5 out of 5

Label: Controlled Burn Records

Produced by: The Austerity Program (recorded by)

Well, they did it.

There’s a grand achievement here, of two guys and a drum machine essentially riffing on a similar format since 1997 – automated thumps; yelling; fuzzed up guitar and bass – and yet managing to eke out pretty distinctive albums / EPs every few years, even if there’s a possible shoutout to their own limitations by calling most of their songs a generic “Song ##.” That was the habit up until these Bible EPs anyway, which also seemed like a general ante up that found Thad Calabrese (bass) and Justin Foley (guitar, vocals) mastering their drum tech such that it maintained the mechanismo underpinning of their general sound, but at the same time approached a kind of organic flow… Meta apropos for our AI-fearing times, and also ironically modern and regressive, given the ‘Bible Songs’ shtick of reaching back to that ancient text for some visceral retellings of its tales.

The achievement is two-fold: that a band that sure seems kinda monotone when you first hear it proves to have had decades of engaging material in them; and that The Austerity Program has added to their bag of tricks along the way, arriving at 2025’s Bible Songs 2, which I’m gonna call out as their best work to date. It’s always been close, with song sequencing or cringey lyrics or some wandering indulgences getting in a recoring’s way, but this set is zipped up – every song is tight, and memorable; the fuck- and shit-sprinkled Bible tales hit with the perfect blend of modernization, smirky commentary, and indirect insight; and the runtime and song sequence land perfectly, hitting us with rolling-into-one-another singles on the A-side, while the B-side is a lineup of build-and-release mini epics.

The Austerity Program were a band that grew on me in retrospect, with the first Bible Songs being the first release I was actively anticipating. That it was numbered gave me hope for a sequel… and the duo exceeded my expectations.

Once again, delightful art design – more die-cut, more Gustave Doré.