The U.S. punk rock godfathers are once again here with a new offering. Not only that they are not just some random band, but after the latest two really strong efforts - “The Process of Belief” and “The Empire Strikes First” - the expectations for the new one were really high. Bad Religion are still the same intellectuals and idealists and still can’t figure out “How Could Hell Be Any Worse?” The new album carries a somewhat more pessimistic vibe than the previous ones. There’s this feeling that all the angry punk rock songs they’ve written for 30 years haven’t helped make the world any less of a shitty place governed by morons. However, being the experienced veterans that they are, Bad Religion have decided to make a favour to the newcomers by drawing them a map of the new hell... And the entrance to hell is a rather punching one - “52 Seconds”, a song that not so surprisingly lasts exactly that amount of time. The trip continues with “Heroes and Martyrs”, goes through the pessimistic conclusion about the modern age “New Dark Ages”, then “Requiem for Dissent”, which explains the above mentioned disappointment, and then the melodic one - “Honest Goodbye”. In “Submission Complete” we can hear some kind of oriental motifs, and in the last track, “Fields of Mars”, we have a piano that is a really nice finish to this dominated by minor emotions album. Most of the songs don’t pass the 2-minute barrier, which is something completely expected from a punk rock album. Greg Graffin continues to write the same kind of intellectual yet rebellious lyrics that are classes above the ones by other similar bands. But yeah, they have an excuse - after all, he’s a college professor... Well, it’s not easy to be a classic band. No mater what you do, 90% of the fans will still say that an older album is way better. Without a doubt a lot of people will be saying that the new Bad Religion CD doesn’t stand up to “Suffer”, “Generator” or“Against the Grain”, but who cares? This is the punk rock album of the year! And this is one of the few bands that - having their ups and downs - have always made at least really good albums, and many times excellent ones. Make sure you don’t miss this one, too!