Each of Bad Religion’s albums conveys a different shade of world-weary righteousness. Disgust is probably the dominating emotion of Against the Grain—disgust at growing ecological disaster, our numbing addiction to consumption, the rise of retrograde evangelism. It’s as if the band simply can’t believe that natural selection produced such an idiotic organism. And yet Against the Grain is kind of…fun. No one does soaring punk melodies like these dudes, and there’s something of a wink in their anger, as if they really do believe that a mosh pit and a thesaurus can turn all this shit around. Suffer still stands as their best album, but the seven-song stretch between “Anesthesia” and “21st Century Digital Boy” (excepting the title track) may be Bad Religion’s artistic peak. “Don’t speak to me of anarchy or peace or calm revolt, man/You’re in a play of slow decay orchestrated by Boltzmann”? That’s fine art if I’ve ever heard it. 10
Bad Religion. Against the Grain. Epitaph, 1990. Reviewed August 18, 2025. Notable tracks: “Entropy,” “21st Century Digital Boy,” “Faith Alone.”