Against The Grain Review

Release Date: 1990
Label: Epitaph
Genres: Alternative Pop/Rock, Hardcore Punk, Punk, L.A. Punk
Number Of Tracks: 17
The third in a flurry of releases that followed Bad Religion's 1988 reunion, Against the Grain found the band's edge honed sharper than it had been in years.

Sound:	10
Lyrics:	10
Impression:	10
Overall rating:	10
Users rating:	8.2
Comments:	10

overall: 10

Reviewed by: Alex101, on october 27, 2006

Sound: Bad Religion's follow-up to their last two fan favorite works, 1988's "Suffer" and 1989's "No Control", "Against The Grain" is another one of my favorite albums by those guys. This was their first album released in the '90s, but it's unfortunately their final album to feature the "classic" line-up, Greg Graffin (vocals), Mr. Brett(guitar), Greg Hetson (guitar), Jay Bentley (bass) and Pete Finestone (drums), as their drummer left the band after the release of the album. Mr. Brett and Greg Hetson's guitar sounds on the album are brilliant. // 10

Lyrics and Singing: Greg Graffin and Mr. Brett's lyrics on "Against The Grain" are either fine or just brilliant. Bassist Jay Bentley did the lyrics to "The Positive Aspect of Negative Thinking" and "Unacceptable" with the other guitarist Greg Hetson. There are some hilarious lyrics that Greg and Brett wrote like "Hey, Blenderhead, you ask so many questions" (from "Blenderhead"), "my daddy's a lazy middle class intellectual" (from "21st Century Digital Boy"), "and did those feet in ancient times trod america's pastures of green?" (from "God Song"). // 10

Impression: "Suffer", "No Control", "80-85" (an album with songs recorded before "Suffer") and this album are Bad Religion's most highly recommended albums released on Epitaph Records. My favorite songs on this album are "Turn on the Light", "Blenderhead", "Anesthesia", "Faith Alone", "Against The Grain", "Operation Rescue" and "21st Century Digital Boy". I'm sure you might be familiar with "Against The Grain" best known track "21st Century Digital Boy", which later appeared on "Stranger Than Fiction", the band's last album with Brett, and it became a hit on that album. If you don't have this album, you should check it out or "All Ages", it has some of the stuff off this album. If you don't buy any Bad Religion albums, you're not a fan of those guys. If I lose my own CD of this album, I will probably buy it again or just download the songs and burn them onto a blank disc. // 10

Comments

[dain84]

Brett played on the last two albums....

[GrungePb]

dain84 wrote:

Brett played on the last two albums....

he sure did

[BRandGraffin]

i own multiple copies of all the cds by them. mainly to have in my car, my home stereo, and friends house. not burned copies. by far one of the most intellectual and brilliant bands of all times.

[shadowsfear61]

yea....ive got a couple cds and they are probably on my top ten of all bands....i recomend them to everybody to bring back music that has been lost

[MiScHiEf BrEw]

2nd favorite band of all time. Though they were my favorite for years. I can't put into words what their music and lyrics does to me. But if you want their best album, check out suffer!

[livefortoday]

Most talented band alive in my opinion. Their melodies can even easily be compared to the beatles, and their lyrics are even better. They are so underrated but that doesn't matter cuz i can enjoy their music anyway. I think their best album is the How Could Hell Be Any Worse? compilation.

[bees_knees_3]

VAGINA

[unholy_love]

livefortoday wrote:

Most talented band alive in my opinion. Their melodies can even easily be compared to the beatles, and their lyrics are even better. They are so underrated but that doesn't matter cuz i can enjoy their music anyway. I think their best album is the How Could Hell Be Any Worse? compilation.

I definetly think the How Could Hell Be Any Worse? compilation was their best album. Their lyrics are freakin' awesome dude, one of the most creative lyrics that ive ever read.

[Pete4047]

MiScHiEf BrEw wrote:

2nd favorite band of all time. Though they were my favorite for years. I can't put into words what their music and lyrics does to me. But if you want their
best album, check out suffer!

I think that No Control is there best.

[n00barmy]

This is a really good album. There are a lot of good tracks on here but 21st Century Digital Boy, Anesthesia and Operation Rescue are my favorites. When Graffin screams "Unac-****ing-ceptale" at the fade out of Unacceptable I, literally, LOLed.