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*Some of these reviews were originally written for Adrian Denning's Music Review site |
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Life Time ( 1988 )8 Burned Beyond Recognition / What Am I Doing Here? / 1,000 Times Blind / Lonely / Wreck-age / Gun In Mouth Blues / You Look At You / If You're Alive / Turned Out So, here we are. A mere 14 months after Greg Ginn gave Rollins a call to announce he was leaving Black Flag (which resulted in the disbanding of the band), Rollins has already done a spoken word tour, a tour with his new band, recorded and released a solo album (“Hot Animal Machine”), a funny EP (“Drive-By Shooting”, credited to Henrietta Collins And The Wifebeating Childhaters), and finally a first studio album with the Rollins Band in the Fall of 1987.Those who expected Rollins to continue in the vein of Black Flag’s later albums were wrong. “Loose Nut” (1985) and “In My Head” (1985) leaned increasingly more towards pretty laidback (often lame) hard rock, which was a strange evolution for a band that had helped define the sound and ideals of early American hardcore (“Damaged” being the prime example), but Rollins pursued a different direction now. |
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Obviously in charge of the Rollins Band, a recharged Rollins found the right musicians and made one of his heaviest albums ever.The early Black Flag-Rollins, the maniacal screamer, the raging masochist, had returned. He constantly screams his lungs out, and utters his tales of alienation, abuse, and misanthropy with more ferocity and anger than ever before. The racket that opens “Burned Beyond Recognition” says it all: this band is out there to deliver the goods and will offer undiluted intensity. “Lonely” and “One Thousand Times Blind” offer insight into the unknown self, as Rollins screams on the latter: “I scream out loud, I can’t hear myself, I try to recognize, I don’t know myself.” As he goes along, Rollins invents the road he walks on with each step, never quite sure of where he is. “What Am I Doing Here” and “Wreck-age” are driving hard rock songs on which Rollins examines his place in a world gone mad, concluding that the only solution is one of solitude (“The wreck-age is all around me, the human wreck-age, to you I say goodbye, goodbye”). Although Rollins is clearly the main focus of attention, he is surrounded by excellent musicians who churn out a heavy crossover of hard rock, blues, and grinding proto-grunge. Andrew Weiss’s bass work isn’t as prominent as on later efforts (such as “The End Of Silence”), but it is certainly something special, both heavy and funky at the same time (“Lonely”, “Turned Out”). Sim Cain always does more than expected of a standard hard rock drummer, bringing power, subtlety, and variety, and Chris Haskett is also very competent, churning out chords and solos effortlessly. The sound of the record (produced by Ian MacKaye) is very peculiar. On the one hand, it sounds ridiculously flat, with the drums sounding like Fisher Price, the guitar being really thin, and the bass never providing a truly solid foundation. However, on the other hand, wickedly enough, it makes the record (like for instance The Stooges’ “Raw Power” or the MC5’s “Back In The USA”) even more intense and edgy. “Gun In Mouth Blues” is one of the most apocalyptic Rollins-efforts ever committed to tape, its moments of silence and whispered vocals alternated by sudden explosions of thunderous noise. The album ends like it begins, with a long scream that proves Rollins to be one of the most maniacal vocalists of the era. All this makes of “Life Time” one of the most intense records of the ‘80s, and an album that’s certainly not for the faint of heart. However, it is a powerful and challenging album for those who want to witness one man’s struggle against increasing feelings of alienation and inner turmoil by finding solace in solitude. |
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Do It ( 1988 )7 Do It / Move Right In / Next Time / Joe Is Everything, Everything Is Joe (Intro) / Black And White / Lost And Found / Followed Around / Wreck Age / Lonely / Hot Animal Machine 1 / You Look At You / Gun In Mouth Blues / Turned Out / Thousand Times Blind / No One Hot on the heels of "Life Time" comes "Do It", the first in a series of live albums on which the Rollins Band deliver an undiluted rock 'n roll experience, proving themselves to be one of rock's most incendiary live acts in the process. What makes this album more interesting than later live albums, though, are the three studio outtakes from the "Life Time"-sessions that start the album. The first one is a psychotic take on the Pink Fairies' "Do It" that enables Rollins to scream its title over and over again (about 55 times in 2 minutes 40 seconds, and yes, I did count 'em) and perfectly fits Rollins' relentless persona. Unsurprisingly, it would become a Rollins Band concert staple that would subsequently wind up on several live documents. Next is "Move Right In", an early song written by Lou Reed (to be found on The Velvet Underground's "Another View" (1985)), and this tale of irresponsible and wild behaviour ("After we hang a little, we're gonna have a little fun, gonna go shoot and kill and go knife everyone") gets an extended bluesy treatment. |
