Customer Reviews

Damaged

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1 star:		(5)

 

 

If you've never bought a punk album in your life - well, you must either be very young or extremely old, but either way, you're probably wondering where to start. If you've never heard the Sex Pistols' epic 1977 "Never Mind the Bollocks", you'll only be wondering what that's like, so get that first. Then get this, for the simple reason that Black Flag were a better band.

The Flag had been plugging away in southern California since around 1977 or so when their fourth (or was it third?) lead singer Dez Cadena had to abandon the mic because his voice couldn't handle the gruelling touring schedule. They recruited 20-year-old dedicated fan and sometime ice-cream-store manager Henry Rollins to replace him, and the fix was in. This album was recorded within months of Rollins joining, and while he himself loyally claims to prefer the records the band made before his arrival (handly compiled on SST's stonking compilation "The First Four Years"), the rest of us have little doubt that Rollins was the definitive Flag singer, and not just because he lasted longer than anybody else.

Rollins became a great singer almost overnight. His voice sounds like the tone of Greg Ginn's guitar - swollen almost to bursting, raw, charging in every direction at once. The songs are short, almost all very fast, and more eloquent and expressive than practically any UK band of the period. (Black Flag blew people off the stage not because they were personally intimidating, although they were, but because they were just better at it than anybody else.) When they're funny, they're very funny, as in the hilarious "TV Party" - when they're not being funny, they're truly frightening ("Depression", "No More", "Rise Above".)

The Flag and their numerous alumni went on to make more complex, musically audacious and fascinating albums than this one, but "Damaged" is their straightest-up shot of raw power - allusion intended. It kills. It should be required listening for Berklee students. Whichever way you shake it, it's a great album, and a brilliant record of an unforgettable band hitting its stride. Ten stars. I know you can't give ten stars, but I want to be able to anyway. Make a note, Amazon.

(NOTE: If you're not a punk fan at all, this album won't change your mind, so save your time and discontinue reading now. But, if you're interested in punk and you don't have this album yet, READ THIS!!!)

As my title suggests, this is one of the most brutal albums of all time. It's brutality isn't measured by its speed (most of the songs are relatively slow compared to say, Minor Threat), but through its sheer POWER. The songs on this album will kick your a$$, no questions asked.

This is Black Flag's first album featuring Henry Rollins. While he's not the BEST Black Flag singer (they've had about 4 others), his growling, spitting, and screaming of his words made the Flag so damn ferocious. This reigns as the PERFECT album (with the Germs' M.I.A. at a close 2nd) to show poseurs who like Blink 182, Sum 41, Good Charlotte, etc. and think they're punk rock. The songs are all really hardcore and abrasive, yet you find yourself singing them to yourself all the time. That's part of the genius of the Flag: hardcore as all hell, yet catchy in a way. This goes especially for the "hits": "Six Pack" and "TV Party." There are many other notable songs on Damaged, including "Rise Above" (of course), "Depression", "Thirsty and Miserable", and "Spray Paint." All of the songs are extremely abrasive, yet are very listenable to anyone who likes REAL punk rock.

Unfortunately, this album is far from perfect. The album really starts to fall apart during the end and has quite a few stinker songs. Sometimes sheer abrasiveness can't save a bad song. However, it has so many gosh darn punk rock CLASSICS that anyone who's into punk rock or hardcore at all should already own this. It's a staple in any respectable collection of true punk and must be heard to be believed.

(ANOTHER NOTE: If you bought Damaged and found it to be too brutal, pick up Black Flag's "First Four Years." It's much easier to get in to, and once you get into it, you'll start to appreciate Damaged more and more)

It seems like yesterday when I picked up the LP that had the sticker reading a record executive's quote: "As a parent, I found this to be an anti-parent record." Being young, that was all the more incentive to pick up the record.

