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Punk is the ultimate young people’s music, combining the energy of youth with an approach to notes and staves that is not yet mature. In the 80s, hardcore further lowered the average age threshold, bringing both pros and cons. Many works, in fact, even with interesting songs, suffer from themes treated with sterile slogans or in a superficial manner.
However, few works, alongside their energetic music, offer messages that are not filled with prejudices or useless rhetoric, but are deeply honest in the themes they describe: Minor Threat, Black Flag, Germs, Descendents, to name a few.
The album "How Could The Hell Be Any Worse" by Bad Religion belongs to the second group, and what is most striking is that the average age of the members is around 17-18, except for the guitarist Brett Gurewitz. In short, some pretty smart young people, like the singer Greg Graffin, who at 16 founded Epitaph, which even the most acne-ridden bedroom punk knows what it is and understands its importance in the punk of the 90s.
Now look at the cover. No compromises: a photo of a peaceful city on a fiery red background that couldn't be a better fit, the title How Could The Hell Be Any Worse? standing out in the sky, with Gustave Doré's etching of the Inferno from the Divine Comedy on the back. Welcome to hell, guys. Not in places where hunger and sadness rage, but where the most sordid opulence and plastic smiles reign. And it’s not a statement made by spoilt, bored teenagers under hormonal overdose, no, no, this is truly hell. The obtuse conservative mentality, pollution, that damn American Dream, hypocrisy, the arrogant and self-destructive nature of the human race, all consequences of religion, of dogma in which the suburb believes blindly. The Bad Religion, that of money, cleverly hidden under the Christian one.
The 14 songs of this album are bleeding wounds in this desolate landscape. Among them stand out the opening "We’re Only Gonna Die", "Latch Key Kids", "Fuck Armaggedon…", definitely the best, "White Trash (2ndGeneration)", although it seems unfair to make distinctions between pearls of equal beauty. Bad Religion sounds like a cross between the apocalyptic and nihilistic Black Flag and TSOL and the irreverent rascals Circle Jerks, all sprinkled with tempo changes and the pedal to the metal, as hardcore demands, although there isn't yet the "wall of guitars" that characterizes the group's production from '88 onward. The lyrics, moreover, are something truly exceptional. Graffin and, to a lesser extent, Gurewitz, write tracks of exceptional quality, free of useless rhetoric, political overtones, cliches, and Fuck! scattered here and there, lyrics from which all musical groups should learn an important lesson.
The group, after this masterpiece (let's be bold, damn it, it’s warranted), loses a bit of its edge. A synthesizer is given to Graffin, and he tries to do something different, and two years later, "Into The Unknown" is released, whether it's good or bad, you decide, but the fact is that the group is embarrassed by this experiment and does everything to hide the mistake, recording two years later the EP "Back To The Known" that marks a return to their origins but also the end of the first period of Bad Religion, which will return to the scene in 1989 with the LP "Suffer" and inaugurating the typical Bad Religion sound. All this unnecessary babble to tell you that the album has been reissued with the subtitle "80-85", containing all the songs from the indicated years except, of course, the LP "Into The Unknown".
Tracklist and Lyrics
01 We're Only Gonna Die (02:17)
Early man walked away
As modern man took control
Their minds weren't all the same
To conquer was his goal
So he built his great empire
And he slaughtered his own kind
Then he died a confused man
Killed himself with his own mind
Early man walked away
As modern man took control
Their minds weren't all the same
To conquer was his goal
So he built his great empire
And he slaughtered his own kind
Then he died a confused man
Killed himself with his own mind
Early man walked away
As modern man took control
Their minds weren't all the same
To conquer was his goal
So he built his great empire
And he slaughtered his own kind
Then he died a confused man
Killed himself with his own mind
We're only gonna die from our own arrogance
We're only gonna die from our own arrogance
We're only gonna die from our own arrogance
We're only gonna die from our own arrogance
02 Latch Key Kids (01:44)
In this world today there ain't nobody to thank
Just blame it on the kids and toss 'em into the tank
And if they yell for justice we'll hide them from the light
So that when they learn the truth they won't be scared of the night
Put the key in the hole when you get home from school
I'll be home by 8:30, your father will too
If you cause any trouble then I don't want to see
Cause you'll go straight to bed and you won't have no TV
03 Part III (01:54)
The final page is written in the books of history,
As man unleashed his deadly bombs and sent troops overseas
To fight a war which can't be won and kills the human race,
A show of greed and ignorance, man's quest for dominance.
They say when a mistake is made, a lesson can be learned.
But this time, there's no turning back, the hate engulfs the world.