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It's particularly cool hearing Rollins repeatedly scream "I'm a square wheel rollin'" and special kudos to Weiss' as well for his supple bass playing. Third and last of the covers is a take on Richard Berry's "Next Time". Before this one, Rollins had already covered Berry's classic garage song "Louie Louie" with Black Flag, and his first (solo) album, "Hot Animal Machine," had also featured another Berry song, "Crazy Lover". Anyway, this is a rather generic blues track, and another tale of mischief, but it also works well enough. The main part of the album then commences with live tracks (five songs from "Hot Animal Machine" and six from "Life Time") recorded in Holland, Belgium, England and Germany during the European Fall Tour of 1987. "Black And White", "Lost And Found" and "Followed Around" are the three speedy rockers that also open "Hot Animal Machine," and man, does this outfit play loud live. The sound, still thin, resembles that of "Life Time", but you quickly realize that the band lives up to their studio recordings, justifying the release of live albums on a regularly basis. This has nothing to do with creative laziness or narcissism, but the eagerness to play loud and intense while giving 100 %. "Lonely" slows the rhythm down somewhat and gives an indication of where the band would go on albums such as "The End Of Silence" and "Weight". A frenetic "Hot Animal Machine 1" concludes the performance recorded in Holland. Sadly, the other recordings from Belgium, England and Germany are not only sonically weaker, but the performances themselves aren't as riveting as the Holland shows. During "You Look At You", Rollins' vocals are buried in the mix, and Haskett's guitar seems to have disappeared, while during "Gun In Mouth Blues" the guitar sounds almost jangly (which is not how it should sound on an album like this). The rest of the band, however, succeeds in creating a tension that nearly explodes during the climactic end of the song. The next two, "Turned Out" and "Thousand Times Blind", have an improved sound, and the band is in top shape, Weiss creating excruciating deep noise on the former, Haskett churning out a great twisted solo on the latter. "No One", like "Gun In Mouth Blues", is one of those long and heavy sludge-monsters that would become even more prominent during later shows and albums, but unlike "Gun In Mouth Blues" it doesn't work here. The intro (well, four minutes) offers nothing but heavily distorted and screeching guitar and painfully zooming bass sounds with a slowly thumping Sim Cain drum beat. The high hopes you start developing are never really fulfilled, as the band fails to make this more than a ten-minute slab of pummelling noise, despite Rollins' inhuman intensity. In short, "Do It" is certainly too much for an average rock listener, but two great studio outtakes and several high quality live tracks make this challenging album worth the effort, particularly for fans of the band. However, the inclusion of the superfluous and even annoying "No One" and the lesser sound towards the end of the album mar this otherwise fine record. |
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Hard Volume ( 1989 )7 Hard / What have I Got / I Feel Like This / Planet Joe / Love Song / Turned Inside Out / Down And Away Depressing, abrasive, raw, emotional, Hard Volume is an album of extremes. The music, the lyrics, the sound, they all add to the general picture. Although the band had been relentlessly busy for more than two years, they still found themselves in a critical financial condition, causing it to be (from the liner notes) “a very busy and stressful time. This is not a band that has a good time in the studio … we came out of the studio with a very disturbed and intense record”. And that’s the least you can say about the album, since it’s easily the most harrowing one they ever made. “Hard” and “What Have I Got” are two diamond-hard pieces of adrenaline-fuelled punk-blues that would become classics in the band’s output, even being played by the new line-up a dozen years after this release. In these two songs, Rollins further explores Life Time’s theme of alienation; in “Hard” the lyrics (“You see these hard eyes, you know what I mean, those eyes got hard, after what they've seen") point towards a struggle for self-preservation, while “What Have I Got” adds to the feelings of insecurity with its contrasting lyrics (“I’ve got a wantless need, I’ve got a thoughtless mind, I’ve got a needless want, I can’t unwind). |
