Black Flag - Damaged - 1981

Rollins makes his full-length debut with a yelp and a scream. A 45-minute scream. It's difficult to believe he wasn't born with this thundering speed noise behind him, he sounds so darn at home retching out lines like "I don't wanna live! I wish I was dead!" and "Depression! It's gonna kill me!" Harnessing a brand new colorless and hoarse-beyond-belief yell attack, Henry "Rollie" Rollins "Fingers" absorbs himself completely into Greg Ginn's newly-psychotic pain-oriented hardcore and, with Ginn's guitar work at its finest here, the crap is awfully compelling. The guitar just thrashes out screaming fits of relentlessly ugly rage, like an air raid siren gone haywire or an old man gone to Florida for a quiet weekend.

And those lyrics, hooeee. These words paint the portrait of a truly sick young gent. His mind spits and spurts, like a bunch of loose electrical wires snapping around looking for a connection - anything to keep from falling completely over the edge and crashing to the ground. I mixed three different metaphors in one sentence. Thanks for not smoking my sausage. Oh ho sure, the humor of "Six Pack" and "TV Party" try to lighten the mood, but there's just no lightening a mood created by songs like "Depression," "No More," "Life Of Pain," and "Damaged (Parts I and II)." An unbelievably great punk record and far from "generic," as the Spin Record Guide so sillily calls it. No hardcore bands were this darned emotional. Even though the emotions are pretty much limited to hatred and self-loathing, it still comes across as incredibly REAL, thanks to Mr. Rollins. It kinda grabs you and pulls you in - until the very end of the record when the guitar noise suddenly disappears, concluding a 45-minute psychotherapy session with a midtempo drum line and a barely-intelligible Rollins rasping "Nobody comes in! Damage. My damage. NO ONE COMES IN! STAY OUT!!!!"

Wow. Or "wos," as I accidentally typed the first time. Without self-reference, there is no enlightenment. And just so you know what you're getting yourself into, the album cover features a harrowing shot of Rollins staring sullenly at his bald reflection in the mirror, barely visible through the web of cracks he has just created with his right fist. Damage.... Enjoy it. It was their heyday. And now it's time for a Payday!Dame