Bad Religion has a long standing tradition of being a group of change. Their beginnings in 1980 saw their star as a hard core punk group with Jay Bentley as bass player, Greg Graffin on lead vocals, Brett Gurewitz on guitars, and Jay Ziskrout on the drums. Currently Bad Religion is known as the big punk revivalists as they are credited as being a major influence on several up and comers in the hard core punk and rock genre. They are known as the longest running hard core punk band in California, with music and lyrics echoing their social consciousness and political responsibilities.
At their start, their punk influences grew from The Adolescents, The Germs, and Black Flag. 1981 saw the release of their first EP on the label of Epitaph Records, which was created, managed, and owned by Brett Gurewitz as a launching ground for the group’s work. Their first full-length work came in 1982 How Could Hell be Any Worse and it was here where they started seeing a significant following. It was then that Peter Finestone joined the band to replace Ziskrout on the drums.
Into the Unknown came in 1983 as a keyboard rock album that became quite popular with their ever growing fan base. Since then, the album has gone out of print and its 10,000 are known collector’s pieces. Not long after this release, Bad Religion underwent some unity shakeups as Gurewitz entered rehab and was replaced by Greg Hetson of the Circle Jerks who had already played a small part on Into the Unknown. This left Graffin as the band’s sole original piece. Leaning towards a stronger punk and rock sound, the next EP Back to the Known was released, but personal troubles disbanded the group in 1984 leaving them and their fans on sabbatical for three years.
In 1987, the newly reformed Bad Religion saw as its feature pieces Brett Gurewitz on first guitar, lead vocalist Greg Graffin, Jay Ziskrout, Peter Finestone on drums, and Greg Hetson on guitar. Suffer was released in 1988 re-establishing Bad Religion in the hardcore punk genre. 1989 was the release of No Control, followed by Against the Grain in 1990. A compilation record 80-85 was their next step that repackaged How Could Hell be Any Worse, Bad Religion, and Back to the Known. 80-85 is since out of publication, and has been compiled again as How Could Hell be Any Worse that includes the same track list.
At this point, Finestone left to work with another band, The Fishermen who had a major label contract, and Bobby Schayer quickly replaced him. The result was the release of Generator in 1992. In 1993, with the birth of the Seattle sound alternative era, Recipe for Hate was released hitting the alternative mainstream and rewarding them with an enormous following.
Atlantic Records began to take notice of their ever-growing popularity and re-released Recipe for Hate which was soon followed by their first album on a major label with Stranger Than Fiction in 1994. The group Offspring forced Gurewitz to spend more time with Epitaph label, and rumors floated around rather loudly that he was not pleased with Atlantic Records. Gurewitz was quickly replaced by Brian Baker who had the credits of working with Minor Threat and Dag Nasty to his name, and he remained for their tour which ended up being their biggest success on the road. In 1998 Stranger Than Fiction marked a new career breaking moment for Bad Religion with more than half a million in record sales marking their first gold album.
Three more albums followed Stranger Than Fiction proving that Bad Religion sufficed just fine without Gurewitz. Albums included The Gray Race in 1996, No Substance in 1998, and The New America in 2000. The New America was produced by the legend Todd Rundgren, who also served as in inspirational mentor for Graffin. Unfortunately these albums did not fare the success their earlier work had, and Bad Religion lost the Atlantic Records label forcing them to go back to Epitaph. During what appeared to be a never ending state of flux for Bad Religion, Bobby Schayer left due to injury, and Brooks Wackerman from Suicidal Tendencies took his place.
After a sabbatical that lasted six years, the band took back Gurewitz to prepare for their next album The Process of Belief, released in February 2002. With the renewed collaboration between Graffin and Gurewitz, the album was a hit. Bad Religion then took compilation work on as their next project re-mastering How Could Hell Be Any Worse?, Suffer, No Control, Against the Grain, and Generator. The release of the new How Could Hell Be Any Worse was actually the previously released 80-85 with remixed versions of some of the more popular hits.
June of 2004 saw the release of The Empire Strikes First, which was a reflection of their political ideologies and a lash at the Bush Administration. Fans saw this as a renewed face of the old band and their success resurfaced as it continues to do so today. Their next album, New Maps of Hell, is scheduled for release on July 10, 2007.
