Black Flag
- Damaged (1981)
- Family Man (1984)
Black Flag was the punk band that Henry Rollins used to be a part of. I heard from various sources that they were supposed to be really intense and aggressive. Well sort of. Mostly, I'd say their music has a really rough and unrefined sound (as I guess punk should). The Damaged album is not what I expected at all. Don't get me wrong, it has that hardcore element, but alot of the tracks are kind of catchy and popish, with some understated humour and satire. I think this was Rollin's first Black Flag album. He was still intense back then, but you can notice the difference in the maturity of his vocals as compared to his recent stuff. One more note on this album: Greg Ginn wrote most of the songs on this album so a lot of the themes are way different than Rollin's stuff.
I was disappointed when I heard the Family Man album though, it was not what I expected at all. That's probably due to the fact that this was a spoken word/ instrumental CD. The early spoken word of Rollins is a lot different than what he does now. These were short pieces running between 1 and 2 minutes each, unlike the lengthy, twisting stories which I am most used to. Also this album was under 34 minutes in length. That's not a a lot when compared to lengthy 70 minute CDs of the Rollins Band.
Overall, I don't recommend these album unless you really like Rollins, Black Flag, or punk in general. If you're going to get some Black Flag, get an album like Damaged.
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Last updated June 17, 1998
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