Black Flag’s second full-length was released in 1984, after a long period of imposed inactivity following a long drawn out court case. In theory, their return to the studio should’ve heralded a fantastic release, since it’d been almost three years since any new recordings were made. In reality – maybe as a reaction to their legal struggles – ‘My War’ is, at least in part, a wilfully difficult and oppressive album. This is the only release recorded by the three-piece line-up of Rollins, Greg Ginn and Bill Stevenson (who became Black Flag’s full time drummer while his band Descendents were taking a sabbatical), and as such, presents the band at a transitional time (all bass parts are credited to Dale Nixon – a pseudonym for Ginn). Throughout this release, the band sounds unfocused, with more than half the album meandering into the realms of self-indulgence.

The album starts out well enough, as side one is upbeat as well as aggressive. There’s a noticeable shift away from the more basic hardcore punk elements of their previous sound; in places it’s still evident, but as the album progresses, there’s more focus on an intense brand of sludge-rock. This generally presents a more mature Black Flag, and the fusing of these two styles would become the band’s signature sound on their later releases.

Bill Stevenson drives the title cut with some great hi-hat work and angry drumming. Rollins makes his presence very much felt, his lyrics of delivered with pure anger. Ginn’s guitar work, meanwhile, hovers between edgy riffing and angular soloing. At the track’s close, Ginn bashes out two chords, creating tension as Rollins’s already frustrated delivery steps up a gear, spitting his last few lines as if he were trapped inside the music. ‘Can’t Decide’ follows a similar musical path, but is smoother around the edges, with an extended arrangement allowing Ginn to stretch out a little. Delivering a set of lyrics concerning anger and indecision, Rollins sounds like the ultimate hardcore frontman.

Featuring an arrangement which constantly shifts between the punkier sound of ‘Damaged’-era Black Flag and the sound of mid-paced frustration, ‘Beat My Head Against a Wall’ is one of the album’s truly great numbers. During the slow parts, Ginn and Stevenson deliver grinding rock riffs over which Rollins adds to the tension. It’s during the faster parts, though, where Black Flag show their true greatness. Bill Stevenson’s drumming is tight, over which Ginn churns out great riffs and pointed solos in a manner which would pave the way for the basic sound of his post Black Flag jazz-punk instrumental trio, Gone. ‘I Love You’ steps up the pace and is a throwback to the band’s more classic sound. While it never quite matches the punk throttle of the best moments from ‘Damaged’, it shows that despite a slightly maturer sound, Black Flag can still pack a punch. The straight-ahead driving force of ‘Forever Time’ also shows a no-nonsense Black Flag – the energy of some of ‘Damaged’ is very much present, yet the overall tone (particularly during Ginn’s solo) hints more at ugly guitar based rock. Rollins doesn’t always sound at his best here – his shouty vocal delivery giving way to screaming in places, but as with a couple of the earlier tracks, Stevenson is on fire – his hi-hat work and fills showing far more sophistication than most other hardcore/punk drummers of the era.

‘The Swinging Man’ brings the first half to a close with an off-kilter rhythm and some superb drumming from Stevenson (quite possibly the true musical hero with regards to the first half of ‘My War’. Rollins is at his most frenzied, and the end result is more than threatening. It’s a pity that any subtleties in the musical performance are drowned out by Ginn hammering his fretboard in a manner more jarring than ever before. While the track features some decent musical ideas, there’s no restraint in the arrangement, and as such, it’s very difficult listening – unless, of course, you’re able to focus on that brilliant drum part.

The album’s second side can best be described as intense, but not in an exhilarating sense. Taking the grinding approach explored on ‘Damaged I’ (the definitive version of which can be found on Black Flag’s ‘Damaged’ full-length), ‘Nothing Left Inside’ slows things to a crawl. The guitar riff cranks its way through nearly seven minutes, which shifts between Rollins howling in pain and Ginn’s atonal guitar work. ‘Three Nights’ is marginally better thanks to part of Rollins’s delivery carrying a spirit of an angry poetry reading as opposed to a hardcore punk/rock vocal. By the time he screams ‘I’m going to make you feel the way I feel’, he’s gonna make sure you absolutely empathise with his torment, it’s intensity grabbing you and ripping your senses apart. ‘Scream’ takes a similar approach again, but turns the intensity up as far as possible, with screaming moments taking place for a proportion of the vocal. During this number, Ginn’s jazz-punk noodlings become so grating, that by the end of the track you’ve not so much been beaten into submission, as much as left feeling rather queasy, then wondering what the point of it all was.

