Perhaps the best album to emerge from the quagmire that was early-'80s California hardcore punk, the visceral, intensely physical presence of Damaged has yet to be equaled, although many bands have tried. Although Black Flag had been recording for three years prior to this release, the fact that Henry Rollins was now their lead singer made all the difference. His furious bellow and barely contained ferocity was the missing piece the band needed to become great. Also, guitarist/mastermind {$Greg    [ read more ]

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The best collection of pre-Henry Rollins-era Black Flag. Much of The First Four Years finds the band in developmental mode, but the sonic anarchy and political vituperation met head-on more than once, creating a ferociously good time. Not simply for completists, this is an important recording of the then-burgeoning L.A. hardcore scene. ~ John Dougan, All Music Guide

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After a rancorous three-year legal battle with their label Unicorn, which prevented them from releasing any new material, Black Flag binged in the mid-'80s, releasing a flurry of records that had even the most devoted fans scrambling to keep up. They did, however, start this period somewhat inauspiciously with My War, a pretentious mess of a record with a totally worthless second side. Featuring three tracks of slower-than-Black Sabbath muck with Henry Rollins howling like a caged animal, it    [ read more ]

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Wasted...Again is a posthumous release that is an essential career summation. For those hearing the ear-searing sounds of early-'80s SoCal hardcore punk for the first time, Wasted...Again is an essential purchase. ~ John Dougan, All Music Guide

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When Everything Went Black was first released in 1983, Black Flag was in the middle of a backbreaking legal dispute with Unicorn Records. As a result of litigation, the band was prevented from using the Black Flag name on any records. Hence the original packaging for this album, which listed only the names of individual bandmembers on the cover (this was rectified on subsequent issues). It's a double-album (on vinyl) compilation of previously released material and outtakes -- though the European   [ read more ]

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Keeping up with their furious pace came Live '84, a cassette-only release of a standard (for them anyway) Black Flag gig. Opening up with an eight-and-a-half-minute hardcore/punk/jazz instrumental, "The Process of Weeding Out" (which came from an earlier Black Flag instrumental EP of the same title), it was abundantly clear that Black Flag were no longer just another punk band; as much as they loved to kick out the jams, they also loved destroying the audience's preconceived notio   [ read more ]

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Black Flag's second live album, recorded at a 1985 Portland show with the Kira/Anthony Martinez rhythm section, is about what you'd expect the late period of the band to sound like live. A couple of older songs crop up -- "Slip It In" and "Gimmie Gimmie Gimmie" are transformed into a great 15-minute medley with Henry Rollins getting in some audience-baiting that explains the album title -- but mostly this is from Loose Nut, its songs sounding generally better here than on that release.    [ read more ]

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Slip It In followed My War almost immediately, and while a bit better (fewer mega-volume angst drones), the band still wanders a bit, experimenting with expanding the breadth of hardcore into a newer hard rock/punk sound. This is especially true of Greg Ginn's guitar playing, which was becoming increasingly avant-garde and exciting. Rather than simply coughing up one clichTd solo after another, he wandered harmolodically up and down the fretboard as a jazz player like Blood Ulmer wou   [ read more ]

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Hot on the heels of the live record came Loose Nut and In My Head, which showed significant improvement over My War and Slip It In. Henry Rollins and Greg Ginn were exploring by-now standard lyrical themes: hate, paranoia, loneliness, anomie, and violence, but framing them around music that was demanding, powerful, and exciting. In My Head is the slightly better of the two, primarily because it's a little edgier and uncontrolled, but at this juncture, Black Flag was making some of th   [ read more ]

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This four-song EP was released three years after the breakup of Black Flag. Its four previously unreleased tracks are good medium- and fast-tempo performances by the band's lineup of 1984-1985, Henry Rollins on vocals, Greg Ginn on guitar, Kira on bass, and Bill Stevenson on drums. The CD reissue of the group's 1985 In My Head album added three of these tracks as bonus cuts. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide

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One of three LPs released by Black Flag in 1985, Loose Nut suffers from its creators' rampant profligacy. Too much of the record is under-rehearsed and under-ripe, yet when the group hits its stride, as on Henry Rollins' brutal "This Is Good," it's hard to deny the group's trademark, adrenaline-rush appeal. Other highlights include "Annihilate This Week" and "Bastard in Love." ~ Alex Ogg, All Music Guide

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Certainly not for the faint of heart, Black Flag's instrumental work may seem to the naked ear to be atonal and uncomfortable, but there is a method to the madness. The Process of Weeding Out is an interesting document of Greg Ginn's development from high-speed guitar "sculptor" to one of the few punk artists to embrace 12-tone experimental music. A nice companion piece to the instrumental work on Family Man, but fans looking for strict hardcore should stick to the band's earlier work.    [ read more ]

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