Recipe for Hate

I like a bit of punk, and this was fine, but a little more pop punk than I generally prefer. A decently high three

Really good pulse on this one. Good focus

I've never been much of a Bad Religion fan. It's not something I can pin down but there's something key to the recipe in all of their albums that turns me off.

Not bad better than most of their contemporaries

Mad respect for Bad Religion, and mad respect for Greg Graffin and Brett Gurewitz (both men of *so many talents*). Yet to be honest, in that league of nineties pop-punk artists with strong hardcore-punk influences, I will always favor the more unhinged melodicism of NOFX, along with the snarling, sarcastic songwriting of Fat Mike, not to mention the latter's more expressive and more abrasive chops as a singer. In comparison, Greg's quite linear sort of vocal performance -- especially starting with today's suggestion if you refer to the chronology of their discography -- will always rub me the wrong way to an extent. For my ears, that voice will always flatten whatever good things can be found in the compositions and arrangements. Heck, in the classic string of albums BR released before this one (from "Suffer" to "Generator"), Graffin's vocals display a bit more of (relative) youthful pizzazz. Conversely, *Recipe For Hate* marks the moment when things get a little too streamlined for my ears. And the unavoidable slower tempos in the album -- unavoidable because what else can a melodic hardcore band do after going so fast for so many early albums? -- don't always work for me. This is not to say that the songwriting in this record ain't good, generally speaking. To only take one example, "American Jesus" says a lot of things that still need to be said in 2026, and if Graffin and Gurewitz's pen is not as crazed-out and delirious as the one of Fat Mike, they can be as acidic as anything from a NOFX album if they want to. And of course, there would be no NOFX, Green Day or a myriad of other pop-punk and melodic hardcore acts as we know them today without Bad Religion (Fat Mike repeated that many times himself, and not only because Gurewitz headed Epitaph Records, ha ha!). So anyone interested in this genre should check out their key albums *Suffer*, *No Control* and *Against The Grain*, plus the terrific highlights of *Against The Grain". The only problem with those albums is that both sonically and aesthetically, they are pretty interchangeable, as groundbreaking as they were. But the quality level and overall energy remains at a all-time high in them! So, as I said, mad respect for the original Bad Religion crew. Only, I will *never* select *Recipe For Hate* as the band's highlight. Sorry. Waiting for someone to suggest *Into The Unknown* now (if you know, you know). To be perfectly candid, I would rate the latter exactly as I am rating *Recipe For Hate* now. It's a dated prog-punk weirdfest with quite a few WTF? moments, but at least that record has something original to say on a purely musical standpoint. Before I listened to this other LP, never would have I imagined that the vocal harmonies found in so many melodic hardcore albums, starting with the ones of BR, actually owed a bit of their DNA to prog-rock. But when I listened to this album, everything clicked at last. *Of course* those harmonies stemmed from prog-rock somehow. What was I thinking, lol? 2.5/5 for the purposes of this list dedicated to essential albums, rounded up to 3. 7.5/10 for more general purposes (5 for the musicianship and production values + 2.5 for the artistry) ---- Number of albums from the original list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 465 Albums from the original list I *might* include in mine later on: 288 Albums from the original list I won't include in mine: 336 ---- Number of albums from the users list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 117 Albums from the users list I *might* select for mine later on: 123 Albums from the users list I won't select for mine: 280 (including this one -- but I might add one of the other records I have mentioned up there to *Suffer*) ---- Émile, *quatre* nouveaux messages pour toi au dessus, du *Solid State Survivor* de Yellow Magic Orchestra au *Atrocity Exhibition* de Danny Brown

Struck a Nerve is definitely the highlight with the vocal harmony. Hits just as hard as Infection.