Individually, each of these last three tracks would have been tolerable on any Black Flag album (but still unlikely to be enjoyable), but here – sequenced next to each other, with a playing time of near twenty minutes – the intensity becomes almost too much for the listening audience. It’s as if after the long period of studio inactivity, Black Flag are so angry they’ve deliberately trying to provoke their audience into feeling the kind of claustrophobia they may have experienced, not being allowed an outlet for new recordings for so long.

If you want a snapshot of the second half of ‘My War’, the war is one of internal anguish; a sound which takes the slowest moments of Black Sabbath and twists them into almost impenetrable ugliness. This approach undoubtedly became influential to some bands which followed, though – most notably those much-loved sludge merchants (the) Melvins. Although this kind of intensity could be admired, it’s incredibly hard to take when delivered over such a long duration; there’s also a feeling that the pounding, slow delivery of these three songs is a waste of drummer Bill Stevenson’s talents.

The release of ‘My War’ marked the beginning of a rush of releases over the next two years. Over the course of another four studio discs, Black Flag honed their brand of distinctive, grinding hard rock and punk (and even offered some spoken word material on side one of ‘Family Man’). The music on those albums comes across much better than demonstrated here – and often far less sludgy (in part that’s due to the arrival of Kira Roessler on bass, whose playing would show far more style than Ginn’s heavy handed approach). While ‘My War’ features a handful of great moments, overall, it isn’t a great Black Flag release. It has plenty aggression, but even during the album’s best moments (except for perhaps ‘Beat My Head…’) it’s at the expense of that spark which makes their other work so captivating.

March 2010/January 2011

This four-piece outfit from Exeter are going to beat you into submission. No kidding –  from the minute you hit the play button, The Computers are going to grab you by the knackers and not let go. Even on the couple of occasions where they manage to slow things down, there’s an intensity which borders on threatening.

From the opening kick of ‘Teenage Tourettes Camp’, The Computers pound their three chords into your skull with unrelenting attitude. On their fast numbers, they sound like New Bomb Turks jamming with Supersuckers (with extra metal guitars thrown in) and then fronted by The Suicide Machines’ Jason Navarro at his most screamy. ‘Love The Music, Hate The Kids’ shows no sign of letting up and by the tracks end, you’ll either be reaching for the stop button, or convinced The Computers have been sent like aggro-filled messiahs to bring no-nonsense thrashy rock ‘n’ roll/punk to those audiences in need of a shake up. ‘S.O.S’ slows things down to a 4/4 mid-paced stomp. While the musical approach might provide a much needed change in pace, the track itself is weak as it offers little lyrically and feels a little repetitive by the end. ‘Please Drink Responsibly’ marks a return to the three-chord sweatiness of the opening numbers. I assume the group backing vocals represent some kind of chorus, but as with most of the songs here, vocalist Alex’s delivery is so intense, it’s pretty hard to make out any important messages.

I know what you’re thinking. It’s probably something along the lines of “if only someone had the foresight to create something which sounds like a high speed romp through a Motörhead classic with added Rocket From The Crypt-ness, coupled with the vocal melody from ‘Lipstick Vogue’ by Elvis Costello”. Well, you’re in luck! ‘Hell Yeah’, does exactly that – and in doing so creates the EP’s absolutely essential moment. At just over two minutes, it doesn’t mess about.

‘City Ghosts’ – which ends this 20 minute statement of intent – feels somewhat out of place. It’s got a slow, grinding approach, somewhat like ‘Dirt’ by The Stooges, but where some people have the charm to pull off this kind of material, it doesn’t work here. While Alex’s screechy vocal style seems to work fine with the material played at breakneck speed, it becomes difficult listening without that speed to back it up. Still, it’s the only negative point from an otherwise potentially great EP. Please don’t think I’m getting at Alex…his vocal style can be difficult, but it’s well suited to most of the band’s material. Its unrestrained approach shares a lot in common Jason Navarro (check out The Suicide Machines’ swansong ‘War Profiteering Is Killing Us All’) or Frank Carter from Gallows…and sometimes that’s a good thing.

