History Music / BadReligion

** ''[[SomethingCompletelyDifferent Into the Unknown]]'' is a ProgressiveRock album. According to Mr. Brett, "not much thought" was put into the album's recording, and the change of style was due to the fact that the band didn't take itself seriously and thought it wouldn't last for very long, so they decided to try and explore some other styles. Two of the members, drummer Pete Finestone and bass player Jay Bentley, quit before the album was recorded because of the change, and the album was met with a great deal of negativity from the fans who embraced the band's previous HardcorePunk sound; only 12 people showed up to see the band introduce the new material. As a result of the poor reception of this material by fans, this album is somewhat considered OldShame by the band members, who named their next release (which returned to HardcorePunk) ''[[DiscontinuityNod Back to the Known]]''. Despite the commercial failure and fan backlash of the album, it actually got positive reviews from critics, and is pretty good music coming from a bunch of 19-year-olds with no experience in that particular genre. It was reissued on vinyl as part of the ''30 Years of Bad Religion'' box set, although it's never been released on CD.

* MohsScaleOfRockAndMetalHardness: Generally a 5 or 6. With a couple songs (such as "Slumber" and "Sorrow") being a 4.

* Jamie Miller - drums (2015–)

* [[AbsenteeActor AbsenteeMusician]]: Since his return in 2001, Gurewitz only occasionally performs live with the band (usually for gigs in California or television appearances). {{Justified|Trope}}, as he is also CEO of Epitaph Records (which since it was founded in 1980 has evolved into one of the largest independent record labels), so he is busy with releasing other bands.

* BadassTeacher: Graffin. He's taught university classes at Cornell and UCLA

* CanonDiscontinuity: ''Into the Unknown'' -- after disappointing sales, it wasn't acknowledged or reissued until it was included in a compilation 27 years later.

* StepUpToTheMicrophone: Brett at the end of "Infected" and entire "Dharma and the Bomb" and Jay towards the end of "Punk Rock Song". When playing live, Jay also performs the rap towards the end of 'Let Them Eat War'.

** "God's Love":

* BeliefMakesYouStupid

* {{Homage}}: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOEpif8Fj5Q A World Without Melody]] appears to be a homage to {{Nirvana}}.

* TheManIsStickingItToTheMan: Subverted by guitarist/main songwriter Mr. Brett, who owns the record label the band is signed to, but refused multiple offers to sell to a major record label. He even left the band during their years with Atlantic Records. Of course, given that Music/TheOffspring were making Epitaph Records tons of money during this time, he probably didn't need to.

* One in "You Don't Belong" on ''The Process of Belief''.

--> [[Music/Descendents Milo went to college]] but you knew about that

Since 2001, Bad Religion's lineup consisted of Graffin (vocals), Gurewitz (guitars), Bentley (bass), Greg Hetson--formerly of The Circle Jerks (guitars), Brian Baker (guitars), and Brooks Wackerman (drums). Bobby Schayer was their drummer for much of their 1990s period, but left the band after suffering a shoulder injury. In 2013 Hetson left due to personal problems (divorce) and was replaced by Mike Dimkich. In 2015, Wackerman also left to join ''Music/AvengedSevenfold''. He was replaced by Jamie Miller.

Since 2001, Bad Religion's lineup consisted of Graffin (vocals), Gurewitz (guitars), Bentley (bass), Greg Hetson--formerly of The Circle Jerks (guitars), Brian Baker (guitars), and Brooks Wackerman (drums). Bobby Schayer was their drummer for much of their 1990s period, but left the band after suffering a shoulder injury. In 2013 Hetson left due to personal problems (divorce) and was replaced by Mike Dimkich. In 2015, Wackerman also left. He was replaced by Jamie Miller.

* Brooks Wackerman - drums (2001–15)

* StepUpToTheMicrophone: Brett at the end of "Infected" and entire "Dharma and the Bomb" and Jay towards the end of "Punk Rock Song". Brett can also be heard before the final refrain of 'Let Them Eat War', which Jay performs live.

* StepUpToTheMicrophone: Brett at the end of "Infected" and entire "Dharma and the Bomb" and Jay towards the end of "Punk Rock Song".

*** ''Generator'' featured experimentation (epically with songs like ''Two Babies in the Dark'')

*** ''New Maps of Hell'' is by far their heaviest albums, bordering on AlternativeMetal

* RearrangeTheSong: ''Live at Palladium'' DVD has a version of "Cease" performed solely by Graffin on piano. It was based on the version that appeared on his solo album "American Lesion".

*** Apparently, sometime after Mr. Brett left the band, he'd mock the band for being "the rotting corpse of thesaurus rock" (which was definitely classier than Greg Graffin changing a lyric in Mr. Brett's song "Stranger than Fiction" to make fun of Gurewitz's struggle with drug addiction whenever it was performed live).

--> And did that antropocentric God wane with their thoughts and beliefs all unseen?" (Bad Religion - God Song).

* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism: Quite literally a case of DependingOnTheWriter. Graffin's lyrics tend to fall more on the cynical side, while Gurewitz's tend to be more on the idealistic side. There are, however, exceptions to this (from both writers).

** Live backing vocals example - during much of their 90's era, Greg Hetson would perform backing vocals on the outro to "American Jesus" (the "one nation under god" bit), while Brian Baker played the lead riff.

* SurfRock: Brett allegedly tried to write a surf / punk rock song with "Dharma and the Bomb". The biggest issue here proved to be Greg Graffin. As he is from Wisconsin, he was unable to convincingly imitate the desired californian accent. Eventually, Brett had to sing the song himself (althogh Greg still performed backing vocals).