I have seen this album cover a decent bit so nice to hear where it comes from. I liked this more than most of the SoCal punk I’ve heard but SoCal punk is my least favorite punk unfortunately. There were some interesting songs but most of it went by without an impact. Rating: 2.9

Punk, man. If you are not a fan, I do not know if this will convince you to become one. A good 35 minutes of punk smashing into your face, no compromises. Good choice. A number of songs off this album are still played by the band today. It says something that it has that much staying power. Top tracks: "American Jesus," "Watch It Die," "Skyscraper"

pretty fun! I like it :) - 8/10

I first remember hearing about Bad Religion in my U.S. history class in high school. As the fall semester wound down, we had to present a song that had come out that year (1999) that provided some sort of social or political commentary. One of my classmates used a Bad Religion song, but I don’t remember what it was. A year later though, my brother got Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 for our PC, and I became incredibly familiar with Bad Religion’s “You.” Flash forwards another four years, and through another video game, this time Guitar Hero, I became familiar with “Infected.” I’ve never checked out a full album from these guys before, but I tend to enjoy punk, so I think this might be right up my alley. I wasn’t wowed by this album, but I thought it was really good. I was really happy to see the same vocal harmonies that I know from other Bad Religion songs were present all throughout this album, and I really loved the raw energy that permeated the guitars and drumming. But the star of this album to me was the lyrics. Holy shit man, Bad Religion does not pull any punches at all. And it wasn’t just the content of the lyrics that I really enjoyed, but the way they were written. The language of the lyrics was mostly straightforward, but there was still a bit of figurative language and symbolism in them that left a few parts open to interpretation. I’d be down to listen to this album again, but I’d probably check out some of their other work first. A note for the person who submitted this album: you and I have a lot of overlap on our five-star albums, and I was really excited to see that you had Chvrches, More Songs About Buildings and Food, and Low Life among your five-star albums. I was really shocked that someone whose taste mirrored mine so much would submit a Bad Religion album, but I’m happy you did!

3.5/5

Oh non, je comme à aimer ça! Un genre de mix entre le punk pop de Green Day sans le côté edgy un peu cringe et le alt rock à la Pearl Jam.

Fuck yeah

I beg forgiveness - I always confuse Bad Religion with Bad Company despite their musical genres being widely disparate. This is brainy 3rd gen SoCal punk and I like it but it doesn’t make me bop my head as much as the first two generations of the SoCal punk scene. Still, I enjoyed the lyricism and the tight harmonies more than I reckoned I would.

Bad Religion are my 11th most listened to artist according to Last fm, so yes, I'm familiar with this record. I haven't listened to them in 18 months since finishing Greg Graffin's book which I found to be a massive disappointment, i wrote on GoodReads "They say don’t meet your idols and maybe don’t read their memoirs either. I wanted to enjoy this book so much and expected to, being that I hold Graffin's lyric writing on the level above a lot of other musicians. This book, however, contained many detailed stories about seemingly irrelevant events and repeated declarations of naïveté or innocence of popular culture, while passing over the creation of five albums in one chapter. I’ve previously read a book bio of the band and much preferred that one." Maybe this is my gateway back in, some cracking tracks here - thanks to the submitter for relighting the fire.

Good punk is good

Decent album by an amazing band.. Though there previous albums are much stronger. Still glas to see some BR on the list.

Maybe not ground breaking but definitely enjoyable.

American Jesus hits just as hard in 2026 as it did in 1993. Not Bad Religion's best album, but it's still excellent and I loved hearing it again.

For me, as a rule of thumb, when you see an album with more than ten songs and a runtime with less than forty minutes, you’re gonna get some real quick songs without much range. That is what we’ve got here. All great stuff. Bad Religion rocks. They take punk and bring it into the nineties. Their stuff isn’t nearly good enough to revive the genre, but instead help spark an offshoot of the genre along with bands like Green Day, the Offspring, etc. This album is a fun time and I appreciate the inclusion. 4/5

When it comes to punk and intellectualism, Bad Religion in in a league of their own. While not my favorite album, this is still an extremely strong entry in their catalog.

Of course their albums Suffer and No Control were more influential, but this album is more diverse. And it has Eddie Vedder on a couple of songs. I think more people will like this one.

Another example of a perfect album. All the anger of punk, but paired with actual musical talent. Usually punk is angry, thrashy, and sloppy. Favorite songs: American Jesus, Kerosene, Watch It Die, Struck a Nerve, Don't Pray on Me, Recipe for Hate, Lookin' In Least favorite songs: if forced to pick... All Good Soldiers 5/5

Blue (print) Day.

DNF

Not my fav Bad Religion, but I’m glad to see them here !

The best thing about this album is 14 songs in 37 minutes. I've never dived into Bad Religion before and only know what I've heard here and there and now I have 28 listens in my history. Nothing really for me here but Kerosone and Modern Day Catastrophists were interesting.

