True North

Bad Religion’s first album since 2010’s Dissent of Man, True North is nothing if not absolutely killer.  True North encompasses the Bad Religion Sound we all know and love, including the clean yet powerful vocals of lead singer Greg Graffin spouting out song after song about social issues and the usual Punk topics.

Graffin, being a Naturalist and PHD in Biological sciences, has always known how to write songs that challenge authority and beg for the expansion of worldviews in an intellectual manner.  In every Bad Religion album there are songs that include those themes of topical social issues. An example is in the song  “Robin Hood In Reverse” Graffin sings, “Here’s the church, there’s the steeple, open up the door corporations are people/Wait what did he say?” This song reminds us of the direct quote from Mitt Romney explaining why corporations are people. The song itself is about the injustices of the economy in relation to big corporations and how real people.  Another topic routinely criticized by Graffin is the roll of religion in popular culture; in True North the song “Popular Consensus” covers this topic well.

Since 1983 and over 16 albums, Bad Religion has constantly flip-flopped their sound between their hardcore punk roots, and the more popular and tame rock sound. True North is a return to the Hardcore scene that created Bad Religion. The instrumentation in this album reflects this hardcore throwback by including guitarists from other early 80’s bands, like The Circle Jerk’s Greg Hetson and Minor Threat’s Brian Baker who accompany Bad religions original guitarist Bret Gurewitz. As they continue the Hardcore sound Gurewitz brings screaming guitar solos which pay homage to a forgotten scene. Along with tis new guitar sound Bad Religion continues the fantastic vocal harmony layering as always. True North is a fantastic modernization of the Hardcore Punk scene of the early 1980’s; it is entirely worth the time to listen to.

8 / 10

- Sam Christian