Years later, this album has not aged at all. What's funny is that despite the sticker warning, I found nothing "Anti-Parent" about this album. This is some of the angriest music I have ever heard, and is cathartic for anybody---not just fans of this genre--- in a rotten mood. While geared toward early 80s punks, this is a keen adrenaline rush for the irritable!

Aside from the rawer than raw guitar work, Henry Rollins really makes this album. Whether it's the opening "Rise Above" cries or the short "Spray Paint the Walls," there is something unbridled in Rollins' voice that makes this music an all out celebration of rage. And despite what the TV evangelists said years ago, this album never made me want to go assault my teachers, parents or the Good Humor Man; this is good "venting" music, from whatever walk of life you live in.

And then there is the classic "TV Party," which is one of the funniest punk songs I have ever heard. It's a kick hearing a string of angry odes, followed by a satirical bit in the same key.

There are lots of good punks CDs out there, lots of good Black Flag albums out there, but there is nothing quite like "Damaged."

This review will not pit one genre of punk or one historical moment of punk against another, but rather try to elucidate why "Damaged" is such a damn good album. Lyrically, the album focuses predominantly on boredom (think of the "hits" "TV Party" and "Six Pack"), rebellion ("Police Story," "Gimme Gimme Gimme"), alienation ("Depression," "Room 13," "Padded Cell") and poverty ("Thirsty and Miserable," "No More"). But I think the most interesting dynamic on the album is that between Henry Rollins' gut-curdling screams and Greg Ginn's downright abusive guitar playing (particularly on "Thirsty and Miserable," "Depression" and "Life of Pain"). Together, they raise the content imbedded in the lyrics to new levels of aggression. Also, check out the siren-like feedback that opens "Police Story"--it's as brutal as any opening "note" on a punk track since the Ramones' "Chain Saw." Also, the rhythm section of Charles Dukowski and ROBO gives songs like "Gimme Gimme Gimme" and "No More" the impression that they are "epic," rather than the bristling 2 minute songs that they are. "Damaged" represents the culmination of what Black Flag had been working towards in their first four years (check out "The First Four Years" and "Everything Went Black" to see what I'm talking about), and with the lyrical content still dominated by Greg Ginn, Henry Rollins' "spoken-word"isms are kept to a minimum here (which for some is a good thing). It also seems to be the apotheosis of the boredom/rebellion lyrical theme in punk (from the Stooges' debut in 1969 to the Clash's debut in 1977)--this is it! They say things are gonna get better, well all I know is, they don't get much better than "Damaged."

The Damaged album is one of the most intense pieces of music I've ever listened to. Uncompromising, vitriolic, crushing and thoughtful, Black Flag's first recording featuring Henry Rollins makes today's soft-sounding pop-punks sound like Bing Crosby.

"Damaged" is all about Greg Ginn's burning riffs blended with the lyrics that denounce social injustice, excess, laziness and every other by-product of taking the easy path. This record is not for everyone. Blink 182 and Green Day fans will probably crumple, whimpering, to the floor through "Rise Above", "Police Story", "Depression" and "Room 13".

There are a few bands out there that have the same sound, but few have the relentless ability to stay true to their vision that Black Flag did when recording Damaged.

This is definitely Black Flag's best cd ever. That says a lot, considering that Black Flag put out so many rockin albums. Damaged is full of energy and rawness that almost makes it sound like a live album. Thats one of my favorite things about Black Flag- the pure, unbridled energy....I wish I would've been alive to see these guys in concert. Anyway, my favorite tracks are 'Rise Above,' 'Six Pack,' 'Depression,' and in my opinion the best, "TV Party.' The whole album is great, however, and its quite hard to pick out standout tracks when they are all so...good. Buy this album, if you are a fan of 80s punk like Bad Brains, Minor Threat, and the Dead Kennedys. And to all the Blink and Sum41 fans- sorry, but you need balls to listen to this rad album.

