The Dissent of Man (Bad Religion Album Review)

I am probably one of the biggest Bad Religion fans you'll meet. I was raised on No Control, How Could Hell Be Any Worse, and Against the Grain. When I heard they were streaming their new full length album The Dissent of Man, on Myspace, you could understand why I would be so excited. This is a pre-release review, so the quality of the music I am listening to isn't as good as it would be on CD, so I won't comment to much on production quality to much.

This is Bad Religion so commenting on the writing, is hard to do because they have some of the best written punk songs of all time. I think the writing on this album is up to par with Stranger Than Fiction, smart writing with allusions to literary and scientific knowledge and that special kind of tongue and cheek word play. Their debut single "The Devil In Stitches" is probably one of the best examples of that, its such a smart song that might go over some peoples heads, but most will get the word play and allusions. The only thing I can really comment on is this album has a little bit more pop sensibility than their previous 2 albums.

As far as the recorded music sounds, it really reminds me of Social Distortion, which isn't a bad thing at all. It still sounds like a Bad Religion album, its just it has a lot of great guitar riffs in the background and a poppy vibe going against the melodic hardcore sound that Bad Religion in a lot of ways defined. They do have songs on the album that are Melodic Hardcore, like the great song "Meeting of the Minds", its just its mixed in there with Pop Punkish songs like "Won't Somebody" and "The Resist". Its a nice change of pace as most BR albums start to blur together if you listen to them to long. My 5 Favorite tracks on this album are The Devil In Stitches, Won't Somebody, Meeting of the Minds, The Resist Stance, and my favorite song on the album "Cyanide".

To conclude, The Dissent of Man, is a great album, and a very fun listen. At 40 minutes long it is totally worth full price, but Target will for a short time be selling it for $9 for a short time after its release. So if you wanna buy the CD you can get it September 28th at Target! I definitely recommend this album to everyone except, people who hate punk, and those who think atheists eat babies. I give the Dissent of Man a 5 out of 5

I will leave you guys with the single "The Devil in Stitches"