I’ve been listening to Dissent more since the last decades episode. I love the production on it A LOT. There are still some low points, but the high points on the album realllly make up for the lackluster stuff. The harmonies and back up vocals are so grandiose and cheesy on the album too, but I love it haha.
Dissent sounds phenomenal, which is nice because New Maps is a little muddy. Back half has some songs I don't love, but it's a successful melodic album for sure.
I really love Dissent all the way through Cyanide and then the record kind of loses its way for me. Ad Hominem always reminded me of a poor man's Watch it Die and Where the Fun Is just never really lands for me. Taking Turn Your Back on Me, Ad Hominem, and Where the Fun Is off and putting Finite on the track listing somewhere would've made for a better and more strong back half of the record for me. It's definitely an interesting album and I agree with what someone said about it being their 2010's No Substance. Overall it's an album I love though because the pros far outweigh the cons, it's just not as strong as it could've been.
I found it interesting how low we all have Stranger Than Fiction on our lists. To me, it's got some all-timers, (Better Off Dead, Stranger Than Fiction, News From the Front) but the deep cuts are among the band's most homogenous sonic-wise.
I bought a few BR records at the same time and it’s the one that grabbed me the most and lead to me buying more and more and more. I think there just a ton of variety on the record. The lullaby that is Slumber, the angry love song that is Infected, the playful reality check that is Stranger Than Fiction, the unapologetic apology of Better Off Dead, the society mirror of Inner Logic, the sad reality The Handshake, the haunting line ....leaves a mark on your soul of Marked. Just so many songs on there I like. And even the songs I don’t as much like the song Television, gets stuck in your head because it’s gnarly and weird and it cool they wanted to have Tim on there. I know there was some tension in the band at that point now, but the intensity in some of those other songs like Leave Mine To Me and What It Is feels so real. And it was. Also, using one of their best songs from another record and re-recording it and having awesome bsides helps too. I didn’t post a list recently though. Deciding is so hard. I was surprised to see people had Recipe For Hate so high, but then when you listen to each record against good case can be made for many of them.
It's true, there's only 5-6 albums I'd be surprised to see on the top of anyone's list, which is pretty good for a band with 16 albums! Recipe For Hate was my first BR album and it could easily switch with The Gray Race or Empire for me depending on the day
I was introduced to the band when New America came out. I was at my friends house and his older brother put it on the boombox at the pool. He played it up through 'I love my computer' then turned off bc it was killing the vibe and everyone wa like "the heck is this?" haha. Then he put on Beastie Boys. That's all I really remember. But the band name always stuck with me! I remember the build up and release to Process of Belief, too. That was when I started really following the band. After watching music video for Sorrow I realized Greg looked like Agent Smith from The Matrix lol. When I started playing in a band our singer was obsessed with Stranger Than Fiction, but for some reason I just never really got super into it at the time because of the production. The same went for a lot of their older albums at the time, except for Recipe (which is funny bc that production is weird too haha). To my surprise, I found out STF seemed to be their most popular album, but I was comparing everything else to Process of Belief.
I think I got Stranger Than Fiction and The Gray Race at the same time. Then Against the Grain and Generator. Then Suffer and No Control. Recipe For Hate was hard to find. Somewhere in there I was able to get No Substance and tape version of How Could Hell. I eventually did find Recipe somewhere in there on CD. I have just been getting new albums since as they came out post Gray Race to present. Then probably rare stuff online however it’s available. Like many most bands, they are just someone I came to on my own. Just saw a 3 line blurb with a picture of the band, album title Stranger Than Fiction, and intellectual punk. From the picture you tell they weren’t a gimmick act, songs titles seemed interesting and I was sick of what people thought was cool and popular because a lot of it wasn’t that good and just filled the vacuum of Nirvana, except punk. I feel lucky to have discovered an indie record shop that had a 3’ by 3’ section of just punk or indie bands.
I found them sorta because I had seen their name in a ton of liner notes and around the web, but what finally got me to dig in was when I went to see Foo Fighters in 2010. They were playing Infected over the PA before the show, so I shazamed it and the rest is history.
I love discovering new bands. Good on the person who played BR over the PA at the Foo Fighters show. Also, liner note used to be a great resource. Often bands who the band you liked were touring with.
Thank you for posting this! They’ve been my favorite band for almost 20 years and I had no idea this existed.
The Process of Belief was the first album of theirs that I ever bought. The first song I heard was “You” off of Tony Hawk Pro Skater and I went to Sam Goody the next day and since POB was the latest album it was the only one they had in stock. The first album rollout I got to be a part of was Empire which was pretty cool because I felt like there was a ton of hype for that one.
I have no idea how this track made it out there, but it’s good. There are a few other unreleased demos online, but only maybe 1 or 2 more of this quality. There are also a few demos of Mr Brett versions of songs where he does the vocals. Pretty good established versions of what they will become, just more refined and with Greg’s vocal contribution.
Guessing a single then January 20th then. That’s exciting. The amount of content they’ve been releasing (since Profane Rights of Man) has been so much fun.
For real, I’ll take anything from these guys. Another album would be nice, but I’m really into them dropping singles too haha. Age Of Unreason holds up well and still gives me new album vibes.