The definitive early 80s hardcore punk album from the definitive American hardcore punk band. A record label actually refused to distribute this album at first because they thought it was too "dangerous and vulgar". It doesn't sound as wild now as it must have then, but it's still heavy stuff. Black Flag and the bands inspired by them wrote fast, raging upratchets on the British punk sound that tackled topics like boredom, alienation, depression, and general cynical angst at a time when popular music wouldn't touch anything like that. Also, many Black Flag songs like "TV Party" and "Six Pack" parodied pop culture. This album beats Black Flag's earlier stuff because of the addition of vocalist Henry Rollins, whose articulate roar and energy made the band great. Guitarist Greg Ginn wrote a lot of great songs and developed his own guitar style of slashing power chords and odd noise solos. As influential as it is, it's not quite a masterpiece due to the fact that the album starts to wear down towards the end, and the production could've been better.

Black Flag had already gone through three vocalists before they recorded their first album. And while those three singers all had their merits (check 'em out on the First Four Years compilation), Henry Rollins swallows them all whole. His voice is pure caustic fury, a venomous roar that can boil your blood, kill your grandmother's cat, and drop a linebacker at thirty feet. It's more than just anger- this guy is biblically pissed off, and he releases it all in a withering torrent of acidic poetry and cathartic fury on this album. Combine that with Greg Ginn's guitar pyrotechnics (which are based on a solid slab of hardcore raucousness, but with elements of noise rock and other almost artistic touches) and ferocious songwriting, and you've got yourself a brutal, sludgy classic.

This album's highlights come fast 'n' furious: "T.V. Party" and "Six Pack" are violently catchy and hilariously satirical, while "Rise Above" is a blood-soaked anthem. "Depression" is pure high-speed grime punk, and "Damaged I" is an apocalyptic slab of scorched-soul desperation. All in all, a hardcore punk classic, ad totally indispensable for any fan of the genre.

I haven't heard every rock 'n' roll record ever made, but if there was anything angrier committed to vinyl before "Damaged," I haven't come across it.

And if you can't relate to "Depression" in some moments of your life, you're not human, or you're lying to yourself. It's the best song on the album, I think. "Depression's got ahold of me/Depression, gotta break free/Depression's got ahold of me/Depression, it's gonna kill me" -- Been there, felt that, bought the T-shirt.

A few notes --

The guitar tones from Greg Ginn and Dez Cadena sound like they're literally exploding from the speakers, so untamed they make virtually all the early '80s metal axemeisters sound tea-party polite, tone-wise. (Okay, maybe not Eddie Van Halen, but he's a special case).

Cadena had taken over on second guitar (abdicating the lead-vocalist role to Henry Rollins) only a short time before this album was recorded -- it doesn't sound that way. Too bad they didn't stick with the twin-guitar line-up longer.

Rollins joined the band only a short time before the album was recorded -- he was obviously a quick study, and sounds like rage incarnate. But note that the lyrics were all written by Greg Ginn and/or bassist Chuck Dukowski -- only the improv vox on "Damaged I" present Rollins' own words.

Astute old-school metal fans will notice snatches of what appear to be Black Sabbath and AC/DC rhythm riffs here and there -- not a complaint, just historical perspective, and I don't know if Ginn did this deliberately.

Also, you'll notice Ginn and Cadena soloing all over the place. It's funny that the uninformed consider hardcore punk to be pretty much bereft of guitar solos. Not these guys. But it's always careening, reckless stuff, not studied showing-off.

Buybuybuybuybuybuybuybuybuybuiybuybuybuybuybuy

Okay, first of all this is a good album period-its a change of sound from their previous years, but still it's a good album. I'm not going to choose a side for Black Flag-Morris vs Rollins because Morris rocks hard and Rollins rocks hard. However, I can see how some people don't like their aggressive more hardcore and angry sound found on this album and prefer their less instense more just plain punk theme of Keith Morris Black Flag has and vice versa. In conclusion, if you enjoy a more heavier, angry, twisted, and hardcore sound in your punk buy Damaged. And if you prefer a less intense and more straight up old school punk buy The First four years.