Many say that Bad Religion's finest moment was "Suffer" or even "Stranger Than Fiction, but until you have heard "Against The Grain you have no idea what this band is capable of.

Released in 1989 on Mr. Brett's own Epitaph Records, this album is where Bad Religion peaked in terms of lyrics, intensity, passion and song-writing craft. The 17 tracks are written in the whole by either frontman Greg Graffin or guitarist Mr. Brett. Musically there is little difference between them, but lyrically this album shows a big difference between the two of them. In general Brett's songs have more metaphorical words, such as in "Anesthesia", "Flat Earth Society" and "Walk Away", whereas Greg's songs have more straight ahead words such as "Modern Man" and "God Song". The album also features a larger song-writing contribution from bass player Jay Bentley, who provides "Unacceptable" and "The Positive Aspect of Negative Thinking". In general the themes that the band pursue on this album are the environment ("Unnaceptable"), religious fanaticism ("Operation Rescue" featuring a cameo from Circle Jerks frontman Keith Morris), and the state of mankind as they see it ( the superior original recording of "21st Century Digital Boy").

The album was self produced, and contains in my opinion, the most soaring guitar tone on a record since Husker Du's "Warehouse: Songs and Stories", and Greg Graffin never matched the vocal intensity of this album.


Recommended: Yes

Great Music to Play While: Driving