BLACK FLAG: MY WAR (1984)
1) My War; 2) Can't Decide; 3)
Beat My Head Against The Wall; 4) I Love You; 5) Forever Time; 6) The Swinging
Man; 7) Nothing Left Inside; 8) Three Nights; 9) Scream.
After a three-year break in recording,
partially triggered by legal hassles with their record label as well as
personal problems — such as losing their drummer and their bass player for different reasons — Black Flag came back
with a vengeance for 1984, releasing no fewer than three new studio albums that year. But whoever was expecting
another Damaged from these guys (or,
better still, three more Damageds!) had to take a hike: Greg
Ginn and Henry Rollins were not about to let their progressively-oriented brain
machines be overridden by rigid formula.
The first side looked promisingly conservative.
The title track breaks in at an acceptably fast tempo (not nearly as fast as
ʽRise Aboveʼ, though), delivers a classic Rollins scream-hook as he spits
"you're one of them! you're one of them!" right in your face, almost
making you blush in embarrassed confusion, and turns Ginn's guitar into a well-oiled
machine gun, as he bathes you in sonic shrapnel from behind Henry's muscular
back.
ʽCan't Decideʼ, despite the already suspicious
gargantuan running length of 5:22, is even better as a song — as its discordant
sonic intro eventually morphs into another set of machine-gun phrasing,
Rollins and Ginn construct a series of verses on the issue of having to
suppress one's true emotions that subtly-brutally build up towards an explosive
resolution: Henry's "I can't decide, I can't decide, I can't decide
ANYTHING!" may be one of the most credible expressions of total
frustration since the Who's ʽI Can't Explainʼ. Why they decided to include a
gazillion of dissonant guitar solos and verses is beyond me — the song would
probably have worked much better as a laconic 2:30 blast — but, most likely,
expanded lengths like these simply meant refusing to kowtow to established
«hardcore standards», take it or leave it.
The remaining four songs on Side A do not add
any extra emotional range: the energy level never drops, and Rollins' lyrics
never cease scorching the earth (the first line of ʽI Love Youʼ is, after all,
"I put my fist through the door" — we've come a long way from 1964),
but the musical structures and moods follow the same principles, and Ginn's
laudable willingness to keep experimenting with chord sequences comes at the
expense of catchiness: there are some fairly monstruous and not particularly
meaningful polygonal riff-monsters here, and the best thing about them is probably
the guitar tone — low, grumbly, distorted, but cleanly produced, with tight
control exercised over echo and feedback.
Side B, although it retains the tone, is a
different proposition altogether. It is given over to something quite
unexpected: three lengthy, slow, draggy slabs of what could only be described
as «early sludge metal», most notably derivative of Black Sabbath but nowhere
near as poppy or catchy, especially when Greg throws in one of his dissonant
solos whose sound I could only describe as «what you'd expect to happen if Lou
Reed started playing like Frank Zappa». Critical opinion on these weird
creations is usually negative, with «self-indulgent» as the mildest epithet in
their direction — but once you really start thinking, it seems as if it is only
the tempo that truly separates them
from the first half. Everything else is the same — the guitar tones, the
dissonances, the darkness, the lyrics, the screaming; if you took ʽI Love Youʼ
and slowed it down, you'd have yourself another copy of ʽNothing Left Insideʼ.
Therefore, by loving the first side and hating the second side, one essentially
admits that the only reason why «hardcore» deserves to exist is its speed — a
logical position, but not a very useful one, so it seems.
I think that the monotonous, draggy trilogy of ʽNothing
Left Insideʼ, ʽThree Nightsʼ, and ʽScreamʼ is at least «kinda curious», and at
most, if you let yourself ride its wobbly waves, a quasi-psychedelic rough trip
that mixes early 1970s pothead-ism with modern punk to an unpredictable
effect. ʽNothing Left Insideʼ, in particular, succeeds in generating a cool,
smoky, downer atmosphere where, at times, Rollins and Ginn howl in unison like
a pair of stray dogs, freshly run over by a truck. Nothing too serious, just "pain hurts my heart, nothing left
inside". Oh, needless to say, eighteen minutes of this atmosphere are
easily sustainable probably only if you are
a pothead, but the experience is not a total waste, and «self-indulgence» is a
word I'd rather reserve for a 15-minute Kansas epic than for this brave, only
partially successful attempt to invent «slow hardcore» (or «anti-hardcore»,
whatever).
All in all, the experimental nature of My War has its attractive sides, and
the album captures and bottles something
— at the very least, this is certainly not a case of a band with nothing to
say. I am pretty sure that all of this could have been said better, maybe with some extra overdubs,
or with a little more range to Rollins' character, or with a little less
slobbering adoration for Tony Iommi that prevents Ginn from straying away from
that one single path. But even as it is, My
War still deserves a thumbs up, since its «bravery» (maybe even literal
bravery — the hardcore market is already so small that most of the suppliers
usually try not to alienate any parts of it) does not come at the expense of
meaning, and the album has some replay value.
Check "My War" (CD) on Amazon
Check "My War" (MP3) on Amazon
In a sense, this is Flag's most innovative album. Greg Ginn's status as a longtime Deadhead collides with his new found open Sabbath worship, yet the oppressive atmosphere of Rollin's self-absorbed cathartic rantings manages to keep it all credibly "punk". This album didn't exactly expand their fan base, but did prove a harbinger of future trends.
ReplyDeleteThe advantage of hardcore is that it's so fast that at least it's over quickly, why would I want to listen to slow hardcore?
ReplyDeleteThere's no such thing as "slow hardcore". Hardcore slowed down turns back into metal. Black Flag's later recordings aren't punk or hardcore, they're a particularly crusty, underground, form of metal that was incredibly influential in the recent past.
DeleteThe "My War" demos that are floating around out there are the true link
ReplyDeletebetween "Damaged" and what became "My War". The demos are 4/5th's of the "Damaged" line-up with the addition of one of the best drummers ANYWHERE in rock..Chuck Biscuits. Wonder what "My War" would be like if Ginn did heed your advice and get these songs meaner leaner and sharper focused? Even Rollins tone on the demo is different. Go get those demos (youtube) and see for yourself.
do Black Sabbath
ReplyDeleteDo Black Sabbath what? Rule? Suck? Pull their leggings on, one *grunt* and *squeeeeeze* at a time?
Delete