By: Justin D.
The odds are that even if you are a fan of Los Angeles punk rock legends Bad Religion, you may or may not have heard of the album that I’m about to review here. And that’s understandable, as the band doesn’t usually like to talk about this release. So why keep this album behind closed doors? Have a seat kids; I’ve got a story to tell.
After Bad Religion had released their debut album, How Could Hell Be Any Worse? in 1982, they decided to go a different route with their follow-up release, Into the Unknown. Instead of continuing with the hardcore punk route that began their career, the band moved towards progressive and hard rock. Why do this? Well, at the time (1983), the band admitted to not taking itself too seriously, and saw this as more as a “why not?” scenario. They ended up producing more copies of this album on vinyl than their original, and at the time they sold horribly. This change in musical style actually caused band members Jay Bently (bassist) and Pete Finestone (drummer) to quite the band. To this day, the album has never been officially released on CD. Only the original vinyl pressings, re-pressings in the 30th anniversary box set, and some rare cassettes exist today.
So just how bad can this album be? Well, that’s going to depend on your outlook of things. If you are going to review this album by the standards that many punk rock albums are reviewed under, you’re likely going to find it a mess. That was the fan reaction back then, and many who have heard the album feel the same way, being fans of the hardcore punk sound the band is so famous for. But let’s try looking at this from another perspective for a minute. Take away the previous history of the band and examine it with an open mind as a work of its own, and what do you get? You get a synth-heavy progressive rock release with a surprising amount of potential with regards to the genre itself.
From the opening track, “It’s Only Over When…,” you immediately hear lead member Greg Gaffin kick things off with the synthesizer, right before Brett Gurewitz joins him on the guitar; with drums and bass soon following in. The lyrics here are much cheesier than the previous and following releases put out by the band:
You could be your only friend / But when the hammer comes down / And you don’t hear a sound / You can look all around and see / That it’s only over when you give up!
Everything actually comes together very well in this intro track, with my only real complaint being the quality of the production. This becomes more apparent as the album continues, but is understandable, considering this was still a very early stage for the group, and I don’t think they were out to impress anyone with high sound quality at the time. There is also a well-done keyboard solo by Gaffin in the bridge section of the song. You hear more of this throughout the album.
Another song of note includes “Billy Gnosis,” which has a very Grateful Dead/Lynyrd Skynyrd feel to it. Gaffin takes to the piano in this hard rock ensemble about a sick and twisted man who creates chemicals that eventually lead to his own undoing. It continues the album’s general upbeat direction nicely.
“Time and Disregard” is a track that simply must be heard to be believed. Separated into four parts (in typical progressive-fashion), this heavy, but acoustic piece, talks about man and the business world; taking as much as they can in this world without any feel of remorse. The lyrics are much more the type you’d expect from the band this time around:
Today I see those borders and my friends disappear / Man chooses my fate, thus I live in fear / Tomorrow the trucks come / I’ve nowhere to run / My home is destroyed so they can have fun
Something else to note is that each section of the song actually has a different melody and time signature to go with it. This is progressive rock in its truest sense, and I would put this among the best songs of the album.
“The Dichtonomy” has a very 80’s rock feel to it, with a synthesizer sound reminiscent of one heard in albums like Rush’s Signals. The first two verses are slow, but powerful, all leading to a much faster build up by the bridge section. Once again, the bands attempts at strong instrumentals really come through here. Davy Goldman’s drumming is especially fierce.
The other songs are all well-made for the most part, but they start to blend in with one another, to the point where I feel this review might become repetitive if I were to dissect each and every one. Instead, I’ll provide some more thoughts on the release as a whole. One thing I found especially interesting about this release, is that despite the drastic changes in the band’s choice of musical style here, there is no mistaking that this is still Bad Religion that you are listening to. If you were to compare all of these songs with the songs of their former and latter releases, you’d find a surprising amount of similarities, only slightly distorted by slower tempos and additional instruments.
While I can certainly understand the hate that this album garnered upon its release in 1983, I don’t believe it was all justified from a music fan’s perspective. There is a striking amount of creativity from this group that we will likely never see again, and it’s a shame that so many will likely never get to experience it. I think it’s best for everyone (fan of the band or not) to give this album a try and form their own opinion before writing it off like so many did back then. You might just surprise yourself with what you find.
Verdict: 7/10
Dissonant Geek 