I've seen Bad Religion live, possibly more than once, at festivals - haven't ever played em at home though. I never went through a punk rock exploration phase so only know the bands I came into passive contact with. These folks are less cartoonish than Offspring and Green Day - maybe a bit po-faced compared to NOFX. It's good stuff, though - I think this has prompted me to check out more of their discography. I see a lot of reviews mentioning all the albums that came out around this one, so it looks like I can't go too far wrong! Fave tracks - "American Jesus", "Modern Day Catastrophists"

Classic Bad Religion. One of the few bands out there where I need to keep a thesaurus beside me while I listen.

I admire the line that Bad Religion walks between Punk and melody, certainly masters in their craft. Superhit American Jesus does jump out something fierce.

Classic hardcore. These guys were so influential. They deserve to be on the real list honestly.

Helt okej!

I don't understand how this is so boring and predictable.

Starts well but sort of drags a bit. Still, punk with three part harmonies is a thing.

oh yea baby. American Jesus is such an anthem. Skyscraper is one of my favorite songs ever.

Discazo de puro punk-rock de los verdaderos maestros del género. Canciones rápidas, con melodías variadas, pegadizas e intensas. Imprescindible para los auténticos amantes del estilo

Very average

This created my own recipe for hate. Towards this album.

This album cover is meta-1993. Song one finishes...song two starts...with the same tempo and feel. Eh I get nothing out of this / feel nothing. Rote high-tempo punk-ish vibes with a non-abrasive voice is all ok, but it ended and I don't remember anything. 4/10 2 stars IMO: Belonged in the book? No.

I used to be very in to Bad Religion when I was teenager, and it's been forever since I've listened to them. That melodic 90s punk hits so right. Really enjoyed this. A classic album for sure.

Not one's thing (too loud, too fast), but this is far from the worst punk record on the list (thanks to harmonies and melodies and scrutable lyrics). In all those attributes, it's vaguely Buzzcockian. "Kerosene" and "American Jesus" are cool. "Man On a Mission" also solid, sounding like legit indie rock/country rock division. Thanks for recommender for clarifying that Bad Religion > Bad Brains. Could replace basically any punk record on the list proper and all of the metal (starting with Limp Bizkit and Linkin Park and even going so far as the Stooges).

I liked Bad Religion a lot more when I was younger, at this point I pretty much only listen to their 80s stuff (no, not Into the Unknown). That being said, this album is still more enjoyable than most user submissions, and Bad Religion absolutely deserves to be on the list. I just think No Control or Suffer would've been a better choice.

An ok punk album

I could have sworn there was some Bad Religion on the original list, but seems not. An oversight for sure, and this is a great pick - catchy and accessible punk rock without being too cheesy.

Great choice including some Bad Religion on the list. Catchy, accessible and on point with their highly critical world view. Greg Graffin’s legendary voice is easily recognizable and fully deserves a spot here. Great pick.

I was all ready to dismiss this out of hand as a lame American attempt at Punk. Well it's not Punk but it is really good. There's Irish folk/New wave vibes on some tracks. Intelligent lyrics and a great integrity to boot. I mean Greg Graffin went to Cornell University! Plus I like the cover too. This is a good find and thanks to the person who proffered it.

Not the best of its kind, but a clear gap on the original list. Great pick

3. What kinda nickleback BS is this.

When this came on, I was really tempted to dismiss it as another 90s punk band that is largely indistinguishable from the horde of other bands that came out at that time. What sets this band apart is their vocal harmonies. It adds so much to these songs that they would be missing with a single vocalist or if they did shitty harmonies. Putting effort into the vocals makes all the difference here 4/5

Solid, energetic, fun, a credit to the genre. A good share!

Tony Hawks Pro Skater 2 anyone? Bad Religion are a great punk rock band and this is a great album. Enjoyable stuff from start to finish.

I’m quite familiar with their song “infected” but I never did much of a deep dive into their music. This album was fucking awesome and I will be immediately remedying that and will be checking out more of their discography soon.

Good solid West coast punk rock, just as you’d expect from Bad Religion.

Forgettable.

Good clean punk 👍

June 8, 2025 favourite song: “Kerosene” Hm, as my introduction to this band, this is pretty darn cool With riffs this glossy and harmonies this crisp, am I even listening to punk? Yet, the breakneck tempo of some songs, as well as the deliciously unsubtle politics, does in fact convince me of its genre.

