Los Angeles on front cover of Bad Religion's "How Could Hell Be Any Worse?" (1982)
Bad Religion was never meant to last this long. The Los Angeles punk outfit emerged from the ashes of Hollywood's glam punk scene and represented a new era of South Bay and Orange County hardcore: a younger, more political subgenre that disavowed the perceived commercialism and vanity of popular acts like the Go-Go's and the Ramones. This was a community built on the backs of teenagers and young adults, running shows from backyards and garages. For a variety of reasons, most bands from that time dissolved in a matter of years, leaving behind self-produced EPs filled with fiery attacks on then president Ronald Reagan's right-wing regime and the dark shadow it cast on lower-middle class Americans, leftists, AIDS patients, and people of color.
Bad Religion's first EP "How Could Hell Be Any Worse?", released forty years ago on July 19th, 1982, was no different — both in its DIY nature and in its sharp critiques of war, capitalism, and imperialism. At that time, none of the band's members were over twenty, and singer Greg Graffin was just sixteen.
"Christian ethic, right extremes," he growls on White Trash (Second Generation), "Shoved down our throats as the American dream."
Back cover of "How Could Hell Be Any Worse?", featuring Gustave Dore's illustration "Dante's Inferno"
Funded by a $3,000 loan from guitarist Brett Gurewitz's father and recorded in just two days at North Hollywood's Track Record Studios, an institution frequented by several other Southern California punk staples (The Offspring, Social Distortion, Agent Orange), "How Could Hell Be Any Worse?" sold 10,000 copies in its first year after release, cementing the band as a pillar of the Los Angeles punk scene and acting as a stepping stone to the large-scale success it would find in the 1990s.
Unlike many of the band's other works, there is a rawness to HCHBAW that's shared with many of the band's punk forefathers. In fact, despite Bad Religion's later ventures into melodic hardcore and synth-pop, this earliest iteration of the band had more in common with traditional SoCal punk acts like The Adolescents and Circle Jerks. From the guttural moans of Graffin to the chunking power chords of Gurewitz, HCHBAW laid the foundation for Bad Religion's decades-long success penning anthemic hardcore hits — and although the band had not yet fully developed their hard-hitting melodic style, its first LP provides a glimpse of Graffin & crew in their truest, most authentic form.
Perhaps it is that authenticity that draws fans to Bad Religion's earlier work even today. Despite being endearingly rough around the edges, HCHBAW features the same signature snarl in Graffin's voice that would carry him to superstardom. While the soaring melodies prevalent in Bad Religion's more well-known albums are not as present in this debut LP, the building blocks of what lied ahead could not be clearer.
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