A million lives are lost each day, a city slowly burns,
A mother holds her dying child, but no one is concerned!
04 Faith in God (01:54)
It's all right to have faith in God
But when you bend to their rules and their fucking lies
That's when I start to have pity on you
You're living on a mound of dirt
But you can't explain your reason for existence
So you blame it on God
There's so much hatred in this world
And you can't decide who's pulling the strings
So you figure it's God
Your whole life foreshadows death
And you finally realize you don't want to die alone
So you'll always have God
It's all right to have faith in God
But when you bend to their rules and their fucking lies
That's when I start to have pity on you
It's all right to have faith in God
But when you bend to their rules and their fucking lies
That's when I start to have pity on you
There's people in the world today
Who say they're jewish, christian and such
They're all ignorant fools
They'll tell you you can't have your own way
Unless you pay money and dedicate your life
Or you'll be damned in hell
Don't be feeble like all of them
You have your own brain full of thoughts and choices
So use it don't let them use you
It's all right to have faith in God
But when you bend to their rules and their fucking lies
That's when I start to have pity on you
05 Fuck Armageddon... This Is Hell (02:55)
There's people out there that say I'm no good
'Cause I don't believe the things that I should
And when the final conflict comes, I'll be so sorry I did wrong
And hope and pray that our lord God will think I'm good
Countries manufacture bombs and guns
To kill your brother for something that he hasn't even done
Smog is ruining my lungs, but they aren't sorry they've done wrong
They hide behind their lies that they're helping everyone
In the end the good will go to heaven up above
The bad will perish in the depths of hell
How can hell be any worse when life alone is such a curse?
Fuck Armageddon, this is hell (x3)
We're living in the denoument of the battle's gripping awe
So what's the use of being good to satisfy them all?
How could hell be any worse? Life alone is such a curse!
Fuck Armageddon, this is hell (x5)
08 Damned to Be Free (02:03)
Death and the shadow that it casts on life scares me little or none
People tell me of a divine right and the happy chosen one
I'm a freak 'cause my morals clash with others in the world
I go home while they work hard, then they say I'm wrong
There's only one place to be, while living with tragedy
If their sins affected me, I gotta be damned to be free
Freedom is responsibility, pay more than it's worth
Instincts tells us not to die, hazy myth since birth
Learn their rules and play their game, deceive yourself in haste
Turn your own brain into dust, it's not theirs to waste
There's only one place to be, while living with tragedy
Extract the nectar, burn the tree, I gotta be damned to be free
Thinking this world it ain't so bad
Dying it's just another fad
Working eight hours, that's not for me
Dying it's just your destiny
09 White Trash (2nd Generation) (02:25)
Wasted children, fixed blank eyes
Blood and sweat, we socialize
Broken homes from which they come
Beer-stained dad, compliant mom
Fear and love, much despised
Replaced by comfortable lies
Teenage classic, more cliche
One step further on the edge of decay
White trash, 2nd generation (3x)
Don your crown and cleanse the nation
Are you ready to fight for your morality?
Right wing allies, white supremacy
Pretty fascist on the tube
Draped in red and white and blue
White trash, 2nd generation
Stupid foibles, indignation
Offspring of suburban fright
Pearl-white creatures of the night
White trash, 2nd generation (3x)
Don your crown and cleanse the nation
Stiff blue collar, coat and tie
Brand new breeds side by side
Christian ethic, right extremes
Shoved down our throat as the american dream
White trash, 2nd generation
Stupid foibles, indignation
Offspring of suburban fright
Pearl-white creatures of the night
White trash, 2nd generation (3x)
Don your crown and cleanse the nation
White trash, 2nd generation (3x)
Don your crown and cleanse the nation
11 Eat Your Dog (01:06)
Weak and sick, dying in the sand
No such thing as a promised land
Don't lose faith in a better life
Reincarnation, poor excuse
You're dying you assholes, your religion can't help you now
Dying and starving in the fields you used to plow
Rotting bones in your barren fields
Worshipped creature's supposed to heal
He won't save you and he won't save me
See what you want to see
Hindu religion in the mind of a working Joe
Starving and dying in the fields you used to know
You're tied and bound to a God's useless advice
Bloated stomachs from aching diseases hold back the fight
In the end you'll return once more to die again
Go on till you can't no more in non-eternal sin
13 Oligarchy (01:05)
Presidential election every four years
But neither man we can see or hear
Urgent cries for society
But he can't see the blood on me
Do you see?
Do you see too much for me?
Try that with our oligarchy (2x)
Oligarchy, oligarchy
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