Bad Religion - The Empire Strikes First

Every once in a while I get tired of twenty-minute doom songs and listen to two-minute punk songs instead. On those occasions, I often listen to Bad Religion, one of the longest-running and most successful punk bands. The band formed in the early 80’s while they were still teenagers and were an important part of the early Southern California hardcore scene. They went on hiatus during the mid 80’s as band members pursued other interests, notably singer Greg Graffin getting a PhD and becoming a college professor, but reformed in 1988 and released a consistent string of great albums from 1988’s Suffer through 1996’s The Gray Race, moving to a major label and becoming one of the most popular punk bands along the way. The band finally began to lose momentum in the late 90’s and released a couple of mediocre albums, suggesting the end might be near. But for 2002’s The Process of Belief, they moved back to their original label, Epitaph, and began getting contributions again from guitarist/songwriter Brett Gurewitz, who had left the band in 1995. It was a strong album and helped make the band relevant again. The Empire Strikes First continues their rebirth and in my opinion, is their best album since 1994’s Stranger than Fiction.

Bad Religion rarely stray from their aggressive but highly melodic style and the handful of power chords that drive their songs. The songs are all verse-chorus-verse structures, with big harmonies dominating the choruses. It’s sometimes predictable, but when they’re on, this band is catchier than anyone. The relatively slow “Boot Stamping on a Human Face Forever” will probably get my vote as catchy pop song of the year (admittedly, I don’t like a lot of catchy pop songs, but this is as good as they get). What helps the band considerably on this album is the fast, aggressive drumming by relatively young, new guy Brooks Wackerman, giving this band a propulsion that they lacked during their brief downslide period. For those who think this band has nothing to do with metal, Wackerman actually plays a few seconds of double bass on “Sinister Rouge”. That song, along with “Atheist Peace”, “Social Suicide”, and “God’s Love”, show the band at their best: fast-paced and aggressive, with big chorus harmonies and overall strong, sonorous vocals from Graffin.

I don’t know how many fans of this site would care for this, but I at least think it’s a great album for when you want something quick and energetic, not real complex, but still intelligent and one of the best examples of the usually turgid melodic-punk genre