“The Empire Strikes First” by Bad Religion

The title track of Bad Religion's 13th album, "The Empire Strikes First" is the 2004 record's thesis statement. The album was steeped in the Iraq War, this song is one of the places it hits hardest, and it borrows the Two Minute Hate from George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four for good measure.

Greg Graffin sings lead and produced it with Brett Gurewitz, and the writing credit goes to Graffin, Gurewitz and guitarist Brian Baker. It's a three-guitar assault, with Baker, Gurewitz and Greg Hetson all on electric, Jay Bentley on bass and Brooks Wackerman on drums, while Baker, Bentley and Gurewitz pile on the backing vocals. Joe Barresi engineered and mixed it.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz.