Bad Religion, The Process Of Belief (Epitaph) 9
The 20+ year-old band's twelfth album, The Process Of Belief is being viewed as a sort of comeback, even though The New America came out in 2000. The reason is the return of Brett Gurewitz, who left in 1994 to handle business affairs for his explosively successful Epitaph label, home of Offspring and Rancid. Appropriately, the album is also a homecoming back to Epitaph after a four album stint with Atlantic. To be honest, Bad Religion albums after 1989's No Control seemed redundant, much like Ramones and Motörhead albums of the same period. They weren't bad, but were reliably predictable. It would be nice to see Bad Religion take another risk like they did with their second album, 1983's Into The Unknown (which is criminally out of print). That said, The Process Of Belief offers by far their most catchy, melodic batch of songs wince No Control. "Supersonic" and "Prove It" are typically gripping blasts of punk. The acoustic-tinged "Broken" and the reggae-tinged intro of "Sorrow" add a little variety to the mix. "Materialist" and "Kyoto Now" serve up the political, thought-provoking lyrics Bad Religion are known for. A punk album worth buying in '02, who woulda thunk?
