Bad Religion
80-85
May 18, 1992 – Epitaph Records
Producer: Bad Religion

Greg Graffin - Vocals
Brett Gurewitz – Guitar (EP, Public Service and How Could Hell Be Any Worse?
Greg Hetson – Guitar (Some of How Could Hell Be Any Worse? and Back To the Known)
Jay Bentley- Bass (EP, Public Service and How Could Hell Be Any Worse?)
Paul Dedona – Bass (Back to the Known)
Pete Finestone– Drums (Some of How Could Hell Be Any Worse? and Back To the Known)
Jay Ziskrout– Drums (EP, Public Service and some of How Could Hell Be Any Worse?)

1. We’re Only Gonna Die
2. Latch Key Kids
3. Part III
4. Faith in God
5. Fuck Armageddon… This Is Hell
6. Pity
7. In 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
15. Bad Religion
16. Politics
17. Sensory Overload
18. Slaves
19. Drastic Actions
20. World War III
21. Yesterday
22. Frogger
23. Bad Religion
24. Along The Way
25. New Leaf
26. Bad Religion
27. Slaves
28. Drastic Actions

Tracks 1-14 are from How Could Hell Be Any Worse?
Tracks 15-20 are from Bad Religion, the EP.
Tracks 21-25 are from Back To The Known, the EP.
Tracks 26-28 are from Public Service, a compilation album.

About a year ago my Wife and I were going to dinner, and we cut down Sherman Way in Canoga Park, going towards Topanga Canyon Boulevard. When out of nowhere I was hit with a flashback that smacked me like a ton of bricks.

Back in 1981 or 1982 a guy I went to school with, Rob, used to design t-shirts with another guy who was already out of school. They primarily designed British punk shirts. As they seemed to believe they were the unknown members of Discharge and Blitz. Anyway, Rob would never sell me a shirt directly; he was kind of snobbish about his shirts. I found out that they had done a TSOL shirt so I asked him to bring one to school and I’d give him the cash. But no, he’d say “Just go pick it up at Moby Disc.” Dick.

Anyway, after a few months of this, Rob came by one day at lunch and said if I was still interested in some shirts he and his partner were going to be opening a shop in Canoga Park. I don’t remember the name of the shop, but it was on Alabama Avenue off of Sherman Way. I went in there with my Brother, more than likely my Mother drove, and waited in the car so I would look cool. I picked up a shirt and looked around a bit. It was a smaller version of Poser, the shop on Melrose Avenue (the shop Michael Jackson bought all his bondage crap from).

A few months later my Mom returned and bought me five or six shirts for me for Christmas. The shop was gone within six months or so. It was one of those places where you felt you needed an invitation to walk in; it was crowded with all the “friends” of the shop. Everybody looked like they stepped off of Kings Road in England, perfect twelve inch Mohawks, brand-new leather jackets with the Discharge “face” painted on the back. And I walk in with my beat up flannel, worn out Levi’s and my black Van’s. I was just a fifteen year-old skate kid that got into punk; I didn’t have the cash to look like them.

On to the review . . .

This album is great, except for the fact that I bought the CD release of The How Could Hell Be Any Worse? first then picked-up 80-85. I hate wasting money, buying the same thing twice. So, if you have one, don’t buy the other, they’re exactly the same both with great Ed Colver photographs.

This album is an almost-complete compilation of Bad Religion’s entire output before 1985. The only thing missing is Into the Unknown and a few songs on the Destroy LA compilation. In 1984, they released the EP Back to the Known.

The How Could Hell Be Any Worse? re-issue, contains all of the same material as the 80-85 compilation (which was discontinued in 2004), including their first EP, the Public Service EP (with different versions of the songs Bad Religion, Slaves, and Drastic Actions than the self-titled EP) and the Back To The Known EP.

If you don’t own it, you may be smoking banana peels.

Rating: ***** five out of five stars.

This post was the latest submission from Mike E. When he’s not writing articles of punk past (and occasional present) he manages an online comic book store. Visit him at Web Comics.