4.5

OK U.S 90s Pop-punk. Fine. I have no need to return to it.

Loud, fast and heavy (but still with a slide guitar song). The template for so much of the (pop-)punk that followed, without quite the success achieved by the bands who followed. They absolutely deserve a place on the list, but narrowing it down to one album would be tricky. This album would definitely be in consideration

Why this Bad Religion record instead of their '80s punk records? The band pretty well peaked with No Control so I would've gone with that. Still highly political in a vaguely anti-establishment sense, but slowed down compared to their previous works. I thought skate punk was supposed to be more energetic than this? By this point, Lagwagon and the Offspring were the new torchbearers for the genre as Bad Religion started to show their age a good decade into their career. At this point they would've benefited from some innovation and reimagining their sound rather than continuing to make songs like they did in the '80s but slower. I think there's some interesting stuff on All Good Soldiers with more angular guitars that's reminiscent of the '90s post-hardcore at the time, but they never fully lean into it. Seemingly only picks up in the back half, but by that point I'm not really sold on what they're doing. It's a bummer. CONTENDER FOR THE LIST: No Control is a better pick. Even then, there's enough punk on the list as is.

Solid example of some 90s punk, but also most 90s punk doesn't really do much for me

The only album by legendary punk band Bad Religion I’ve heard in full before this is their Christmas album so I’m expecting this to be quite different… It’s not that different, their Christmas album goes hard as hell. This does too. I’ve definitely heard American Jesus before but couldn’t tell you where - it’s a great song! Everything else was pretty great as well

Enjoyable punk, but I think I'd like to write more after another listen.

Melodic for punk

Pink-lite

Back to back albums right up my streets, nice. Recipe For Hate is solid Bad Religion, a good introduction to them if you've not listened to them before, not necessarily their best work but it's a good album that shows what they're about. American Jesus is the track most people will know but Struck a Nerve, Don't Pray On Me and Skyscraper are all really good as well, and I think I get most out of them because my main criticism of BR over the years is that they can be very one-speed/one-sound and a lot of album tracks kind of sound the same. That's probably why they're not high on my favourites rotation but always present as a sprinkling into it, but on balance of so much horseshit we've had over the last three years, this also gets a 4 because I'd rather listen to it than 80% of stuff out there.

Nah mate. Sorry.

Was a fan of bad religion when I was 14, I had the album the process of belief, which I played a lot, great punk rock band that should be on the original list.

Real nice rock album, classic anti establishment

I know this band from the Tony Hawk games, think they were featured in a couple but the song "You" in the older games was a big one for me. As a result, their sound and style is kind of comforting. I like the voice, I also like that there are some easy to follow lyrics in here. It got a little same-y for me, but still a pretty good album. Not a bad inclusion at all. 3.5/5

I'm mad my review didn't save. This is a 5 star album and a new fav that I will go back to. I'll also listen to much more Bad Religion. I originally commented that my early-mid pop-punk/punk lane always went toward Offspring, and this was a miss I feel badly about.

Gotta be a top 3 Bad Religion album for me.

Album cover goes hard as fuck. Screenshotted and shared with my 32-year-old grandson "Félipé" immediately. Unique vocal style for this kind of punk. Was there even any 90s pop-punk on the original list other than Green Day? Guess there wasn't any space for it, because god forbid somebody dies without hearing all three Dexys Midnight Runners albums. Whatever, this slaps. Great pick!

Man with a mission has the drum line from What's so funny about peace love and understanding... Bad Religion executes with a lot of passion and energy. Tons of spark. I just don't like that there is a lot of inconsistency. All Good Soldiers tries to bring a ska flair, but then they just totally abandon it. Then watch it die brings in a marching band for the first 30 seconds.

The lead singer's voice is my primary issue. it is too generic and uninteresting. I feel like it hangs out in the Social Distortion and NOFX space a bit, but lacks a similarly interesting vocalist. Don't Pray on Me was the one track that stood out for me and enjoyed the most.

