That album, released in 1992 proved to be somewhat of a catalyst. With the rising tide of the alternative scene, Bad Religion signed to Atlantic Records, and released their first album on a major label titled “Recipe for Hate” in 1993, and saw them reach their highest position in the US charts to that time. Though only getting mixed reviews fro so-called critics, they found an audience willing to take them on, and the tour to promote the album only saw their popularity grow. This was followed the following year by “Stranger Than Fiction”, which became the band’s most successful album. Based around the hits like the title track, “Infected” and “21st Century (Digital Boy)”, as well as recording the song “Leaders and Followers” for the soundtrack of the hit indie film “Clerks”, “Stranger Than Fiction” reached 87 on the US charts. The success of this album led the way for bands such as Green Day, The Offspring and Rancid to follow them into commercial success.
However, this had led to the departure of Gurewitz from the band following the recording of that album. Gurewitz owned and ran the label Epitaph Records whom the band had been with until they signed with Atlantic, and with the exploding success of one of the label’s other bands The Offspring, whose album “Smash” had just crushed it on the charts, he said he needed more time at the office than being in the band would allow. The conflict came from him also suggesting the band had sold out in the chase for more money. It led to an uncomfortable relationship between himself and lead singer Greg Graffen for a time.
With the change in personnel, and a change in the writing partnership having come about due to this change, the band entered the studio with producer Ric Ocasek (formerly of The Cars) to begin work on what would become their ninth album, the album called “The Gray Race”.
The album opens with the title track, which sets the tone immediately, with a brisk tempo, tight harmonies, and that excellent sense of urgency that perpetuates the band’s best tracks. It’s Bad Religion doing what they do best—questioning conformity and the systems that shape identity. This is followed up by “Them and Us”, another example of the best the band has to offer, and has been considered one of the band’s most popular tracks. Discussing social division that they saw as prevalent in the world, the song still has an upbeat feel about it, helped along by the great fast tempo and guitar lines that pervade a positive attitude that the bleak subject matter contravenes. “A Walk” was the first single released from the album, one that has a simple back beat and lyrics that are easy to sing along to, making it accessible to all fans of different genres. It’s punchy, catchy, and built around a simple but effective riff. Lyrically, it’s a meditation on personal governance and the absurdity of modern life. It is easy to see why this became a fan favourite. “Parallel” offers a more introspective action, discussing alienation and the difficulty in finding a meaning to life in a world that is fragmenting around them. It has a lot of parallels to the world of 2026 as much as it did to 1996. Graffin’s vocals soar through the chorus, and the harmonies offered are terrific here again. You can hear snatches of Husker Du here, which in turn also offers comparisons to what Foo Fighters did later on as well. “Punk Rock Song” is the anthem of the album, the fast, easily deciphered message of the lyrics punching out at you from the speakers. It is sardonic, loud, and focused on political hypocrisy. The song’s bluntness is part of its charm—it’s Bad Religion at their most direct, and it works superbly. It is my favourite song here.
One of the great aspects of this album, as with the majority of Bad Religion’s work, is the short time span each song takes up. The longest song on the album is 3:48, while the average length is just over two minutes. It means that the album keeps moving forward, not dwelling too long on one aspect or mood. Case in point is this middle section of the album. “Empty Causes” rushes through with the same best fast tempo this album produces, laying waste to those with activism for show and hollow causes beautifully. “Nobody Listens” pushes on just as fast, the rhythm section taking the lead and charging onwards while Graffin sprouts his disdain about communication breakdown and oblique noise in society. “Pity the Dead” marginally draws back the tempo, drawing more on a more emotively sombre weight within the music and vocals to express the heaviness of the subject matter. And “Spirit Shine” speaks of the business of selling spirituality, and making it a commodity rather than a personal philosophy. These four tracks, all bright and breezy with serious subject matter made to sound like fun while being a hard dissection of the story, take up less than ten minutes of your time, just like the best punk styled songs do.
“The Streets of America” changes the mood and tempo completely. As the longest track, it also drops back in tempo but raises the intensity of the message in the lyrics, specifically the way inequality, neglect, and disillusionment shape everyday life in the United States. The imagery is sharp, and the chorus is one of the album’s most memorable. And it is another song on this album that could have been describing 2026 rather than 1996. “Ten in 2010” picks up the speed and cynicism aspects. A peek at the future form the now-past, imagining overpopulation and environmental overwhelming. The frantic pace offers a feeling of urgency that matches what their lyrics are suggesting. Classic Bad Religion is restored with “Victory”, a song where the skeptical tone of the lyrics is contrasted by the upbeat melody of the music. Have fun while bouncing along to the music and discussing the downfall of humanity! Fabulous. “Drunk Sincerity” moves down a different path, speaking of vulnerability, the kind that surfaces when emotionally overwhelmed or simply exhausted by the world. It’s not so much about alcohol as much as it is about those moments when honesty is forced to the surface through fatigue. It is poignant as well as musically sincere. “Come Join Us” returns to the bands biting critique of political recruitment and ideological manipulation. It draws sarcastic and cynical vocals supported by hard hitting drums and great riffs. It’s another beauty. And the album then concludes with “Cease”, a song that draws together all of the themes explored on the album, the disillusionment and search for meaning, and explores them all as the finale. It is a broader track musically as well, closing out the album with a sense of closing out a speech. In many ways, as the concluding remarks on a wide range of issues the band has brought to the table on this album, that is exactly what it does.
I remember, as clear as if it happened yesterday, back in 1996 when I first became aware of this album. Well, to be fair, it was initially just a song. I was watching “Rage” on ABC TV one Saturday morning, at a time when they used to play the new release single videos in Australia in full. And this song just burst out of the TV speakers with intensity and a hard rocking punk riff, and it grabbed my attention immediately. It was the video for “Punk Rock Song”, it lasted a couple of minutes, but also had some words scrubbed into silence. And I thought “Wow... I really like that!” So the following morning, when they used to do exactly the same thing, I was there and I recorded it onto VHS on my metal music video, and there it remained for posterity, being played back over and over. I walked up King Street in Newtown to one of my local record store haunts, Fish Records, and couldn’t find a copy of this album, but I did find the CD single of “Punk Rock Song” and bought that instead. And played that over and over. This was my introduction to “The Gray Race”.
That late 1990’s decade was one where I fell in with the commercial punk and alternative bands of the era. Bad Religion was a part of that, along with The Offspring and Green Day and NOFX and Rancid and Therapy? For me it is a tight and narrow window, where the albums of those bands still resonate with me, but beyond this time period I have rarely looked for their work. It is true of Bad Religion as well. I own “Stranger Than Fiction” and this album, but that’s the extent of my real knowledge of the band’s music. And that ties in a bit with where I was living at the time and where I was in my life. It was slightly tumultuous, and this genre of music was good for me at that time.
Listening to the album again over the last week has been fun. It brought back a lot of memories from that time, and it reminded me not only of how I felt about this album at the time, but that I still find it great to listen to. It is true that over the past week I have often found myself considering what song I was actually listening to. The short sharp time span of the songs on this album still works well, but the somewhat similarity of the structure of some of the tracks does mean that it can sound like it is four songs on repeat. Not all of them, mind you, just some. But that doesn’t matter to me. I still thoroughly enjoy this album and what it stands for.
Bad Religion moved on after this album, but this has been as far as I have ever investigated their music. Perhaps one day I will get out there and check out their albums post 1996. I’m sure I’ll like them. But sometimes it is just an album, or a song, that is what you really want to hear. And when it comes to Bad Religion, it is really this one that is all that I need.
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