Bad Religion formed in Los Angeles in 1980 around vocalist Greg Graffin and guitarist Brett Gurewitz, who founded Epitaph Records to release the band's music. Suffer (1988) and No Control (1989) basically wrote the blueprint for melodic hardcore and skate punk. Dig into Bad Religion vinyl, CDs, and reissues at Wax Trax Records.
Bad Religion formed in the San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles in 1980. The founding members were vocalist Greg Graffin (who continues to lead the band while pursuing a parallel career as an academic in evolutionary biology), guitarist Brett Gurewitz, bassist Jay Bentley, and drummer Jay Ziskrout. Gurewitz founded Epitaph Records to release the band's material; Epitaph grew into one of the most influential independent labels of the 1990s. Brian Baker (formerly of Minor Threat) has been a longtime second guitarist, joining in 1994. The band has continued recording and touring across more than four decades.
Bad Religion's sound combines punk rock, hardcore, and melodic hardcore with intellectual, often philosophical lyrics drawing on Graffin's academic background. Their hallmark choral harmony vocals (referred to in fan discourse as the oozin' ahhs) are a defining stylistic feature. The band is widely credited as a foundational influence on the melodic punk and skate punk traditions that emerged in the 1990s.
Original Epitaph pressings of the late-1980s and early-1990s catalog (Suffer, No Control, Against the Grain) are foundational items in punk collecting. The catalog has been extensively reissued in anniversary editions, color variants, and box sets.
Listeners new to Bad Religion typically start with Suffer (1988) or Stranger Than Fiction (1994).
