I Against I

Released on SST Records as SST 065, I Against I is the best-selling album in the band's catalog and is included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. Ron Saint Germain produced it, and Pitchfork says it was recorded in three days for about $5,000. The title presumably refers to the Rastafarian phrase "I and I". A video for the title track was directed by Paul Rachman, who later made the documentary American Hardcore.

Pitchfork's Nabil Ayers wrote in a 2020 Sunday Review that it left some fans missing the band's lightspeed precision, and called it the band's least punk and least reggae album. He noted that more than half its songs have guitar solos and that the closing Return to Heaven recalls early Van Halen. He wrote that Bad Brains blurred the lines between punks, new wavers and metalheads. H.R. recorded eight songs in about two hours before he went to prison, and Sacred Love was sung over the phone weeks later.

Sublime frequently cover House of Suffering, and bassist Eric Wilson said the album inspired them to blend genres. Greg Puciato of the Dillinger Escape Plan named it one of four albums that changed his life, and Tim Commerford of Rage Against the Machine named it among his biggest influences. Harley Flanagan of the Cro-Mags said the verse riff of The Age of Quarrel was based on the last part of the title track. Re-Ignition was sampled by Chubb Rock, 2 Black 2 Strong MMG and Hive, and a live version was used in Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock.