''New Maps of Hell'' is the fourteenth studio album by

Bad Religion Bad Religion is an American punk rock band, formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1980. The band's lyrics cover topics related to religion, politics, society, the media and science. Musically, they are noted for their melodic sensibilities and ...

, released on July 10, 2007. Bad Religion's follow-up to 2004's '' The Empire Strikes First'' was originally rumored to be a double album to be released in 2006, but this was denied by bassist

Jay Bentley Jayson Dee Bentley (born June 6, 1964) is the bassist and co-founding member of the punk rock group Bad Religion. He has played with the band through its whole existence with a small break between 1983 and 1985. Along with vocalist Greg Graffin, ...

. Due to the band's ongoing support with their previous release, the album was put on hold until 2007. Another one of the reasons why the band had yet to release a follow-up to ''The Empire Strikes First'' was their various other activities, most obviously frontman

Greg Graffin Gregory Walter Graffin (born November 6, 1964) is an American singer who is the lead vocalist and only constant member of the punk band Bad Religion, which he co-founded in 1980. He has also released three solo albums. Graffin obtained his PhD ...

's, who released his second solo album in 2006, his first since

1997 Events January * January 1 – The Emergency Alert System is introduced in the United States. * January 11 – Turkey threatens Cyprus on account of a deal to buy Russian S-300 missiles, prompting the Cypriot Missile Crisis. * January 1 ...

. ''New Maps of Hell'' also marks the third Bad Religion album released after returning to

Epitaph Records Epitaph Records is an American independent record label owned by Bad Religion guitarist Brett Gurewitz. A large portion of the record label, known as Hellcat Records, is owned by Tim Armstrong, frontman of the punk rock band Rancid. Several ...

for 2002's '' The Process of Belief'' and with guitarist

Brett Gurewitz Brett W. Gurewitz (born May 12, 1962), nicknamed Mr. Brett, is an American musician and record producer, best known as the co-founder and guitarist of the Punk rock, punk band Bad Religion. He is also the owner of the music label Epitaph Records ...

since his departure during the release of 1994's '' Stranger Than Fiction''. The song "New Dark Ages" makes an appearance in the video game '' NHL 2K9''.

Background and composition

Bad Religion first mentioned the follow-up to '' The Empire Strikes First'' in 2005, stating that the band would begin recording it later that year, making it likely that it would be released sometime in 2006. In July 2005, it was announced that Graffin and Gurewitz had begun writing "about 20 songs or more" for the album. On January 20, 2006, it was announced that Bad Religion was "almost 100% ready to go back to the studio or to the house" to begin working on the album. Members of the band had mentioned that it would be a double release, but this idea was later turned down flat by Bentley. In early February 2006, Bentley was chatting with a visitor who comments on news articles at the official Bad Religion fansite, stating that the new Bad Religion album was planned for a September release, as well as a tour to follow.

Recording

In May 2006, Bentley also mentioned that the band was planning to begin recording it around late June/early July. In September, the band mentioned they were in the process of demoing. Bentley also told Kristoffer Averheim, the webmaster of the Bad Religion fansite, that the album had been pushed back to late 2006/early 2007. While drummer

Brooks Wackerman Brooks Wackerman (born February 15, 1977) is an American musician. He is the current drummer of heavy metal band Avenged Sevenfold, which he joined in 2015. His first album with Avenged Sevenfold was ''The Stage'' (2016). He was previously th ...

posted a message on MySpace stating that the band had continued working on a new album, he stated that the album was once again pushed back to "mid/late 2007". In January 2007, it was announced that the album would be called ''New Maps of Hell'' and the band would work with producer

Joe Barresi Joe Barresi (nicknamed "Evil Joe") is an American record engineer and producer who has worked with Kyuss, The Melvins, Tool, Chevelle, Apocalyptica, Queens of the Stone Age, Coheed and Cambria, Tomahawk, L7, The Jesus Lizard, Parkway Drive ...

. The band began recording at Grandmaster Recorders in Los Angeles, California, with all background vocals being recorded at Gurewitz's house (The Evil Pink Room). On April 1, Bentley posted an update on the MySpace bulletin board, stating that the band was finally finished recording the album and would soon begin mixing it. He had this to say: :

Release

On March 16, 2007, ''New Maps of Hell'' was announced for release and the track listing was revealed. The following month, they embarked on a tour of South America, encapsulating Argentina, Brazil, and Chile. On April 25, the track listing was rearranged and the track "New Chapter" was dropped. When asked why "New Chapter" would not appear on the album, Bentley recently stated that it "ran into insurmountable issues" that the band "couldn't rectify", hinting that it will probably appear on the next Bad Religion album. "Honest Goodbye" was made available for streaming via the band's

Myspace Myspace (formerly stylized as MySpace, currently myspace; and sometimes my␣, with an elongated Whitespace character#Substitute images, open box symbol) is a social networking service based in the United States. Launched on August 1, 2003, it w ...

account on May 15, and released as a single a week later. On May 25, "Heroes & Martyrs" was released as a free download. "Honest Goodbye" was released to radio on June 12, 2007. From late June to late August, the band went on the 2007 edition of

Warped Tour The Warped Tour is a Concert tour, touring Rock music, rock music festival that toured the United States and Canada each summer from 1995 until 2019, and returned in 2025 for its 30th anniversary. By 2015, Warped was the largest traveling music ...

