How Could Hell Be Any Worse? is the debut studio album by American punk rock band Bad Religion, released on January 19, 1982 by Epitaph Records. Released almost a year after their self-titled EP, it was financed from the sales of the self titled EP and partly by a $1,000 loan by guitarist Brett Gurewitz's father. Its success surprised the band when it sold 10,000 copies in under a year.
How Could Hell Be Any Worse? was recorded over two time periods at Track Record Studios in North Hollywood, California, during October–November 1980 and again in January 1981. After the original recording sessions, drummer Jay Ziskrout left Bad Religion and was replaced by his friend and the band's roadie Pete Finestone, who was brought in to complete the rest of the album. Though not yet credited as a member of the band, future guitarist Greg Hetson, who was in Circle Jerks during this time, provided a guitar solo on "Part III". How Could Hell Be Any Worse? was also Bad Religion's last album featuring Jay Bentley on bass for six years, until 1988's Suffer.
The front cover photograph was taken by Edward Colver near the Hollywood Bowl, while the back cover featured one of Gustave Dore's illustrations of Dante's Divine Comedy.
Background and production
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. Throughout November of that year, Bad Religion continued to write new material, and Ziskrout soon left the band, replaced by his friend and roadie Pete Finestone. Graffin said regarding Ziskrout's departure: "It was for some really stupid reason. Like 'you guys don't listen to me enough, fuck you, I quit.' He walked out of the rehearsal studio, and left his drums and everything. We're halfway finished with How Could Hell Be Any Worse, and Bad Religion was without a drummer". 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 awarded the album 3 out of 5 stars and 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". Thompson found the album to be partially more melodic than their local hardcore punk contemporaries "but just as fast and furious".