''Into the Unknown'' is the second studio album by

Bad Religion Bad Religion is an American punk rock band, formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1980. The band's lyrics cover topics related to religion, politics, society, the media and science. Musically, they are noted for their melodic sensibilities and ...

, released in August 1983 through

Epitaph Records Epitaph Records is an American independent record label owned by Bad Religion guitarist Brett Gurewitz. A large portion of the record label, known as Hellcat Records, is owned by Tim Armstrong, frontman of the punk rock band Rancid. Several ...

. The album marks a distinct departure from the band's previous album; instead of featuring

hardcore punk Hardcore punk (commonly abbreviated to hardcore or hXc) is a punk rock music genre#subtypes, subgenre and subculture that originated in the late 1970s. It is generally faster, harder, and more aggressive than other forms of punk rock. Its roots ...

, the album is characterized by slower tempos, use of

electronic organ An electric organ, also known as electronic organ, is an electronic keyboard instrument which was derived from the pump organ, harmonium, pipe organ and theatre organ. Originally designed to imitate their sound, or orchestral sounds, it has si ...

and

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

s, and a prog-influenced

hard rock Hard rock or heavy rock is a heavier subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and Distortion (music), distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the Garage rock, garage, Psychedelic rock, psychedelic and blues ...

sound. ''Into the Unknown'' is the only Bad Religion album to feature Paul Dedona on bass and Davy Goldman on drums. Dedona was ejected from the band before their next recording and replaced by Tim Gallegos, while former drummer

Pete Finestone Bad Religion is an American punk rock band, formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1980. The band's lyrics cover topics related to religion, politics, society, the media and science. Musically, they are noted for their melodic sensibilities and ...

returned to the band in 1986. The album also features Bad Religion's longest track to date, "Time and Disregard", which is seven minutes long. ''Into the Unknown'' proved to be the band's most controversial release; despite favorable reviews from music critics, it was a commercial failure, and was characterized as a "misstep" by guitarist

Brett Gurewitz Brett W. Gurewitz (born May 12, 1962), nicknamed Mr. Brett, is an American musician and record producer, best known as the co-founder and guitarist of the Punk rock, punk band Bad Religion. He is also the owner of the music label Epitaph Records ...

. It was not reissued on any format until 2010, when it was issued on

vinyl Vinyl may refer to: Chemistry * Polyvinyl chloride (PVC), a particular vinyl polymer * Vinyl cation, a type of carbocation * Vinyl group, a broad class of organic molecules in chemistry * Vinyl polymer, a group of polymers derived from vinyl ...

as part of the box set ''30 Years of Bad Religion'', and has never been reissued on its own.

Background and production

While on tour promoting their debut studio album ''

How Could Hell Be Any Worse? ''How Could Hell Be Any Worse?'' is the debut studio album by American punk rock band Bad Religion, released on January 19, 1982, by Epitaph Records. Released almost a year after their self-titled EP, it was financed from the sales of the self t ...

'' (1982), the members of Bad Religion noticed a shift in the mood of people involved in the punk rock scene in Southern California. In the lead up to the record sessions of their second album, the band members were adamant that punk is dead and decided to move on from the genre. According to author Dave Thompson in his book ''Alternative Rock'' (2000), the subsequent sessions were "fraught at the best of times and positively disastrous at the worse of times."Thompson 2000, p. 168 Guitarist

stated that it was quickly produced after the release of the band's debut album because the band did not take themselves seriously and did not think it would last very long, despite the success of their debut and popularity on the

underground music Underground music is music with practices perceived as outside, or somehow opposed to, Popular music, mainstream popular music culture. Underground styles lack the commercial success of popular music movements, and may involve the use of avant-g ...

scene. Gurewitz said that little thought was put into the album's production. Bassist

Jay Bentley Jayson Dee Bentley (born June 6, 1964) is the bassist and co-founding member of the punk rock group Bad Religion. He has played with the band through its whole existence with a small break between 1983 and 1985. Along with vocalist Greg Graffin, ...

was outraged at vocalist

Greg Graffin Gregory Walter Graffin (born November 6, 1964) is an American singer who is the lead vocalist and only constant member of the punk band Bad Religion, which he co-founded in 1980. He has also released three solo albums. Graffin obtained his PhD ...

's over-usage of a

Roland Juno-60 The Roland Juno-60 is an analog synthesizer manufactured by the Roland Corporation between 1982 and 1984. It followed the Juno-6, an almost identical synthesizer released months earlier. The Juno synthesizers introduced Roland's digitally contro ...

synthesizer that he quit the band when they were partway through recording the first track of the sessions. Drummer

then left to study in England; his role was filled by Davy Goldman, while Bentley's was taken by Paul Dedona. Bad Religion hired producer

Thom Wilson Thom Wilson (died February 8, 2015) was an American punk rock record producer and engineer. Career Wilson began his musical career in the mid-1970s, engineering recordings by soft rock artists Burton Cummings and Seals & Crofts. He began worki ...

to collaborate with the band during the album's production.

Musical style and influences

Gurewitz and the other band members were very much into

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog) is a broad genre of rock music that primarily developed in the United Kingdom through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early-to-mid-1970s. Initially termed " progressive pop", the ...

before getting into

punk rock Punk rock (also known as simply punk) is a rock music genre that emerged in the mid-1970s. Rooted in 1950s rock and roll and 1960s garage rock, punk bands rejected the corporate nature of mainstream 1970s rock music. They typically produced sh ...

