Black Flag: My War

Black Flag: My War

1984

SST Records

Format I Own it on: Compact Disc

Track Listing: 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

The band's first album of new material after a long three year hiatus that was a result of the band's legal dispute with Unicorn Records...

Man, what the hell is "Unicorn Records"? That doesn't sound like a label that would put out an ass-kicking hardcore out an album by Black Flag...

I mean look at it! As an anti-parent...I find Unicorns to be anti-anti-parent creatures...And I can't recall ever running into another record that was released on Unicorn Records...

I take back what I said the other day about "Jealous Again." The song "My War" is the greatest, most gut-wrenching Black Flag track ever...A brief jazz-punk intro gives way to Henry's anguished scream, "MYYYY WARR!" and the band explodes like a stick of freakin' dynamite...Incredible! 

All of side one rules, actually...This album somehow seems a lot more antisocial and scarier than the Black Flag of "Damaged." Like they were just locked up for those three years, letting all the self-loathing and animosity build up, until they were finally let loose to exact vengeance on a  cold world full of phony friends and fake smiles....The creepy cover drawing says it all!

"I Love You" even manages to make pop-punk sound frightening!

"I practice my knife, I feel the power
I look in the mirror and I want to destroy her..."

Holy cow!  That girl might want to look into a good, firm restraining order! You know this ain't ending good!

Usually either seen as a masterwork of caustic nihilism or a self-indulgent bore, side two is where this album often divides people... The band forgoes high-speed hardcore and dives into the sticky tar-pit world of marathon-length sludge-metal...None of the tracks on side two fall under the six minute mark...Long, doomy dirges that split the difference between Black Sabbath and Flipper...I actually enjoy this stuff, but I can see how it could turn off some people...There's not much cathartic aggression...Only howling desperation...As a jaded 36 year-old man, this may seem a little quaint now, but I can tell you when I was a 15 year old kid, alone in his bedroom, this was the most harrowing shit ever....

...And this was just the start...The band released three studio albums and a live record in '84...But before we get to all that, let's check out "My War" by Black Flag...