After being pushed back 4 months and then moved up two weeks,
The Process of Belief was released to the world on
January 22, 2002 as
Bad Religion's twelfth studio album.
Clocking in at just over thirty-four minutes,
The Process of Belief combines the length and energy of
Suffer with the big sound and production of
The New America. Losing long time drummer
Bobby Schayer to a career ending shoulder injury, and adding new drummer
Brooks Wackerman,
Bad Religion turned out an album rather quickly considering
The New America came out less than two years previously.
The other significant bit of trivia is the reconciliation of
Brett Gurewitz with the rest of the band. Considering he was half of the songwriting team for all of
Bad Religion's seminal albums, this is a
Good Thing. In addition the band has returned to the label it founded,
Epitaph, after its four album association with
Atlantic Records.
To indulge in personal opinion,
Bad Religion seems to have added a measure of cleverness to their already erudite lyrics. To me it seems that as they get older they are learning to laugh a little more. This too is a good thing and lends to their music a credibility that is lacking too often in music.
For those wondering the title of the album is taken from track 6,
Materialist. The line is:
The process of belief is an elixir when you weak
I must confess at times I indulge it on the sneak.