Suffer by Bad Religion

Suffer, Bad Religion's third studio album, came out on Epitaph on September 8, 1988, the first record the label both released and distributed. After the Back to the Known EP in 1985 the band had drifted into a hiatus; now Greg Graffin was back with the old gang minus drummer Jay Ziskrout, with Brett Gurewitz, whose label it was, and Greg Hetson on guitars, Jay Bentley on bass and Pete Finestone on drums, cutting their first full-length in five years and producing it themselves.

It's melodic hardcore at full sprint: short, fast, furious songs about religion, politics and society, with brainy lyrics and those stacked three-part harmonies giving the noise a hymn-like lift. "You Are (The Government)", "1000 More Fools", "How Much Is Enough?" and the title track became fan favorites. It never touched the Billboard 200, but a generation of punk bands took it as scripture: Fat Mike of NOFX called it the record that changed everything, and NOFX even spoofed its title with their 2001 EP Surfer.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.