Bad Religion was a college revelation for me, and Recipe For Hate was the ground zero for that revelation.  The combination of air-tight riffing, incredible vocal hooks and harmonies have not ben equalled in the punk world to this day, and as we’ll see over the next few albums (it’s gonna be Bad Religion all week here), even when the album overall isn’t a classic there are still enough classics to make it worthwhile.

The classics on Recipe for Hate are many, though.  Going right from the opening title track to “Kerosene” and the whopper hit “American Jesus” featuring Eddie Vedder on background vocals of all things were mainstays in the downtown dorms during college in the early 90s.  And with 14 songs at just over 37 minutes it’s an album that knows when to get in, strike hot, and get out again.  And it has “Skyscraper” which inexplicably might be my favorite Bad Religion song of all time.

Lots of folks tend to go with the early albums as the definitive Bad Religion like Suffer and Against the Grain.  And while I love those albums Recipe for Hate has a special place for being there was I was ready to discover it, and for all the ooohs and ahhhhhs.