Bad Breeding Contempt LP
The UK’s BAD BREEDING certainly needs no introduction; their fantastic 2022 LP Human Capital became a regular fixture on year-end lists everywhere with its brutal critiques of modern empire, carrying on in the proud anti-capitalist tradition of the entire Crass Records roster. It’s a loud, abrasive, and thought-provoking record that anyone would say is hard to top. So where does a band go from there? In BAD BREEDING’s case, they crank everything up to (pardon the cliche) eleven and blow the whole thing out. Their latest LP Contempt is best described as an immersive experience, like going to see a film or exploring an exhibit in a museum gallery. Featuring album artwork by the legendary Peter Kennard and an accompanying zine featuring writings by ASHENSPIRE’s Alasdair Dunn and environmental journalist Aidan Frere-Smith amongst others, when given your undivided attention, this record fully surrounds you for its 37-minute runtime. While pulling inspiration from the aforementioned Crass Records, BAD BREEDING often goes beyond the usual hardcore punk touchstones and lands somewhere far more desolate and industrial. One of the album’s heaviest songs and one that truly feels like its centerpiece is “Gilded Age/Sanctuary,” a five-and-a-half minute epic that starts off as a full-blown hardcore blast before screeching into an extended intermission, featuring haunting field recordings the band picked up during stints at work sites and walking through town squares for lunch. Disembodied voices and a dark atmosphere break away once halfway through and again in its last minute, returning to a fuzzed-out hardcore dirge that hits like a ton of bricks. This is just one example of BAD BREEDING’s masterful ability to create a mood sonically that matches the mood contextually. When the lyrical content of your music explores the horrors of capitalism, poverty, Western exceptionalism, exploitation, propaganda, imperialism, and corruption this deeply, you’d better have the musical chops to match. Fortunately, this is an area where BAD BREEDING excels. Yet again, expect to see BAD BREEDING on those year end-lists this year, and rightly so; these guys are the real deal and deserve your attention.