‘You Can’t Hide From The Computers’ is fun, (mostly) fast and uncompromising. If this doesn’t make you want to jump up and down and hit things, then there’s something wrong with you.

March 2010

After the release of the ‘Nervous Breakdown’ EP in 1978, Keith Morris, Black Flag’s vocalist, quit the band. Attempts at making a full-length LP were started and abandoned during the following couple of years and both Dez Cadena and Ron Reyes had a shot at being the band’s replacement vocalist. Things eventually fell into place after Henry Rollins got on board as full-time mouthpiece and larger-than-life frontman.

The first release featuring Rollins (and the band’s first full length), ‘Damaged’ was released in December 1981 on guitarist Greg Ginn’s own SST label. (The album was originally scheduled to be released on Unicorn Records with distribution from major label MCA, who’d already pressed the first run of the LP. However the label pulled out at the eleventh hour. Ginn decided to release the album himself on SST; this would lead to a long legal dispute which meant Black Flag did not release any new material until March 1984).

All of ‘Damaged’s music tracks had been recorded prior to Rollins joining. In fact, nine of the album’s fifteen tracks had been attempted during the aforementioned album sessions; in some cases – like ‘Police Story’ – some tracks had been recorded several times (for those who want to hear the earlier attempts of these cuts with Black Flag’s three previous vocalists, then the ‘Everything Went Black’ compilation should be required listening). From a hardcore punk perspective the album is musically very powerful, but it’s that power combined with the album’s unrelenting lyrical content which has made it a genre classic.

‘What I See’ presents the band at their most outwardly aggressive as Rollins, with a perfect delivery, rants over Chuck Dukowski’s distorted bassline. With his fantastic groove, Chuck forces the listener to pay attention as Rollins makes such stark claims as “Life’s cold / I want to feel it reach inside and turn my mind off / I don’t wanna live / I wish I was dead”. ‘Damaged I’ (a track which looks towards Black Flag’s later, slower material) is similarly oppressive as the band hammer out a seemingly never-ending grinding, monolithic riff as Rollins screams “I’m blind, I’m blind / I’m damaged!” in a tortured tone, befitting of the musical arrangement. His delivery is so convincing – the sound of anger at its purest form. Rollins sounds like man fit to explode.

Musically, the rest of the album concentrates on faster material. Lyrically, a lot of it is still pretty heavy stuff, for example: ‘Police Story’ recounts the city’s heavy handed police force and ‘Padded Cell’, as you’d expect, deals with feeling trapped (“Earth’s a padded cell, defanged and declawed / I’m living in hell, it’s a paradise fraud”). On the whole, ‘Damaged’ as an album, shows Black Flag in a far more uncompromising mood than suggested by their earlier recordings.

‘Six Pack’ and ‘TV Party’ present a far more lyrically lightweight band. ‘Six Pack’ celebrates the live-for-the-moment spirit of youth seen through an alcohol haze (“My girlfriend asked me which I liked better/I hope the answer don’t upset her”); ’TV Party’ is rather unsubtle swipe at the TV generation. With their three-chord, disposable arrangements, they revisit the basic punk roots of Black Flag’s earliest work. However, the guitars are still unmistakably the work of Greg Ginn, as he occasionally breaks into atonal guitar leads. The gang vocals on ‘TV Party’ represent the album’s most trashy element, possibly designed with live performance in mind. Despite feeling more fun on the surface, both songs possess a nihilistic spirit, in keeping with the rest of the material. The album’s only obvious positive vibe comes from ‘Rise Above’ which deals with finding strength and breaking free from society’s control.

Although the band would sound more confident and self-assured on the releases which followed, (even when the material wasn’t always great) ‘Damaged’ is the quintessential Black Flag album – a genuine hardcore punk classic. While most of it doesn’t sound anywhere near as threatening as it once did (many bands would take similar aggression to more extreme levels later), this album still retains an energy and DIY spirit which many punk bands aspire to. No self-respecting punk collection should be without one.

March 2010