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The album’s two last songs, “Turned Inside Out” and “Down And Away,” would also become concert favourites for awhile. Together, these two songs are probably the most abrasive songs they ever recorded, and never did Rollins sound this desperately out of his mind and full of self-hatred. Hearing him scream these lyrics is truly disturbing, and rarely (I can’t think of any other example) has a vocalist sounded this lost in his raving confusion. The intensity during the performances would remain and is to be expected, but whereas the later Rollins had it under control, hearing him scream, shriek and almost ‘squeal’ (that’s how it sounds when he almost loses his voice) these lines of disgust are proof of his extreme emotions at the time. The other three tracks, however, are all disappointing compared to the four previously mentioned. “I Feel Like This”, “Planet Joe” (also the title of a book Rollins’ friend Joe Cole wrote about touring with Black Flag – Joe Cole was shot by a mugger in December of 1991, in front of Rollins’ eyes), and “Love Song” all seem to have been improvised on the spot and sound like half-baked ideas. The Rollins Band always had songs that were slow and monotonously meandering, but if the repeated idea isn’t a good one, it won’t work, no matter how crunching and industrial sounding the pounding. Maybe that’s also why I never heard live versions of these three songs, as Rollins probably later recognised that the album would’ve been much more consistent and impressive without them. In fact, those who want this album’s best songs without the filler are better served by purchasing Live In Australia 1990, which features the four great songs from this album along with a much more full-bodied sound, accompanied by a few other classic songs by this version of the band. Note: The original Texas Hotel-version of this album also added the lengthy jam “Joy Riding With Frank”. The 1999 Buddha-reissue replaced the jam with other, more interesting tracks: three session outtakes (Suicide’s “Ghost Rider,” and “Tearing” and “You Didn’t Need,” both of which would wind up on The End Of Silence) and a 1988 demo (featuring premature versions of “What Have I Got” and “Down And Away,” and the great “Thin Air,” which they never re-recorded). |
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Turned On ( 1990 )8
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“Down & Away” and “Turned Inside Out”), and finally, three from the forthcoming The End Of Silence (1992). Furthermore, it contains three cuts that can’t be found on any studio album by the band (and only one of them also appears on another live album). “Mask” is a kind of poem by Rollins (only accompanied by booming bass and sustained guitar notes) that focuses on a few of his most important recurring themes, namely communication breakdown (“I’m smooth, expressionless; You can’t read me, Behind the mask I die over and over, I scream from behind the mask”) and self-hatred (“I see the face that I got, I see myself, ugly, so ugly, it's ugly”), both of which are invariably linked. “The Dietmar Song” is an a-capella piece of nonsense the band put together that is dedicated to Dietmar, who is called ‘the eunich of Munich’. The final example is the lengthy “Out There”, which probably served as a blueprint for “Blues Jam”, which would wind up on The End Of Silence. It’s a simpler song that lacks some refrains, but the jamming elaborations are clearly the same, and the bass and guitar likewise use the melodic lines that would return later. The album also contains three songs that appear on The End Of Silence, but these are already the definitive versions. “Tearing” and “You Didn’t Need”, two of the shortest and most accessible songs on The End Of Silence, are highlights that serve as prime examples of Rollins’ new ‘singing’-style. He no longer intends to destroy his tonsils, but instead relies on a deeper variation of ‘barking-yelling’, which suits him just fine. “What Do You Do” at the end of the set is an incredible version, with each of the musicians exploiting their instruments to the fullest without succumbing to indecipherable noise or pretentious nothingness (like “No One” on Do It, for example). The other tracks on this albums also eclipse the performances of Do It. “Lonely” serves as a sludgy opener, “Do It” gets an appropriate hard-rocking treatment, and “What Have I Got” and “Hard” (both from his recent studio album Hard Volume) contain the same punch and superbly tight musicianship as their studio counterparts. “Followed Around” is the short and fast rocker that precedes the thematically linked “Down & Away” and “Turned Inside Out”, two tracks that up the ante a bit more by offering relentlessly heavy explorations into the inner world of a solitary madman. The intensity that is found in these 12 minutes