking for something new, different from other Bad Religion albums, then you should maybe switch to another band, cause this album is as much classical BR as it can be, apart maybe for two or three tracks that explore rarely visited ground for the band.
As for me, when I want to hear experimental music or bands that try to break through new undiscovered grounds, I'll turn around and listen to different bands. If I want to hear fast, very melodic punk I can sing along with, I always turn to BR first.
So I'm very pleased with this release since this is what I was looking for, and this is how I like my BR. Yes, it is repetitive of older material, but which BR album isn't? Even their "No Substance" album, if much slower overall, does not depart very much from what the band has done before.
So, this album has very great tracks in my opinion that would make it on my BR alltime best of. "Heroes and matyrs", "New Dark Ages", "Requiem for dissent", "Before you die", "dearly beloved", " Grains of wrath", "Scrutiny" and "Lost Pilgrim", were instant classics for me.
As for the other tracks, they're not to be forgotten as well and are very melodic, but not as much to my taste (at least, I did'nt get hooked the first time).
So overall, I really had a great moment listening to the first 2/3 of the album, but the last part is somehow weaker and less addictive BR (except the tracks I mentionned). It feels as if the "fillers" were all lined up at the end of the album. For example, "Murder" is a violent and very fast track, which I usually like, but here it feels out of place as if they didnt know where to put it and just dropped it there.
Last but not least, "52 seconds" is a weak way to start an album compared to "The empire strikes first" mystic intro, but, hey, it's "different"... which should please the annoyed "new stuff seekers".
4 stars for giving me at least 9 new tracks I'll envoy for a long time.
why not 5? The good work feels incomplete and less "fillers" would shurely equal more pleasure on this one.
By the way, If you take the best tracks of the last three albums, you'll get one hell of a good BR mix. These guys can still rock.
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Sing a light refrain for a reviewer estranged. , 17 Jul 2007
It is sad that a few reviewers have planted the seed of 'repeated material' and now every single review reproduces this idea. All I can say is THIS IS BAD RELIGION and, in the humble opinion of this reviewer, this album is superb. Almost every track struck me as wonderful from the very first listen (this never happened with The Empire Strikes First). As with all albums, there may be one or two weaker tracks but in comparison to songs like 'Empire Strikes First' and 'Beyond Electric Dreams' (two of the worst BR songs I have ever heard) every song on New Maps Of Hell is great. Everyone has described the end of the album as weak but 'Prodigal Son', 'Lost Pilgrim', and 'Fields Of Mars' are classic tracks. Bad Religion are legends, this album is an aggressive and solid album and I am truly grateful that they are still producing such magic well into their forties.
If you desire a different sound then please buy Greg Graffin's 'Cold As The Clay' (another magical album in its own right).
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Quite underwhelmed to be honest., 8 Jan 2008
As a big fan of bad religion I was quite keen to hear this album, especially after reading good reviews and being told by my friend that it was excellent. Perhaps it's just the weight of expectation distorting my view, but having listened to the album 4 or 5 times over the last couple of days at the necessary loud volume I must admit to being quite disappointed.
For me it has the feel of an album designed by a focus group; what do we need? We need a few hardcore tracks at the beginning for old-school credibility. A couple of slower radio-friendly alternative rock songs, generally keep the tempos quite fast and plenty of oozin aahs because everyone loves Bad Religion's backing harmonies. It feels like an album dumbed down a bit to appeal to as many people as possible.
There are a few specific problems I have with this album, first of all there just simply isn't one great track on the album. As mentioned I've listened to this album a few times over the last couple of days and I can't actually remember any of them. The album just seems like a mix of decent, but not essential Bad Religion. There's no immediate classic like a Generator or American Jesus. The only memorable song perhaps is New Dark Ages, but mainly because it happens to be cheesy as hell, although the band's conviction does sell it to some extent.
Secondly I don't think the album is particularly well-produced. With the 3 guitars well-miked it has a good heavy feel to it, apart from that though it's not exactly subtely made. There aren't any cool bass lines, only a couple of guitar solos, none of which added anything to the song and the use of backing vocals is pretty heavy-handed, perhaps the heavyness of the guitars made it difficult to add in the subtle harmonies as they get lost a bit in the mix. As a result it's just massive ooz'n aahs almost all the time.
And that I think is what's really wrong with the album. Most of the songs are quite predictible. There aren't many of the memorable key changes (i.e. 'Skyscraper') or exquisite punctuations of harmony (i.e. 'You') that suddenly bring a song to the next level. Most of the time you get to the first chorus and then a load of 'aahs' are layered because ovbiously that will make it better. It misses the point of what makes Bad Religion great, which is how they build up and release tension creating those great 'BAM' moments. It just doesn't happen on this. Only a couple of tracks build up the harmonies in an interesting way. Most of the time it's just 'right, we're at the chorus let's flip the Huge Backing Harmony Switch(tm) and the song will be good'. The songs generally all show their hands too soon and there's no way of building them up. As I result I didn't get sucked into them and for once even most of the lyrics passed me by.
I don't mean to sound overly harsh, I didn't listen to any other new hard rock or punk releases last year and I'm sure this will be better and more relevant lyrically than pretty much all of them because Bad Religion are still a great band, and this isn't a bad album. I would still recommend getting it if you're into hard rock or punk, there are quite a few good songs on it, however, if you're lacking any Bad Religion albums up to and including The Gray Race I would definitely buy any of those before this.
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