| CD REVIEW Bad Religion |
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Band : Bad Religion 11 months after the original release of this album, the band decides to put a special edition of it on the market, now including a bonus of 7 acoustic songs and additional DVD. As far as the acoustic set is concerned (originally meant to be released as an EP), there's an interesting but little known fact about the way both lead singer Greg Graffin and guitarist Brett Gurewitz write their songs. You see, even in the early days both guys would compose their Punk Rock anthems on the acoustic guitar before getting together and make an electrified version of it. And when they were younger, they were somewhat hesitant to come out with that...but now that they are older, and possibly wiser (hahah), they've decided to come foreward with it in a somewhat special way, which is by recording a couple of oldies in an acoustic version, and add a few new ones. The oldies are Against The Grain's "God Song", Recipe For Hate's "Skyscraper" (for a change done with piano in stead of the acoustic guitars in the other songs), The Process Of Belief's "Sorrow", and New Maps Of Hell's "Dearly Beloved" (the dates that go with the originals being 1990, 1993, 2002, and of course 2007). The new songs are titled "Won't Somebody" (which sounds so incredibly familiar I was surprised to be unable to find it on the track-list of any album!), "Adam's Atoms", and "Chronophobia". 7 songs totalling a good 19 minutes of bonus audio material! The DVD has two documentaries, two videos, and a full live set recording. The documentaries are about the making of the New Maps Of Hell album (only 2:50 and somewhat disappointing in both length and content), and the making of the acoustic EP (with a good 9 ½ minutes of footage, it at least gives a nice insight into the reasons for the making of the acoustic recordings). The videos are for New Maps Of Hell songs "New Dark Ages" and "Honest Goodbye", and if you happen to have enough time to wander around on the many music tv-channels about these days, you might even have come across it at some time during the last year. If not, expect the build-up and imagery you might be used of from this band. Last but not least: the live set, containing a total of 22 songs for some 58 minutes of viewing pleasure. Recorded at The House Of Blues in Las Vegas during a free show there, the band concentrated the set on the material of their latest albums foremost (5 songs off New Maps Of Hell, 3 off it's 2004 predecessor The Empire Strikes First), but also went back to the very beginnings with "We're Only Gonna Die" (song one on side one, of album number one;..in this case 1982's Could Hell Be Any Worse?), "Do What You Want" and "Suffer" (from third album Suffer, issued in 1988), and a selection of hit songs from the years in between. You're obviously interested enough...or you wouldn't have continued to read up to this point, so why don't you go check out at the record store just what that includes? If you're a fan of this first class Punk Rock act, you simply hàve to go get this special edition of New Maps Of Hell, if only for the acoustic set. If you're new to the whole Punk Rock scene, you may wanna consider spending the small extra needed to purchase thís version of the album as opposed to the normal one, because the extras you get (there's also two double-sided posters) are well worth the trouble (and your hard-earned money)! Re-issue, and with a DVD to boot, thus no rating (check out the points I gave to the album last year). Tony. |