Customer Reviews

Tested: Live

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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!

Wow. I just got this in the mail yesterday, and was blown away on first listen. Normally I don't much care for live albums; the appeal of a live show is the energy created by the crowd and the visual experience. Live albums, in my opinion, can't adequately simulate either. But in this case, the performances and the brilliant quality of the recording itself make it a five-star album.

I have all BR's studio albums still in print, so I'm obviously a fan. But honestly, each album offers between 4-6 real standout tracks along with a bunch of mildly appealing soundalikes. "Tested" acts as both a testament to BR's skill as a band -- they're not just a studio creation -- and as a sort of "greatest hits" package. Culled from well over 1,000 song performances during a 1996 world tour, there isn't a dud in the bunch. The fact that the 'cut and paste' approach to compiling these tracks tends to negate any of the real concert feel is a minor complaint.

Another relief was the rather bulky Greg Graffin-penned booklet included with the disc. Expecting plenty of the sometimes tiresome political rants that are the beef of Graffin's lyrics, I instead got a detailed run-down of the recording process itself, which you may or may not find interesting. If nothing else, it does demonstrate an emphasis on the music itself, rather than on politics. For me, this is welcome.

In short, this immediately became my favorite BR album, and for no deeper reason than it sounds great and collects nothing but memorable tracks. Why it's not a U.S. release I'll never understand, but spend the few extra bucks and get it now.

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!!!!

No.

Frankly I find they way this album is presented to the listener is a greatly needed change to the typical live album. Rather than try to make the listener feel like they are at the show (which many live albums try to do, unsuccessfully I might add) this one just delivers the music. And its the music that counts, especially with BR, the greatest of all bands. The purest of any music as it was intended to be heard.

And just to let you know, you can still buy this album in the US directly from Bad Religion and its cheaper too.

Long live BAD RELIGION

This is a very solid CD, like most of BR's are.

BR's approach was quite interesting. Instead of putting a lot of money and effort into capturing a couple of shows, then cleaning up the results in the studio, they recorded continuously with basic equipment through their whole tour -- and picked the best cuts with only modest editing.

(Nitpick: I'm not fully convinced that it works on every track - the background vocals were not captured well on some songs.)

But good grief, there are 27 recordings on here! Even a nominal BR fan can find something to like on this album, and the band really loaded it to the rafters. This would be a "two CD set" from anyone else, but BR really delivers!

I'm so glad too, that they included some of their rarities on here. You might not get a chance to hear those, even if you do attend a live show.

Definately give this CD a chance, if have already bought a couple of BR releases, and are considering getting more.

this is one of the only live albums id ever spring the payola for. the raw energy in the performances is just unbalievable. after seeing B.R. live about 6,7 years ago i was very pleased with the album for it brought back that show. this is definetly one of those albums you can listen to over and over driving everyone around you crazy unless there die hard fans too. id give this three thumbs up along the five stars. two of my thumbs and one from the guy standing next to me.a most definet worthy purchase.

This is a great addition to the CD collection of any Bad Religion fan. It contains tracks recorded live that derive from most of the albums recorded by Bad Religion. While you may or may not own these albums, you will find that this recording, which zips around over nearly two decades of Bad Religion tunes, offers a new perspective into these works. Since the tracks are live, it is not a "Greatest Hits" album--I hate Greatest Hits albums--however, it effectively gives a complete retrospective of the group's politically charged punk tunes. Therefore, I strongly recommend it.

The album would have received 5 stars had it been better edited to include more of the concert recording between tracks--each song fades out rather quickly. The album is only 65:49 long, leaving at least 10 minutes for additional concert intros and maybe some direct progression between songs (instead of cross fading). This is purely an editorial choice, and I must admit that sometimes little anecdotes and lead-ins on some live albums become a bit too much--an example would be Bruce Springstein's live recording of The River. While the story that precedes it is great the first few times, ultimately, one skips it on subsequent plays. Still, this is a fine effort.

As live albums go this is one of the better ones out there. The best thing about it is that it a real live album. They didn't use studio tricks to cover their mistakes. If you haven't had a chance to see Bad Religion live, this is the next best thing. I think the recording quality is pretty good. All of the levels seem about right. The only problem that I have is that is sounds slightly hollow, but that is probably part of the limitation of DAT tape. The only other complaint is that it is missing a few of my favorite songs like "digital boy" and "What can you do?". What it is missing it makes up for, however. It even includes songs that they probably don't play often like "portrait of Authority" and "Drunk Sincerity". All in all, I'd say that this is the next best thing to being there. I saw them in Kansas City and i hope to see them again in a couple of months. So, if you can't go to a show buy this. In fact, buy it anyway.

THIS JUST DOESNT CUT IT!!!!! This is with out Mr, Brett, brian cant pull off bretts stuff here. If you want something more like a bad religion best of album get All Ages, a mix of the absalute best songs of the first 4 epitaph albums. ALso the new one proccess of belief you must pick up, it's back on epitaph with mr brett and features no cheezy old sounding [stuff]like on the 3 albums before it. And look at all the songs that are better than anything on this album that are missed out:

21st centuary digital boy
infected
incomplete
stranger than ficture
lookin in
atomic garden
the answer
anethesia (how could they miss this????)
modern man
faith alone
against the grain
flat earth society
walk away
i want to conquer the world (how the hell is this song not on here??????)
you
suffer
you are the government
give you nothing,

with all these songs missing, all these songs above were hits and they r all missing. The majority of them can be found on all ages. Pick that cd up first becuase tested is no way near a best of bad religion.

Although some good points are 1000 fools, operation rescue, a cool american jesus and no control.

Only pick this up if you really need to have some live br without getting bootlegs. And for new fans stay far away from the grey race, no substance and new america. Just get all ages ok?