Shortly before the release of Stranger than Fiction, Gurewitz left Bad Religion to run his label Epitaph on a full-time basis, and was replaced by Brian Baker.

[24] Soon after, Graffin reassembled Bad Religion with Circle Jerks guitarist Greg Hetson replacing Gurewitz, who had gone into rehab for his drug problem.

Bentley's response was tentative, but after being assured that the setlist consisted mostly of tracks from How Could Hell Be Any Worse?, he agreed to return for one show, and ended up staying on because he had so much fun.

With alternative rock and grunge breaking into the mainstream, Bad Religion signed to Atlantic Records in 1993 and quickly re-released their seventh full-length studio album Recipe for Hate on the label that same year.

Despite receiving mixed reviews from music critics, the album finally broke Bad Religion into mainstream audiences and got their highest U.S. chart position to date, debuting at No.

The band also recorded the song "Leaders and Followers" (which later appeared as a bonus track on the Japanese version of Stranger Than Fiction) for the soundtrack for the Kevin Smith film, Clerks.

The album was Bad Religion's first to enter the Billboard 200; the release peaked at number 87, and was awarded gold certification on March 4, 1998, for sales of over half a million copies.

[31] With the success of that album, Bad Religion became a key member of the 1990s commercial punk rock explosion, alongside Green Day and fellow Epitaph bands such as the Offspring, Rancid, and NOFX.

He officially cited the reason for his departure as the increasing amount of time he was needed at Epitaph as the Offspring (who had just released Smash to unexpected success and acclaim) became one of the biggest bands of the mid-1990s.

Bad Religion continued touring and recording without Brett Gurewitz, releasing three more albums for Atlantic, starting with The Gray Race (1996), produced by former Cars frontman Ric Ocasek.

This DVD featured a live show performed in late 2004 at the Hollywood Palladium as well as extensive interviews, several music videos, and a photo gallery.

On June 29 of that year (Greg Hetson's 46th birthday), Epitaph Records started selling New Maps of Hell at the Warped Tour in Pomona, California.

[41] In early March 2008, Bad Religion played several night residences at House of Blues venues in Southern California as well as Las Vegas.

In June 2008, Jay Bentley said in an interview at the Pinkpop Festival in Landgraaf, Netherlands, that Gurewitz had already begun writing new material for the next Bad Religion album.

[48] In January 2010, Bentley revealed that Bad Religion would record their new album at a studio in Pasadena, California, with Joe Barresi, who engineered 2004's The Empire Strikes First and produced its 2007 follow-up, New Maps of Hell.

[55] In an April 2011 interview with The Washington Examiner, guitarist Brian Baker was asked if Bad Religion was going to make another album after The Dissent of Man.

[57] Bassist Jay Bentley mentioned an early 2012 timeframe for going back into the studio in an interview at Live 105's BFD festival, which took place the day after the Weenie Roast.

[80] Asked in a March 2017 interview about the follow-up to True North, Graffin said, "It's one of the great challenges as artist is to maintain the tradition of his or her prior work.

From July to September 2014, Bad Religion embarked on the Summer Nationals Tour with Pennywise; their former labelmates the Offspring, the Vandals, Stiff Little Fingers, and Naked Raygun supported them on selected dates.

[88] Speculations about the album resurfaced in April of that year when Gurewitz and guitarist Brian Baker posted pictures from the studio on their respective Instagram accounts.

Despite earlier reports that they had been in the studio since February, up to mid 2018, and the fact that they had already released a new song, Gurewitz told Los Angeles Times in July 2018 that, "We're writing for a new album, recording this fall or late summer.

[100] They subsequently also rescheduled their South American and European tour dates with Suicidal Tendencies, Millencolin, and Pulley to 2022 (originally scheduled for May and June 2021), once again due to the COVID pandemic.

[104] On January 20, 2021, Bad Religion released a previously unreleased song called "Emancipation of the Mind", which was recorded during the Age of Unreason sessions.

Even more unusual for a band of the scene that spawned them, they were also informed by such new wavers as Elvis Costello, the Jam, and Nick Lowe, as well as authors like Jack Kerouac.

"[39] Brett Gurewitz acknowledges attempting to emulate Germs singer Darby Crash early on in Bad Religion's lyrical style.

Greg Graffin believes that the current political situation in the United States can make it difficult to voice these concerns as he does not want to feed the polarization of viewpoints.

[133] The band contributed a song to the Rock Against Bush series organized by Fat Mike's Punkvoter, a political activist group and website whose supporters are primarily left-liberal members of the punk subculture.

[135] Bad Religion performed at L7's abortion-rights benefit Rock for Choice at the Hollywood Palladium on April 30, 1993, with acts such as Stone Temple Pilots, White Zombie, Bikini Kill, King Missile, and Free Kitten with Kim Gordon.

And so, I prefer naturalist.Despite this, he did co-author the book Is Belief in God Good, Bad or Irrelevant?, which is based on a series of lengthy debates about science and religion between Graffin and historian Preston Jones.

On March 24, 2012, Bad Religion headlined the Reason Rally in Washington, D.C., sharing the stage with Eddie Izzard, Richard Dawkins, Tim Minchin and James Randi.