Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
STRAP YOURSELF IN!, November 24, 1999
I discovered the Rollins Band in 1991 as the opening act for Janes Addiction. I was completely blown away by Rollins' power! The songs on this album are hard, brutal, chokehold grabbing anthems of independent fury! At the start of their set, Henry Rollins said, "strap yourself in, this is going to hurt!" Truer words are rarely spoken! Listen and enjoy.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
This album goes to 11..., February 23, 2006
All the Rollins Band albums are great, Hank has never put out a bad record, but this one and the 'Flag's MY WAR stand as two career highs for the man.
Bluesy, loose AND tight at the same time, perennially pissed-off and alienated. Urgent, desperate, fierce, focused. Whenever I hear someone say that there was no good rock-and-roll in the 80s, I think of this overlooked diamond in the synth-and-hairspray rough. Ian McKaye produced this album and the Do It sessions (together now on the one CD), and I don't think the band was ever produced better. They had a sound that is hard to define, it was heavy, but very clear. Awesome job that really suited the blues feel to a lot of the music.
I think of the European tour they did in '87-88 and how skinny poor Hank looked in pictures from that era. He looked to be in great shape, but atrophied from poverty and malnutrition and trying to hold this genius thing together while on a hard-nosed tour playing to half-empty rooms. I think of the self-belief and love of the music that must have been the only sustaining thing for the band that year, and I get inspiration for when things are dark. That's what Hank did and does for kids growing up: shows them how to hold on, to not go spinning off weakly into addiction or acquiescence, but to darkly endure and succeed and push thru life in their own ways. Henry Rollins is a tough guy, Henry Rollins is the anti-bully. This album altered the course of my entire life. Henry Rollins, Black Flag, and the first six Black Sabbath albums raised me to trust in myself and to bite back.
Once, back in 1988 or 89, I counted how many times Hank says "yeah" on this whole album. If I remember right, it was something like 156, with 89 of those being in the last song, "Turned Out".
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
if you're alive you'll know what i mean, March 19, 2001
next to "damaged" and "in utero" this has to be my favorite album ive ever heard.from the opening song "burned beyond recognition",to "gun in mouth blues" and all the ohter gems including "what am i doing here?", "lonely", "turned out", "1000 times blind", this album is brilliant.the lyrics arent for the cool kids, rather anyone who see's things for what they are and is not happy about it.that means the world around, but mostly they are directed inward.the sound quality is wonderfull, sharp, lean and raw at the same time.the drums sound like hammers on brick and rollins vocals havent been this intense since "damaged".people try to label this band as punk/metal, or post punk, but none of them apply.its what rock is all about.honest, hard, and completly non-pretentious from the heart (and gut) music.
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