Bad Religion: No Substance

Bad Religion: No Substance

1998

Atlantic Records

Format I Own it on: Compact Disc

Track Listing: 1. Hear It  2. Shades of Truth  3. All Fantastic Images  4. The Biggest Killer in American History  5. No Substance  6. Raise Your Voice!  7. Sowing the Seeds of Utopia  8. The Hippy Killers 9. The State of the End of the Millennium Address  10. The Voracious March of Godliness  11. Mediocre Minds  12. Victims of the Revolution  13. Strange Denial  14. At the Mercy of Imbeciles  15. The Same Person  16. In So Many Ways

Probably my least favorite Bad Religion record. I've heard "Into the Unknown" and I think even that album is even better than this one, so I can't understand their hesitancy to reissue that album, but leave this in print....Not that this album shouldn't be in print mind you, it's not all bad...In fact, some of it's great...

The album opens strongly enough with "Hear It, " which is is an exciting  and ear-catching opener. Then we have the single "Shades of Truth," which I'm not so sure deserved to be a single, but it's an enjoyable track nonetheless...Sort of in the slow, epic mode of "Infected" or "Sanity." But after "Shades of Truth" things start to go downhill, with a long run of forgettable tracks and some downright awful ones..

(wow...there's a band called the Hate Fuck Trio?)

 Now for the worst offenders:  "The Hippy Killers' is just embarrassing, and the sitar break just makes things worse..." Then there's Raise You Voice," which is perhaps the nadir...It's corny and hollow...Though it's  worth mentioning that it prominently features Campino from Die Toten Hosen, who I've been fascinated with since I first saw them on Deutsche Welle in the 90's...

"State of the End of the Millennium Address" is also completely  awful...imagine if  "The Voice of God is Government" never went into an actual song...This might have worked as an atmospheric intro or scene-setter to the album, but its placement, smack dab right in the middle, kills any goodwill the album had built up to that point...Which wasn't much..

Then, suddenly a funny thing happens...After "State of the End of the Millennium Address" ends, the rest of the album is totally enjoyable...(even the dopey "Mediocre Minds),

"Same Person" is memorably catchy and  they're even smart enough to close with "In So Many Ways" which the best track on the album. It's so effective, that after it ends I'm always tempted to restart the entire disc over...It leaves you remembering the album as being better than it actually is...Now that's a good closer!

So all in all, a bit of a mixed bag, I don't dislike it... If I were you I would save it for your very final B.R. purchase... Long after you've exhausted all their other albums...Not all was lost though, we would see a rebound starting with  their very next album...

(that was foreshadowing...)

I

I saw these guys twice while they were touring behind this album...At one of the shows Greg Hetson spent a good chunk of time fighting and yelling at a Nazi in the crowd...Who says these guys aren't punk?! You don't ever see Justin Bieber fighting Nazi's during his shows...God bless Punk...

I think I've gone on long enough, let's check out "In So Many Ways" by Bad Religion...Enjoy...