10 Best Punk Rock Albums Of The 1980s

In the grand scheme of punk, Bad Religion may be best remembered for Epitaph Records, the label run by guitarist Brett Gurewitz, which still holds the record for the biggest selling independent record of all time (The Offspring’s Smash).

But their own music has been just as important and influential as the records they’ve put out, and their finest hour was 1988’s Suffer. It’s an action packed 25 minutes that helped to codify skate and pop punk - indeed they alongside another band we’ll get to shortly can be directly traced to a great swathe of ‘90s music.

Each song is a melody-laden nugget - “Forbidden Beat” is one of many great tracks about the importance of music, gloriously sunny. Meanwhile the title track is quasi-emo at times in its splattered guitars and world weary cynicism.

They can get rough when they want to, like the near-hardcore “Part II (The Numbers Game)”, but the album shines in its poppy but never tame bursts of brilliance.