. ''New Maps of Hell'' was made available for streaming on July 3, and released a week later through Epitaph. Discussing the album's title, guitarist

stated "We all liked the concept of maps, because we are exploring new material on this record, both musically and topically." In September and October, the band went on a headlining tour across the US, with support from

the Briggs The Briggs are a punk rock band based out of Los Angeles, California. The band formed in 1999 under the name "I Decline" by brothers Joey and Jason LaRocca and bassist Matthew Stolarz (a.k.a. Duck). In 2001, with the addition of drummer Chris A ...

and

Gallows A gallows (or less precisely scaffold) is a frame or elevated beam, typically wooden, from which objects can be suspended or "weighed". Gallows were thus widely used to suspend public weighing scales for large and heavy objects such as sa ...

. "New Dark Ages" was released to radio on October 23. In November 2007, the band went on a headlining tour of Australia with

Strung Out Strung Out is an American melodic hardcore band from Simi Valley, California, formed in 1991. Their sound also includes elements of heavy metal. They have released nine studio albums on Fat Wreck Chords as well as one live album, two B-sides ...

and MYC. On November 14, a music video was released for "New Dark Ages". The video for "Honest Goodbye" was planned, but "never made it out of the office" according to Bentley. The band ended the year with an appearance at the

KROQ Almost Acoustic Christmas Almost Acoustic Christmas is an annual concert run by the Los Angeles radio station KROQ-FM. Like the radio station's other festivals (including the Weenie Roast, LA Invasion and Epicenter), it is a festival organized by KROQ-FM to raise money ...

festival. On February 27, 2008, Punknews.org reported that Epitaph would be releasing a deluxe edition of ''New Maps of Hell'' on July 8. In February and March, the band went on a West Coast tour of the US, consisting of two-night residencies in multiple Californian and Nevadan cities. Further shows were added, extending it into April 2008; Hi Fi Handgrenades supported some of these shows. They appeared on '' The Daily Habit'', performing "We're Only Going to Die" and "New Dark Ages". On May 9, 2008, Punknews.org released the artwork for the reissue and more details, including the track list and the bonus DVD. The DVD features an hour of a live performance, music videos for "New Dark Ages" and "Honest Goodbye", a showing of Bad Religion making ''New Maps of Hell'' and Graffin and Gurewitz recording the seven acoustic bonus tracks. Three of the tracks are new – "Won't Somebody", "Adam's Atoms" and "Chronophobia" – written specifically for the deluxe edition; the other four are new acoustic versions of older Bad Religion songs. An electric version of "Won't Somebody" was later recorded for 2010's '' The Dissent of Man''. Over the next two months, the band appeared at various festivals in Europe including

Groezrock Groezrock was an annual music festival that took place in Meerhout, Belgium. It started as a small rock music, rock and pop music, pop festival with one stage and a few hundred people attending, but evolved into a large punk rock/hardcore punk fe ...

Pinkpop Pinkpop is an annual music festival held in Landgraaf, Netherlands. It is usually held on the Pentecost weekend (''Pinksteren'' in Dutch, hence the name). If Pentecost falls on an early date in May, the festival is held later in June. Starting in ...

, Nova Rock and

Hove Hove ( ) is a seaside resort in East Sussex, England. Alongside Brighton, it is one of the two main parts of the city of Brighton and Hove. Originally a fishing village surrounded by open farmland, it grew rapidly in the 19th century in respon ...

. Between late June and late August 2008, the band performed on the

. An acoustic version of "Sorrow" was posted on the band's Myspace on July 2. After two shows in Germany and Brazil, they played a few US shows, followed by a tour of Canada. The tour was supported by

the Bronx The Bronx ( ) is the northernmost of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. It shares a land border with Westchester County, New York, West ...

, and was followed by a Californian tour until October 2008. They played a few West Coast US shows in March 2009, prior to a performance at the Punk Spring festival in Japan, which was followed by shows in Hawaii and Spain. In September and October 2009, the band went on a tour of Australia with

NOFX NOFX () was an American punk rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1983. Bassist/lead vocalist Fat Mike, rhythm guitarist Eric Melvin and drummer Erik Sandin were original founding and longest-serving members of the band, who have appeared on every ...

Reception

Following the album's release, it debuted at number 35 on the U.S. ''Billboard'' 200, selling about 21,000 copies in its first week.Katie Hasty
"T.I. Holds Off Pumpkins, Interpol To Remain No. 1"
Billboard.com, July 18, 2007.

Track listing

All tracks credited jointly to

and

in the album liner notes.

Personnel

Adapted from the album liner notes. Bad Religion *

– vocals, piano (uncredited) *

– guitar, backing vocals * Brian Baker – guitar *

Greg Hetson Greg Hetson (born June 29, 1961) is an American musician. He is best known as the guitarist for the influential punk rock bands Circle Jerks and Bad Religion. He is known for his high energy stage antics which people have coined the term "The He ...

– guitar *

– bass, backing vocals *

– drums Additional musicians *

Vanna Vanna () is a given name that first appeared in recorded European history circa 1294. The Italian medieval feminine name originated in Tuscany, and is particular to Florence, Italy. History The name Vanna first appears in print in ''La Vita Nuo ...

– additional backing vocals on "Requiem for Dissent" Technical *

– producer, engineer, mixer * The Evil Twins (Gurewitz and Graffin) – co-producer * Andrew Alekel – assistant engineer * Mike Fasano – drum technician * Nick Pritchard – art direction, design * Bryan Sheffield – photography

Charts

References

External links

''New Maps of Hell''
at YouTube (streamed copy where licensed) {{DEFAULTSORT:New Maps Of Hell 2007 albums Albums produced by Joe Barresi Bad Religion albums Epitaph Records albums