Bad Religion
True North

It was around the middle of 2012 when Bad Religion announced a new album, but not just any album, the sixteenth, their last. Their swan song. "The World won’t stop, but we will" was the announcement that nevertheless carried a promise. The promise of a career closure like few others, with fireworks, in grand style, with a new "No Control", the legacy of more than 30 years of top-level punk rock, of renewal, of broken limits. And it's already January when the legend manifests itself again, it's like an apparition, we know what will happen and we know how reassuring it can be. A certainty. One of the few we can have regardless.

Indeed, everything is as expected. 16 tracks in 35 minutes. The start is the best possible, that quick, short, concise "True North" that harkens back to the glory days of the triad: "Suffer", "No Control", "Against The Grain". Describing this beginning is easy: it's Bad Religion, it's nothing new, the recipe is one of the ancient but indestructible ones, the result will always be superb, and there is no possibility that it will be disappointing or old or anyway not good anymore. So we have the very fast "Vanity" that seems to come from "No Control" or that period, 1:01 in which it feels like listening to a band at its debut without 30 and more years of career on its shoulders, a debutante but already more experienced than anyone else, in short, no trace of aging and a wicked and sincere text as only they can do. We also notice that Dr. Graffin has hit the mark again, his texts or those of Brett Gurewitz (the latter also sings in "Dharma and the Bomb) are as usual a superb expression of sincerity, anger, they are wicked, realistic, with the usual references to "Bad Religion" rooted in the old, defective American society; Christianity in its most hypocritical form attacked with a fierce and ruthless critique as it deserves, then it is impossible, for example, not to relate to the desire to finally see an eye turned to the future by a world "old inside" (sorry, I couldn't resist, I beg your pardon) of "Past Is Dead". 

Echoes of "Stranger Than Fiction" are heard in "Hello Cruel World", the only track on the record to exceed 2:40 with its 3:50, it is slower and perhaps the lowest point of the album, but it is known that here the concept of "low" is very, very relative. At the opposite end, on the pedestal, we find the beautiful "Robin Hood In Reverse" track no. 3, in particular, the work of the guitarists is a gem, the speed and melody they provide are invaluable. And what Bad Religion album is without choruses, those perfect choruses, their trademark, their weapon that can elevate them higher than others? Obviously, even in this last work, we have perfect examples and we can conclude that it is hard to do better.

Mentioned as high points of the album are "Nothing To Dismay", "Crisis Time", and "My Head Is Full Of Ghosts", but it's hard to choose.

In the end, the moment has arrived, a train running for decades is about to stop, a band that has made consistency its second name. The testament has been written, the legacy is extremely significant.

The question we can ask ourselves in the silence that follows "True North" is just one: will anyone be able to do better? To fly higher? The answer is easy: probably not.

Album rating 4.5/5 (rounded up, and rightly so!)

Career rating 10/5