How Could Hell Be Any Worse?

Bad Religion formed in 1980; their initial line-up consisted of high school students Greg Graffin on vocals, guitarist Brett Gurewitz of Quarks and drummer Jay Ziskrout. They wrote three songs, before Jay Bentley was drafted in on bass. The quartet recorded a demo tape that ended up getting played on local radio station KROQ-FM. A few weeks later, the band made their live debut while supporting Social Distortion. Bad Religion recorded a self-titled EP in late 1981, which was released through their own label Epitaph Records. They pressed 2,000 copies of it, recouping enough to fund the sessions for their debut studio album. The band recorded most of the album at Track Record Studios in North Hollywood, California over two nights, from October 31 to November 1, 1980; seven songs were recorded on the first night and mixed on the following day. After "some quick practices" at Graffin's mother's garage, also referred to as The Hellhole, Bad Religion returned to recording How Could Hell Be Any Worse? again in January 1981 and finished the album over the weekend. Author Dave Thompson, in his book Alternative Rock (2000), described the album's sound as "clashing standard punky stop/start songs with a barely disguised debt to '70s hard rock." ==Reception==

Critical reception to How Could Hell Be Any Worse? has been positive. Johnny Loftus of AllMusic stated that How Could Hell Be Any Worse? is "like cupping your ear against the garage door of their practice space. Greg Graffin's vocal style isn't fully formed here, nor is his lyrical agenda, but the building blocks are significant and affecting, bigger than piles of collapsed cathedrals". De la Rocha also said that the song "Fuck Armageddon...This Is Hell" changed his life. ==Track listing==

How Could Hell Be Any Worse? has been reissued many times. It was first reissued in 1988 with a different catalogue number and Epitaph's then-current address. It was released on CD as part of the 1991 compilation 80–85, containing all of the band's material from 1981 to 1985 (except Into the Unknown) in its entirety. A CD remaster for How Could Hell Be Any Worse? was released in 2004, along with Suffer, No Control, Against the Grain, Generator and a DVD reissue of their long-out of print 1992 live video Along the Way. The remastered version of How Could Hell Be Any Worse? contained the same track listing as 80–85. ==Personnel==

Adapted from the album liner notes. ;Bad Religion • Greg Graffin – vocals, piano • Brett Gurewitz – guitars, backing vocals • Jay Bentley – bass • Pete Finestone – drums on tracks 1, 3, 4, 6, 7 and 13; timpani ;Additional musicians • Jay Ziskrout – drums on tracks 2, 5, 8–12 and 14 • Greg Hetson – guitar solo on "Part III" ;Technical • Bad Religion – producer • Jim Mankey – engineer • Ed Colver – photography • Fer Youz – photography ==References==