The Empire Strikes First is the thirteenth studio album by American punk rock band Bad Religion, released on June 8, 2004.

The album also marks the rare instance that non-members of Bad Religion received a writing credit, as Chris Wollard of Hot Water Music co-wrote two songs.

The song "Social Suicide" appears in the video games Tony Hawk's Project 8 and MX vs. ATV Untamed.

[8][9] After playing a series of multi-day stints in venues in the US in June 2005, Bad Religion toured across Europe in August and September 2005, which included an appearance at the Reading and Leeds Festivals.

[11] It peaked at number 40 on the Billboard 200 album chart,[20] the highest position the band had attained at the time.