No.78 - ‘Recipe For Hate’ by Bad Religion (1993)

“That which many strive to be, It's the marble statue staring over me; And nobody has the will to tear it down, it determines wrong and right; but to me it's just a stereotype, and it makes us lose our sight….”

One afternoon, at the age of 16, a cardboard box appeared in our garden. Within the box, found at the waste tip in Bromley, sat a decent amount of 90s grunge, funk rock and punk CDs. The likes of Nirvana, Rage Against The Machine and Red Hot Chilli Peppers? Someone had gone to the lengths of dividing each CD into eighths, with a razor blade. 

Maybe they were the product of an angry spouse, wrecking their now ex’s CD collection. I like to believe they belonged to a born again christian, putting to the sword the music of his past, turning over a new leaf… the irony that they ended up in the CD player of the very same…and some actually worked!! And the only one that survived in my collection was ‘Recipe for Hate’ by punk rockers, Bad Religion.

On first listen, I was drawn to the theatrical sounding harmonies; a unique sound that really sets them apart from other punk bands. Greg Gaffin’s mature and gravely lead vocals are superb and there are some really great guitar riffs throughout. They also cross a little country and folk into a couple of songs. ‘Man With A Mission’ features a slide guitar throughout. Overall, just brilliant high energy punk rock.

The name may suggest an anti-religious band…which they kind of are, but in a similar way to me. Anti-establishment, anti-control, anti-hypocracy, anti-corruption. They even use the bible as inspiration for songs. ‘Skyscraper’ is all about the Tower of Babel story, the confusion of speech which wrecked a “united world”, and highlights how some Christians take the original meanings of the Jewish texts and distort them to suit a selfish motive. Granted, the band are not believers, but merely observers of the state of their country. 

The album cover also has a powerful meaning. The two human bodies are 1930's southern racists mocking the press after their acquittal by an all white jury for murder. The heads are those of Nazi Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp guard dogs. This metaphor highlights how far hate can spread. Hate by simple conversation that escalates, soon becoming the norm in culture; rather relevant in a world still rife with racism, fake news and hate…

Bad Religion formed in 1980, California and have released 17 studio albums. Recipe for Hate never charted, apart from peaking at No.14 in the US ‘heatseekers chart’. It is available on vinyl, but not in my collection.


Favourite songs -  Portrait of Authority, My Poor Friend Me, Struck A Nerve
Other great albums - The Process of Belief







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