Keith Morris & co’s antics in OFF! have shown how 80s hardcore can remain relevant in an age where punk has increasingly utilised elements of various heavy metal and extreme metal subgenres as cornerstones. Not so with Bad Brains. The band have continuously struggled to recapture the thrilling urgency of their seminal debut cassette and to a slightly lesser extent, Rock for Light and I Against I, since 1989’s Quickness album. It was a record that became mired in controversy over some worryingly homophobic lyrics, and signalled the beginning of the band’s relationship with uninteresting midtempo hard rock.
Dedicated to long-time friend and Beastie Boy Adam Yauch, who produced their previous album, 2007’s Build a Nation, Into the Future is an uneven mixture of hardcore rippers, a couple of reggae tunes, dour hard rock, and whatever ‘Popcorn’ is – a truly awful track which sounds a bit like Limp Bizkit dabbling in Rastafarianism, centring around the nonsensical mantra of ‘It’s on like popcorn, she’s on like popcorn, they on like popcorn’.
It’s nice to know the band’s original line-up can still kick up a satisfyingly noisy racket, but the tunes on the album remain for the most part fairly uninspired. Despite all that, there’s a couple of enjoyable moments on here. ‘Jah Love’ is a pleasantly wobbly dub, featuring lyrics touching on a vague sentiment of unity, bookended by what are presumably samples of interview audio, stressing the band’s accomplishments in terms of ‘breaking down barriers’, which comes across a tad self-congratulatory.
‘Yes I’ comes closest to recapturing the sound of Bad Brains at their manic best, but lacks the essential component of HR’s animalistic screeching from the days of yore, though the man can hardly be blamed for his voice changing over the years. Closing track ‘MCA Dub’ is the strongest reggae tune of the set, featuring smoky fuzz guitar, some tasty brass, and wisely backgrounded vocals; allowing the band’s reassuringly consistent ability to churn out decent reggae/dub tunes to shine through.
This record will probably appeal to hardcore (geddit?) Bad Brains fans and completionists in some way, but for those looking for genuine punk thrills, they are not to be found here, unfortunately.
Ivan Deasy
