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Bad Religion-The Process of Belief Review

By Shawn McKenzie 04/04/2002

First off I have to admit that despite the fact that Bad Religion have been around for over 20 years, I got into their music around the same time everyone else did...circa 1993's Recipe for Hate. That album and its follow-up, 1994's Stranger Than Fiction, were, in my opinion, very original punk albums.

I don't want anyone to get me wrong. I like punk music, I really really do, but it seems like most bands just copy the template laid down by the Ramones and the Sex Pistols. Green Day uses the faux-British angst of the Pistols; Blink-182 does the goofy lyric thing of the Ramones, etc. I've always felt Bad Religion stood out amongst the crowd.

For one thing lead singer Greg Graffin is one of the only punk singers that you can actually understand what he is singing without him losing any of the intensity of what is being sung. The downside about their style, if you can call it a downside, is that all of their music sounds similar. But, as the old saying goes, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it!"

The problem was, for a few years at least, it was broke. After Stranger Than Fiction, Bad Religion founder and lead guitarist Brett Gurewitz left the band. The likely reason was because he wanted to concentrate on running his record label, Epitaph Records, but some say it is because he objected to the band now being on major label Atlantic Records. Whatever the reason, Gurewitz was obviously the focus of the group. After he left, the band tried experimenting with their sound and trying out various different producers (like the Car’s Ric Ocasek and Todd Rundgren), none of which sounded as good as their older stuff (reflected in the fact that record sales significantly dropped off.)

Now, with The Process of Belief, Bad Religion is back, and in top form. Gurewitz is back in the band, and he brought with him their old sound. Not only are Gurewitz and their old sound back, but the band itself is back on Epitaph Records. I'm all for experimenting and branching out (I'm one of the few people who liked Metallica's experimentation with other sounds and Garth Brook's weird but fun experimentation with pop-rock in the alter-ego of Chris Gaines), but Bad Religion is best when they perform their one style.

Not that The Process of Belief doesn't sway a little. On the first single "Sorrow," they do a kind of Clash-sounding style, and on "Epiphany," they slow the tempo down a little. The rest of the album is pure punk, especially the first three songs "Supersonic," "Prove It," and "Can't Stop It," all three of which clock in under two minutes.

The last song on the album, "Bored and Extremely Dangerous," is a disturbing look into the minds of violent people. With lyrics like "I'm bored to the extreme/this world of foolish dreams/disillusion/I am not who I seem to be/yeah sure I might do harm/and bear my right to arm/retribution/if only someone would listen to me," the song gives you an inside look on those people who we all hear about that people say "he seemed so normal, I'm surprised he did this violent act." It makes for a chilling ending to a superior Bad Religion album.

If you are a Bad Religion fan, this album will feel like a homecoming. Now if only we could convince fellow ex-Epitaph Records group The Offspring to come back to the label, maybe we will get more "Come out and Play (Keep 'Em Separated)" and less "Pretty Fly (For a White Guy.)" We can only dream, can't we?

1/2

This album was graciously supplied to me by 93.3 KTCL FM Denver.  Check out their site here!

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