The American Dream (How Could Hell Be Any Worse - Bad Religion)

Member Name: Frankingsteins

Product:	How Could Hell Be Any Worse - Bad Religion
Date:	08/02/08 (17 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Classic Californian punk, with a nicely raw sound.

Disadvantages: Few songs distinguish themselves.

Bad Religion's first album was a surprise success for the Southern Californian punk rockers, and has been widely hailed as the major inspiration for many later bands following the So-Cal sound, second only to 1988's definitive 'Suffer.' Funded in part by guitarist Brett Gurewitz's dad and produced on a tight budget, this has all the charm of D.I.Y. punk with uncharacteristic musical ability, and mixes its predominantly raw, Misfits-like guitars with upbeat percussion and Greg Graffin's distinctive vocals that aren't exactly melodic, but aren't aggressive either. With its hellish, Dantesque album art and strong political themes, this is angry punk that nevertheless remains fun and comparatively light-hearted, and can just as easily be enjoyed by people who couldn't care less.

Not all of these fourteen songs stand out over the half-hour, but all are perfectly suited to the mood and themes without any glaring oddballs. Opener 'We're Only Gonna Die' is a little misleadingly complex in its skilled speed changes and acoustic flourishes, setting the album up to be more experimental than the earlier E.P. which turns out not to be particularly true (and worked to the next album's extreme disadvantage), and later songs of a slightly extended length such as 'Into the Night' essentially rely on repetition. There's a slightly improved sound quality from the preceding E.P., allowing Jay Binkley's bass to be heard distinctly for the first time, while Gurewitz also lets rip with some bluesy guitar solos starting at the end of the second track and dominating the third.

While all of the songs are good, but perhaps lose something by being so fundamentally similar, it takes major deviation to set some of the later offerings apart, leading to an extensive spoken word satire on televangelism in 'Voice of God is Government' over backing instruments that eventually take more prominence, its successor 'Oligarchy' to up the speed and aggression for a final blow-out, and the real finale 'Doing Time' to respond in a contrastingly slower and lighter direction, though still rooted in the album's overarching sound.

1. We're Only Gonna Die
2. Latch Key Kids
3. Part III
4. Faith in God
5. F*** Armageddon... This is Hell
6. Pity
7. Into the Night
8. Damned to Be Free
9. White Trash (2nd Generation)
10. American Dream
11. Eat Your Dog
12. Voice of God is Government
13. Oligarchy
14. Doing Time

Summary: Bad Religion's first album (1982).