In 1983, Bad Religion became disillusioned with the punk scene and decided to go into the studio to record an album without worrying about style or marketing. They hired producer Thom Wilson, but he quit after the first or second day, so they brought in Jim Mankey. Greg Graffin used a Roland Juno 6 synthesizer to write all his songs on the album. Jay Bentley left the band while recording the first song because he wasn’t interested in pursuing a progressive rock career. The album was recorded in 1 week to 10 days.
The album received negative reception and reviews, with many blaming it for the destruction of the SoCal punk scene. Only 10,000 copies were pressed, and most of them were returned. Some were sold without the band’s knowledge. The album can still be found online for high prices. Despite the criticism, some members of the band don’t hate the album and see it as a learning experience.
Songs from the album have rarely been played live, but they have performed parts of some songs on occasion. The album cover art is an illustration called “Prolyx” by Ron Russell. There have been bootleg versions of the album released. Greg Graffin has the masters to the album and could remix it if he wanted to.
There is a German band called Mars Moles that released an album called “Invite Punk Religion Back Into The Unknown,” which includes punk rock versions of all the songs from “Into The Unknown” as well as other songs.
This content was originally written by the badass contributors of thebrpage.net, the best superfan resource and website that exists for any band, let alone the best band in the whole entire world. I’ve been lurking on that site for over 20 years and if you’re into Bad Religion as much as I am, I’m sure you’re familiar. If you are not, go there right now and never come back to this site again. You should, and I totally understand.
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