, and wanted to record an album reflecting a prog and avant-garde influence. The album is characterized by slower tempos and use of

and

-driven melody. Thompson described the album's sound as Graffin's "auteur keyboards colliding punk and proto-synthpop, before sailing off into distinctly softer, rockier pastures and prescient soaring harmonies."

Release and reception

Because of the band's success, they produced more copies of this album than they had of their debut. Gurewitz joked about having " ent outten thousand copies and

etting Etting (; ; Lorraine Franconian: ''Ettinge'') is a commune in the Moselle department of the Grand Est administrative region in north-eastern France. The village belongs to the Pays de Bitche. See also * Communes of the Moselle department ...

eleven thousand back." The album was a commercial failure to the point that the band and Epitaph Records, their label, disbanded.

Tim Yohannan Tim Yohannan (August 15, 1945 – April 3, 1998), also known as Tim Yo, was the founder of '' Maximum Rocknroll'', a radio show and fanzine documenting punk subculture in San Francisco. He also helped in establishing a number of DIY collectives, ...

, founder of punk zine ''

Maximumrocknroll ''Maximumrocknroll'', often written as ''Maximum Rocknroll'' and usually abbreviated as ''MRR'', is a not-for-profit monthly online zine of punk subculture and radio show of punk music. Based in San Francisco, ''MRR'' focuses on punk rock and ...

'', called the album "slickly produced early ’70s wimp rock" and said that "After playing it, I hurled it out the window, into the unknown." In a positive review of the album, ''

The Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture publication based in Greenwich Village, New York City, known for being the country's first Alternative newspaper, alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf (publisher), Dan Wolf, ...

'' critic

Robert Christgau Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and later became a ...

said, "I find myself moved by its anthemic ambition--and achievement." John Dougan of

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

says that ''Into the Unknown'' is "a bit off-putting at first blush, mainly because the tempos are slower and more deliberate, and because of the use of swirling organs and pianos", while he calls it a "terrific record that was perhaps more daring than anyone realized at the time of its release."

Chuck Eddy Chuck Eddy (born November 26, 1960) is an American music journalist. Life and career Chuck Eddy was born in Detroit, Michigan. After starting his journalism career with ''The Village Voice'' and ''Creem'', where he published one of the first nati ...

has praised the album, saying it "sounds like

Hawkwind Hawkwind are an English rock band known as one of the earliest space rock groups. Since their formation in November 1969, Hawkwind have gone through many incarnations and have incorporated many different styles into their music, including hard ...

but feels way less exotic, more like how the prairie art-schlockers in

Kansas Kansas ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the west. Kansas is named a ...

and

Styx In Greek mythology, Styx (; ; lit. "Shuddering"), also called the River Styx, is a goddess and one of the rivers of the Greek Underworld. Her parents were the Titans Oceanus and Tethys, and she was the wife of the Titan Pallas and the moth ...

always ''tried'' to feel."

Legacy

''Into the Unknown'' is Bad Religion's most controversial release. The band broke up after the album's release, but reformed in 1985. Gurewitz characterized the album as a "terrible misstep". Graffin thought it sounded like the early work of

R.E.M. R.E.M. was an American alternative rock band formed in Athens, Georgia, in 1980 by drummer Bill Berry, guitarist Peter Buck, bassist Mike Mills, and lead vocalist Michael Stipe, who were students at the University of Georgia. One of the fir ...

, and that it would have been received better had it been release a couple of years later. Although ''Into the Unknown'' has never been officially released on CD, bootleg CDs of the album exist. Graffin recalls that the band only performed material from this album once when it was released; when Bad Religion premiered the material live, only 12 people turned out for the concert because fans learned that the band was going to bring keyboards on stage. The band then decided not to bring keyboards on tour with them and return to their

sound. In October 2010, the band performed "Billy Gnosis", the first time in 27 years that Bad Religion had performed any songs from the album in concert. In December, the band released the

box set ''30 Years of Bad Religion'', which reissued all 15 of the band's LPs, including ''Into the Unknown''. The band's website offers commentaries from

and Brett Gurewitz. "The Dichotomy" was repeatedly played live in 2019. Only four songs have been played live off this album: "It's Only Over When...", "Billy Gnosis", "The Dichotomy" and "...You Give Up".

Track listing

Personnel

Adapted from the album liner notes. ;Bad Religion *

– lead vocals; keyboards (tracks 1, 2), synthesizer (track 3–5, 7, 8), piano (track 3, 4, 6, 8), acoustic guitar (track 4, 6), backing vocals (tracks 1, 3, 4), production *

– electric guitars; acoustic guitar (track 2), backing vocals (track 2), production * Paul Dedona – bass guitar * Davy Goldman – drums; wood block (track 2) ;Technical * Jim Mankey – engineering * Ron Russell – cover art * Lynda Le Cons – graphic design, art direction

References

Citations Sources * {{Authority control Bad Religion albums 1983 albums Epitaph Records albums Hard rock albums by American artists Progressive rock albums by American artists Synth-pop albums by American artists Power pop albums by American artists New wave albums by American artists