* TheyCallMeMisterTibbs: Brett Gurewitz. Subverted in which not everyone uses "Mr. Brett" (which in itself is a subversion, in combining the trope with FirstNameBasis), and he himself doesn't seem to mind.

* VocalEvolution: Greg's voice is still recognizable on ''How Could Hell Be Any Worse?'', but he does a lot more HardcorePunk-style shouting than singing. Oddly, ''[[CanonDiscontinuity Into The Unknown]]'' was the first album where he started taking a more melodic approach to his vocals.

Bad Religion is a very influential American punk rock band, founded in 1979 in Southern California. The original members were Jay Bentley (bass), Greg Graffin (vocals), Brett Gurewitz (guitars), and Jay Ziskrout, who was quickly replaced by Peter Finestone (drums). In the spirit of the Do-It-Yourself ethic held by the punk scene at the time, Gurewitz created Epitaph Records soon after their formation, and most of the band's albums have since been released through this label.

!!Band members (founding members in italic, current members in bold)
* '''''Greg Graffin''''' - vocals, principal songwriter (1979–)
* '''''Brett Gurewitz''''' - guitar, backing vocals, principal songwriter (1979–83, 1987–94, 2001-present)
* '''''Jay Bentley''''' - bass, backing vocals (1979–83, 1987–)
* ''Jay Ziskrout'' - drums (1979–80)
* Pete Finestone - drums (1981–83, 1985–91)
* Paul Dedona - bass (1983)
* Davy Goldman - drums (1983)
* Tim Gallegos - bass (1985)
* Greg Hetson - guitar (1985–2013)

* '''Brian Baker''' - guitar, backing vocals (1994–)

* '''Mike Dimkich''' - guitar (2013–)
* '''Jamie Miller''' - drums (2015–)

!!Their discography:

!!The Empire Tropes First:
* [[AbsenteeActor AbsenteeMusician]]: Since his return in 2001, Gurewitz only ocassionaly performs live with the band (usually for gigs in California or television appearances). Justified, as he is also CEO of Epitaph Records (which since it was founded in 1980 has evolved into one of the largest independent record labels), so he is busy with releasing other bands.

* AlbumTitleDrop: ''How Could Hell Be Any Worse?'' on "Fuck Armageddon... This is Hell" and ''The Process of Belief'' on "Materialist".

** ''How Could Hell Be Any Worse?'' is Title Dropped in "Los Angeles is Burning", over two decades later.

* CanonDiscontinuity: ''Into The Unknown'' -- after disappointing sales, it wasn't acknowledged or reissued until it was included in a compilation 27 years later.

* RearrangeTheSong: ''Live at Palladium'' DVD has a version of "Cease" performed solely by Graffin on piano. It was based on the version that appeared on his solo album "American Leison".
* ReligionRantSong:

Since 2001, Bad Religion's lineup consisted of Graffin (vocals), Gurewitz (guitars), Bentley (bass), Greg Hetson--formerly of The Circle Jerks (guitars), Brian Baker (guitars), and Brooks Wackerman (drums). Bobby Schayer was their drummer for much of their 1990s period, but left the band after suffering a shoulder injury. In 2013 Hetson left due to personal problems (divorce) and was replaced by Mike Dimkich. In 2015, Wackerman also left.

* RearrangeTheSong: ''Live at Palladium'' DVD has a version of "Cease" performed solely by Graffin on piano. It was based on the version that appeared on his solo album "American Lesson".

[[quoteright:325:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/punk_bad_religion1_1492.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:325:Bad Religion, roughly 30 years ago.]]

The band is known for its particulary clever use of metaphor, style and vocabulary in the lyrics, as well as their peculiar vocal harmonies. Lyrics are often about philosophical, social or political concerns and tend to be critical, sarcastic, and often times harsh. Song writing is usually done between Graffin and Gurewitz, except for the period of time when the band left Epitaph for the major label Creator/AtlanticRecords (1993-2001). During this period, Graffin took on sole song writing duties (excluding their major label debut ''Stranger than Fiction'', which was the last album Guerwitz appeared on until 2002). For the album ''No Substance'', generally considered among the band's weakest entries, song writing responsibilities were shared among the other band members. Since Gurewitz's return, he and Graffin have resumed their original song writing duties.

* '''''Greg Graffin''''' - vocals, principal songwriter (1979-present)
* '''''Brett Gurewitz''''' - guitar, backing vocals, principal songwriter (1979-1983, 1987-1994, 2001-present)
* '''''Jay Bentley''''' - bass, backing vocals (1979-1983, 1987-present)
* ''Jay Ziskrout'' - drums (1979-1980)
* Pete Finestone - drums (1981-1983, 1985-1991)

* Greg Hetson - guitar (1985-2013)
* Bobby Schayer - drums (1991-2001)
* '''Brian Baker''' - guitar, backing vocals (1994-present)
* Brooks Wackerman - drums (2001-2015)
* '''Mike Dimkich''' - guitar (2013-present)

Since 2001 Bad Religion's lineup consisted of Graffin (vocals), Gurewitz (guitars), Bentley (bass), Greg Hetson--formerly of The Circle Jerks (guitars), Brian Baker (guitars), and Brooks Wackerman (drums). Bobby Schayer was their drummer for much of their 1990s period, but left the band after suffering a shoulder injury. In 2013 Hetson left due to personal problems (divorce) and was replaced by Mike Dimkich. In 2015, Wackerman also left.