Of its time

Alright here we go with the user submitted albums. Having looked at the list, I know we're in for some real treats. I've decided for this section to review albums based on personal taste (removing all context of the list), whether they should be included in the list, and rating relative to the list (which I will use as the final rating). I won't be consistent but that's what I'll try and aim for. So for this we start off with a nice punk album. Very pop punk? Not great with punk genres. Reading through the other reviews, they mention Tony Hawk and I looked it up and I heard the song You by Bad Religion a lot since I played that game a TON. Did the original list cover that pop-punk well? I remember Green Day being on there but can't remember much else? Although to my ear this was pretty straight down the line. Reading wikipedia I realise I was familiar with the lead singer since he has a PhD and that shows up on lists of musicians with PhDs I read from time to time. Always a fan of that. My personal rating: 3/5 My rating relative to the list: 4/5 Should this have been included on the original list? Yes. Reading wikipedia, they've had a big influence on punk music in the 90s and think that's worthy.

I love me some Bad Religion even if I dont really listen to them these days since being born again. This album is something of an odd choice in my opinion. I always defended this one as being pretty underrated but most of the punk people I know were underwhelmed by this one. That said, I personally would've chosen Suffer for it's influence on so many punk bands to follow. No Control or my personal favorite: Against The Grain would've been great too. All in all I do really like this album even if BR and I have somewhat gone our separate ways. I do still like listening to some of their songs every once in a while, assuming it isn't one that makes me feel convicted. A 3.5 or 4 star album getting the 5 star treatment for being an all-time great punk band that meant so much to me in my teens and early 20s (and helped me learn some great vocabulary words too)

This sort of thing might not always be my cup of tea, but it rocks and right now it feels spot on.

Generally, I would think that this is just okay, but for me today, it was prerry good.

I've heard of Bad Religion, and heard songs from them over the years, but hadn't really listened to them. Just from the name I'm surprised they didn't make the 1001 list, and listening to them I'm even more surprised. They seem like pretty influential artists from the 90s. I really enjoyed their harmonic punk rock sound! Some of the reviews were saying this isn't their best album. I don't know, but I liked it a lot. Great!

Socially conscious punk

Yep, another "how was this not on the main list?" type of album. Punchy, political punk that because of my age, immediately makes me think of playing Tony Hawk on Playstation...

I'd like to love it more, but the songs are not that spectacular.

Meh..

Enjoyed it more than most of the punk on the proper list.

This definitely felt like a nostalgic/sentimental pick. Punk with a bit of a country twist that didn’t really resonate with me but was interesting to listen to.

Yet another "how did they not make the original list?" I've always seen BR as more of a singles band, though I like the chances this album takes, especially on a track like "All Good Soldiers". I don't think it feels like a complete album, since the closing track "Skyscraper" (since "Stealth" is just a speech) finishes up and doesn't give any indication that it's the final track. Still, BR is solid, no complaints here. Favorite tracks: "All Good Soldiers", "Modern Day Catastrophists", "American Jesus"

I started off thinking that the vocals here were not strong enough to hold up to the lyrics or to what's going on musically. But as the album progressed, I found that it all works well together. There's a melodicism here that I didn't expect but really liked. This was a solid listen, thanks for recommending it. Fave Songs: American Jesus, Man with a Mission, Lookin' In, Recipe for Hate, All Good Soldiers

Rating: 9/10 Best songs: Recipe for hate, American jesus, Portrait of authority, Man with a mission, Lookin’ in, Modern day catastrophists

Bad Religion is one of those bands like AC/DC that just keeps making the same album over and over again. If forced to pick an album for inclusion, I would have probably picked Suffer personally.

Short, high energy album, I enjoyed

I expected a nondescript post-punk album and was pleasantly surprised by it.

Great hardcore with some melodic touches. Not much to dislike here!

Early 90s west coast punk. Energetic, catchy and pre-dates the more annoying tendencies of the genre. Rating: 3 Playlist track: American Jesus Date listened: 24/07/24

This was some decent rock punk music. Definitely not as hardcore as some of their other albums or other punk bands but that’s what made this album more enjoyable. Less thrash and more technique in the instrumentals always makes me enjoy the punk sound more. this was decent but not great. 6.2/10

Didnt hate. Good solid early 90s punk

Ok

Punk-rock. Me ha gustado. Un 4.

How this band didn’t end up on the list is beyond me, this was an amazing, fully-formed Punk LP with substance for days compared to some of the representative albums on the official project. The amount of social critiques woven into great instrumentals is off the charts here, and even if some of them are aggressively on the nose, they still succeed based on usual punk standards for subtlety. Great add and a personal fav find so far.