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Billboard is confirming a lot of recent rumors: After five albums for Atlantic, Bad Religion is returning to Epitaph Records, the label owned by Brett Gurewitz, a founding member of the 21-year-old punk band. Gurewitz has also rejoined the band in a writing capacity, according to a source. Bad Religion recorded its first seven studio albums for Epitaph before signing to Atlantic in 1993; Gurewitz left the L.A.-based act in 1994 to focus on Epitaph, which was enjoying its first mainstream success with the Offspring's "Smash."

The group is writing and recording material for its next album, but no release date has yet been targeted. Bad Religion recently wrapped a six-date South American tour that visited Argentina, Chile, and Brazil.

Bad Religion's final Atlantic studio album, "The New America" was produced by pop craftsman Todd Rundgren and peaked at No. 88 on The Billboard 200. The band's best showing on the chart came with 1996's "The Gray Race, which reached a peak of No. 56 and has sold 140,000 copies in the U.S., according to SoundScan.
No word from Epitaph yet, but this confirms a lot of recent articles we've posted. In a recent chat on BadReligion.Com, Jay Bentley was asked how the songs were developing for the new album. He said they were sounding more like Recipe For Hate and Against The Grain. When he was asked "in what sense?" and replied "just a vibe". Also, Graffin has reportedly stated that Brett won't tour with BR, but will play the occasional special show with them.Source: Billboard Article, The Bad Religion Page