Posted on: July 10, 2008 Posted by: James McQuiston Comments: 0

“New Maps of Hell” was the album that really showed that Bad Religion had a fire left that was stoked back up by “The Process of Belief” and “The Empire Strikes First” after the absolutely dismal releases that marked their Atlantic Records recordings. This deluxe edition has a little something for everyone, as Epitaph has really delved into the depths of the Bad Religion vault to find some interesting tracks. This means that there is a mini-acoustic concert in the “Acoustic Tracks” segment of the CD. This means that a number of bad religion classics (such as “Sorrow” and “God Song”) are linked with previously unreleased tracks (“Adam’s Atoms”, “Won’t Somebody”, and “Chronophobia”), modified to sound absolutely intense in the acoustic format.

When individuals have the chance to put in the bonus DVD that is present, they will have a number of different options which they can choose. The two videos that were cut for “New Maps of Hell” – “Honest Goodbye” and “New Dark Ages” – are present, while there is a mini-documentary of the creative process that brought forth “New Maps of Hell”, along with a behind the scenes that showed how the acoustic set was created specifically for this release. However, where most individuals will go will be the concert that is captured from Bad Religion’s show at the Las Vegas House of Blues (which individuals may remember as a Myspace / The List release.

However, the quality of this iteration of the show far outstrips any ability of Myspace to stream the concert, and even if viewers have already seen the show, the clarity of video and sound here will make this experience a completely new one. For those individuals that have not had the chance to see this concert yet, Bad Religion blasts through a blend of new and old tracks. This linkage of old and new (and even newer, if one counts the 3 new acoustic tracks) provides fans new to Bad Religion a great starting place. This deluxe release will keep listeners’ interest high as the act works on their 15th studio album, which is slated to come out sometime in 2009. Here’s to hoping Epitaph continues to re-release Bad Religion’s catalog with similar supporting materials. I, for one, would love to see a Bad Religion show from the late eighties coupled with “Suffer”, for example.

Top Tracks: Chronophobia, Won’t Somebody

Rating: 9.0/10

Bad Religion – New Maps of Hell Deluxe Edition / 2008 Epitaph / 23 Tracks / http://www.badreligion.com / http://www.epitaph.com /

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