Bad Religion – The Empire Strikes First
(Epitaph)

With the triumphant return of Brett Gurewitz to the line-up, Bad Religion produced one of their most solid efforts in years, 2002’s The Process Of Belief. While many naysayers had written them off ever since they signed to a major label, their reunion with Mr. Brett and Epitaph had suddenly given them back their street cred and all was forgiven. It should come as a no-brainer then that their latest album would be just as urgent and intense as the last, if not moreso considering the current political climate and the band’s penchant for politically-charged songwriting. Oh, except for one thing. It’s not.

For years Bad Religion have been on a downward slide, and while it was noticeable and expectedfor a punk rock band that’s been around for over 20 years, I still felt that they had been aging somewhatgracefully. With The Empire Strikes First however, stagnancy has finally shown signs of setting in.I’ll be the first to admit that Bad Religion’s music is pretty damn formulaic; Greg Graffin’sgravelly voice and the trademark backing “oozin aah’s” ensure that most of their songs sound similar in some way.The problem here is not the formula itself but rather the fact that the use of said formula is mostly bland and uninteresting, and that any new elements that have been introduced don’t really add anything to the mix.

Case in point, the double-kick bass drumming of Brooks Wackerman and super crisp production that makes them sound like every other skate punk band, or the rap interlude on “Let Them Eat War” provided by hip-hop/spoken word artist Sage Francis which seems like a cheap attempt by Bad Religion to stay hip. Then there’s the minor electronic breakdown at the end of “Beyond Electric Dreams” credited to Atticus and Leopold Ross that has been toned down to the point where it’s almost not even audible. A shameless plug for Mr. Brett’s side project Error or an interesting new experiment in sound? You decide.

When you’ve been around this long, playing music in such a limited genre, you’re also bound to repeat yourself a few times.”To Another Abyss” sounds like a rehash of “Struck A Nerve”, while “The Empire Strikes First” is basically one note away from “21st Century Digital Boy”.

Lyrically there are, as you might expect, a lot of songs about the war in Iraq and maybe this is another reason I find the album uninteresting. While it’s certainly a relevant topic worth addressing, there are just so many people putting in their two cents right now that it makes this album seem insignificant. When Graffin isn’t singing about war and foreign policy, he’s focusing on atheism and making George Orwell references, two other tired and typical punk rock topics. The lyrics are still more thoughtful and literate than most bands out there, but it’s not enough.

Songs like “Sinister Rouge”, “All There Is” and “God’s Love” find the band honing their formula to a level on par with some of the more memorable work from their past. However, the prevailing impression I get from The Empire Strikes First is that there is just too much filler. Even Brett Gurewitz’s guitar riffs seem disappointingly generic this time around, which goes to show that his involvement is not the magic ingredient that makes a great B.R. record. Hey, if you’re going to have 3 guitarists in one band you’d better do something interesting with them, otherwise you’re just wasting my time!

While some people are likely to see The Empire Strikes First as a logical continuation of The Process Of Belief, I hear a world of difference in the quality of output on these two albums. There’s no mistaking that it sounds like Bad Religion, it’s just not the Bad Religion they once were. — Sean