Yeah, the sobriety stuff is something I wish they would expand more on. Not just so we get to know them better, but mainly so fans who may be struggling know there's a way out. I won't lie. They're not my main or only reason, but they definitely inspired me to say fuck it and go completely sober this year. That and the fact that I'me becoming a father in late Feb/early March haha.
Good for you! Congrats. I actually really related to Greg in that sense. It was cool reading Do What You Want and seeing how Greg and Brett became really successful outside the band as well leading very different lives.
Candidate was already one of my favorite songs in quite some time from them but listening to it and hearing the topicality of the lyrics gave me chills. We're all so lucky to have this band. What an incredible performance.
Imagine being person hiking desert trails that doesn’t know much about rock/punk music and seeing those two guys together. The thought of “those guys must be rockstars” or “yeah, those guys are punk rock legends” would never cross your mind haha.
I feel inspired to do an album ranking for these guys while understanding it would be quite an undertaking. How does everyone else feel about it?
Okay I’ll start us off: 1) Recipe for Hate 2) Generator 3) Process of Belief 4) Against the Grain 5) True North 6) No Control 7) New America 8) Age of Unreason 9) The Gray Race 10) Stranger than Fiction 11) Suffer 12) Empire Strikes First 13) New Maps of Hell 14) Dissent of Man 15) No Substance 16) How Could Hell Be Any Worse? This might be the hardest album ranking I’ve ever done. I’m sure it won’t be without controversy though. I’m looking forward to everyone else’s.
I don’t think there will be controversy. People may have wildly different lists, but most of the people who comment hear talk about and enjoy all the records (or reply people who do).
1.) Gray Race 2.) Process of Belief 3.) Recipe For Hate 4.) Age of Unreason 5.) Against The Grain 6.) True North 7.) No Control 8.) Empire Strikes First 9.) Generator 10.) Suffer 11.) New America 12.) Stranger Than Fiction 13.) Dissent of Man 14.) No Substance 15.) New Maps of Hell 16.) Into The Unknown 17.) How Could Hell Be Any Worse? Yeah this is super difficult haha. My first four and last two are solid though.
I’m just now realizing I forgot to put Into the Unknown on mine. That might be because of the fact that I’ve only listened all the way through two or three times. Haha it’s not a bad album I just think their execution did not match up with their ambition. The Dichotomy sounds great when they bust it out live though. I’m glad to see I’m not the only one with How Could Hell that low. It might be higher for me if it sounded better but the production makes it hard to listen to.
Those songs sound great in live sets, so I’d be cool for them to just bang them out live as a re-record.
Yeah, How Could Hell is probably tied at the bottom with Into the Unknown for me. Some great songs, but it feels like the band just getting started. I'll do my full ranking tomorrow or later tonight!
Recipe For Hate The Gray Race Empire Process True North Generator No Control Suffer New Maps of Hell Age of Unreason Against the Grain Stranger Than Fiction The Dissent of Man New America No Substance How Could Hell Be Any Worse? Into the Unknown
I've been really getting into BR over the last few weeks. They've been a band i've enjoyed for years but I never really took a deep dive into their back catalogue. What I like is that anyone could make a valid argument for any of their albums being their favourite. There's strong stuff all the way through here. I put on Dissent yesterday and while it doesn't feature high on many lists, it just hit me in the best way and now I can't stop listening to it.
As of 3 weeks ago, Greg said in this interview that the tour with Alkaline Trio is still going to happen.