In case you didn't know, last Tuesday Recipe for Hate finally turned 20, and it made Stereogum's The Anniversary feature as Tom Breihan reflected on that period in Bad Religion's life. Thanks to Margo for the heads up!

Despite a few obvious mistakes in some of the facts cited which the hardcore fans will be quick to point out, it makes for a very good read. I think Breihan makes an interesting point when he wonders if it was the right timing to jump to a major label. Similarly, many a time I have indulged myself in some Bad Religion counterfactual history wondering what would have happened if Brett had stayed for the follow-up to Stranger than Fiction; or what if he had come back to the band while them choosing to stay in Atlantic and thus giving Sorrow or Broken the proper single treatment. One can only speculate, of course. As a Bad Religion rabid fan ever trying to come to terms with the fact that the band never got as big as The Offspring or Green Day (in terms of popularity, of course) I will always choose (like?) to think they are one of those never in the right place at the right time bands. Ok, ok... /Rant.
 

"Bad Religion have existed for 33 years and released 16 albums, and the vast majority of those fit into one strict template: Rocketing muscular guitar grooves, hoarsely declarative Greg Graffin vocals, weirdly folky backing harmonies, syllable-crammed and vaguely political the-world-is-fucked lyrics, surging fists-up choruses. It’s probably the most durable model in punk rock history, and it still sounded pretty great as recently as this year’s True North. But within Bad Religion’s vast discography, albums don’t tend to stand out as big achievements. There are a couple of exceptions, though. Into The Unknown, the band’s 1983 sophomore record, is an absolutely batshit-nuts piece of experimentation, one that finds the band pushing its feral early sound toward synth-prog grandiosity. It’s a fascinating look at a road less taken, and the band almost immediately disowned it completely, breaking up for a couple of years after its release and then following it up with an EP called Back To The Known, thus pulling off one of the very few successful reboot moves in rock history. (Into The Unknown has been out of print since about 10 minutes after its release, but you can still find a shitty-quality rar if you put in enough Google work. You should. Shit is crazy.) And then there’s 1993′s Recipe For Hate. Musically, it’s more or less an orthodox Bad Religion record with a few weird touches. But the circumstances around its release are, in retrospect, pretty fascinating: The band jumped to a major label for this one, and that major label did what it could to sell them as an alt-rock band, in the final moment that a wizened and respected California hardcore band wouldn’t be an easy sell." READ MORE

Trivia: Did you know that for a while an unreleased demo entitled "Hole in the Ship" was considered to become the theme song for the album?

You can learn this and more about the particulars of this classic Bad Religion record in The Answer, where else?