Released in 1990, after the brilliant and hugely successful albums 'No Control' and 'Suffer', 'Against the Grain' shows Bad Religion at their very very best. This album links the bands more ferocious and fast material from their early years with their slower and more melodic work in their subsequent releases such as the brilliant 'Generator' and the mostly underrated 'Recipe For Hate'. Lyricly stunning, ATG consistently moves me in ways every other punk record out there just can't. Songs such as 'Anesthesia' and 'Faith Alone' were two of BR's slowest songs ever at the time of release, yet the sheer brilliance of the songwriting demonstrated in these tracks made them instant classics with the BR faithful. Whilst songs like 'Flat Earth Society' and 'God Song' showed that BR had lost none of their ability to produce some of the fastest punk songs ever recorded.
This really is about as good as punk gets, and finishes off the Bad Religion "Trilogy" of records in style. This was the best punk record ever when it was released and continues to show today that there really will be nothing as good as this ever again.