Search - Bad Religion :: Tested

Stranger than fiction...

Patrick Stott | Rolleston, Canterbury, New Zealand | 07/29/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Throughout most bands' careers, you expect to hear some sort of change as the band members mature, their interests change, they learn to play their instruments, line up changes or any number of other reasons. Results vary, from outstanding success to unmitigated failure.For some bands however, they drop straight into a groove and stick with it. Bands like AC/DC, Motorhead, Manowar and Deicide are not far removed from their original sound, even two or three decades into their careers. Bad Religion is another which could be added to that list.One of the inadvertent architects of the current pop punk sound which emanates from Southern California, Bad Religion found their musical feet early in their careers, and have done very nicely with it ever since. Unlike many of the pretenders to the SoCal punk throne however, Bad Religion are better live than in the studio. 'Tested' is testament to this fact."Live" energy is often difficult to transfer to an album, but Bad Religion manages it here. Lots of crowd noise does not equate to live energy, and Bad Religion didn't even bother to record crowd noise. Any crowd noise you hear on the album comes through the bands' mikes. The liner notes go into depth about how the album was recorded. To summarise it all, Bad Religion recorded everything live, cheaply but effectively, and then reassembled it into what equates to a live "Best Of..." album.The results show a lot of thought and preparation was put into recording. The guitars have a rougher edge than in the studio, and vocalist Greg Graffin's vocals are raspier. The melodies in the vocals, backing vox and guitar lines and counter-lines are near perfect, and there are even nuances apparent which are missing from the studio albums.There are mistakes and adlibs all over the place, one of the best being when Greg Graffin starts the crowd in Dortmund on the wrong key for the opening verse of "Generator". Elsewhere, the odd guitar solo is slightly off key, and the backing vocals are sometimes a little out of tune or drowned out. For fans of live albums, it's a pure delight to hear. As for highlights, well, this is Bad Religion. There aren't any. That's to say, the entire album is incredibly consistent, and is an accurate record of the band's back catalogue up until 1996. Nothing sounds out of place, and everything sounds like it could be from any of the band's album. While this lack of musical development may annoy the hell out of self-important, pseudo-intellectual critics, it's exactly what the band want to play, and what their fans want to hear. It may be predictable, it may have been done before, but so what? 'Tested' ROCKS!"

Does any band sound better live than BR?

Matt C | Huntington, WV United States | 10/21/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"As someone who has listened to Bad Religion since they first came about, I am not only impressed by this album, I am obsessed with it. This band found their style very early in their carreer and they have not changed it at all, even with all of the MTV pre-made poo that we are subjected to on a daily basis. Bad Religion still have the ability to write their own lyrics, and sound exactly the same as they did 10 years ago. This album is living proof that this band sounds just as good live, if not better, than they do straight out of the studio. I love hearing a song that I know and love in a different manner. It's especially good if you are drunk and want to sing along, but feel bad that you can never sound as good as they do. If you are looking for a greatest hits album, get All Ages, if you wanna hear some of your favorite BR songs LIVE, get this one. Hell, get them both. I think that anyone who has anything to say about how the world is today needs to listen to a good BR album. Long live BR!!!! Come play in WV dammit!!!!"

Wow

S. Nathan | McPherson, KS United States | 07/17/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This CD is amazing. I give it four stars only because of certain songs that weren't included.I'll review each of the three previously unheard tracks:Dream of Unity: This song is famazing. That's all there is to it. It's a slow dirgey song about unity (duh.) It's just an incredible put-up-your-lighter song. They should put this on a mainstream release sometime. 7/5.It's Reciprocal: Not bad at all, a lot better than some of the filler on Gray Race. I really like it. Good lyrics too. 4/5.Tested: I just didn't get into this one. I'm not into it at all. 2/5.Overall rating of the three new songs: 4/5.Overall rating of the CD: 4/5.Overall recommendation: Buy this, just for Dream of Unity and It's Reciprocal, not to mention some really great live versions.Yes, I'd have liked to see some other songs like Anesthesia, Only Entertainment, Entropy, Walk Away, 21st Century Digital Boy, Inner Logic, Infected, and Handshake, but such is life."