Contempt

Bad Breeding, the Stevenage-based hardcore unit, release their fifth album Contempt with One Little Independent Records and Iron Lung Records in the US. It follows 2022s Human Capital which mercilessly attacked Conservative meritocracy and the exploitative forces of late capitalism. Contempt ups the ante yet again and explores the continued effects that austerity has had on the working public and specifically capital’s destruction of the planet and its inhabitants. It’s released with multiple essays in an accompanying zine, one that follows environmental and humanitarian journalist Aidan Frere-Smith and another that tells the story of a homelessness crisis in a city full of unused housing. Utilizing a mix of propulsive rhythm and furious, explosive guitars to maximum effect, Bad Breeding have weaponised their anger in the fight for survival; “Because these days are ours to take / Seize them with union, love and rage”. Christopher Dodd