is nothing short of astounding. Towards the end the album, the performances and the sound (especially that of the guitar) keep getting better and better, allowing “Black & White” and “What Do You Do” to shine. The performance ends with another song by Richard Berry, “Crazy Lover”, a joyous old rocker (also to be found on Hot Animal Machine) that provides a nice contrast to the apocalyptic heaviness of the songs that preceded it. All in all, Turned On is a better album than Do It, offering a more diverse batch of songs by a band at their performing peak. The new direction the band chose around this time would also prove to be a creative and commercial success. It would still be the quintessential live document of the Rollins Band Mark 1, if it weren’t for a live record form the same tour that would be released some ten years later. Note: One annoying thing about this album is the fact that your CD-player reads this CD as one song, which only allows you to listen to it in its entirety (73minutes and 33 seconds). |
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The End Of Silence ( 1992 )9 Low Self Opinion / Grip / Tearing / You
Didn’t Need / Almost Real / Obscene / What Do You
Do / Blues Jam / Another Life / Just Like You |
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Another negative comment often heard about this album is that Rollins “lost” it from then onwards, which most often refers to him having replaced his shrieking by a less psychotic ‘barking’ delivery (already noticeable on Live In Australia). I agree that the new style of singing sounds much less wild and reckless, but that needn’t imply that he could no longer give his all, in Rollins’s case 110%. Moreover, not enough has been written about his throat problems before the recording of the album. During the previous years (1987-1990), Rollins was arguably the most intense vocalist around, and he had to pay for this. Gone is the high shrieking - here’s to barking! - but those who claim that Rollins didn’t go all out anymore must’ve been listening without plugging the headphones in. “Low Self Opinion” is one of the most intricate songs the Rollins Band had recorded, and more than any previous song, it shows that the band have always been admirers of classic 70’s hard rock (how could he be selling out, placing himself in such an un-cool genre?), which makes the song quite accessible. Add some great musicianship to this – Haskett is positively in great shape - and Rollins’s smart wordplay (“if you could see the you that I see, when I see you seeing me, you’d see yourself so differently, believe me”), and we’re dealing with a damn fine opener. It’s followed by the heavy stuttering “Grip”, another exploration of solitude (“when you go outside, and try to find a familiar mind, it really lets you know that you’re on your own”), but Rollins doesn’t imply this is necessarily a bad thing, as self-reliance may offer a partial solution as well (and didn’t Ralph Waldo Emerson, another notorious misanthrope, write in his infamous essay “Self–reliance” that “the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude”?). The one thing that mars this song (or its lyrics anyway) is the repetition of the words “self-respect”, which gets kind of superficial after a while and may bother the listener who has heard enough contemporary metal and punk bands deliver the same simplified message over and over again. “Tearing” and “You Didn’t Need”, which appeared on earlier live albums, are two more instances of the new supercharged, though quite melodic, rock, and both have rightfully become classics in the band’s catalogue. Going over the 8-minutes border, “Almost Real” is the first of the lengthy jams on this album (half of the songs are between 4:50 and 5:30, the rest going well over 7 minutes). Just like “You Didn’t Need”, its lyrics deal with a relationship gone bad because of a communication breakdown (“you didn’t see that I was bleeding, you turned away when I spoke to you”); all this is made even worse by psychological abuse. Indeed, this album is so full of pain that it can become a rather depressing listen. The music, helped by the heavy production, is more thunderous than ever, Sim Cain and Weiss especially benefiting from this. Weiss’s bass, which has always been loud and deep-sounding, provides one of the heaviest foundations for an album ever (the bass sound is one of the reasons this albums became quite notorious), and Cain’s drumming becomes way more complex than on the earlier, more straightforward albums, often leaving the traditional hard rock terrain behind, choosing impressive jazz and experimental explorations instead. “Obscene” may very well be the heaviest track. Its message (a simplified version of Sartre’s “l’enfer c’est les autres”, which implies that communication will eventually lead to psychological struggles and/or abuse) gets a fittingly dark and slow musical backing. “What Do You Do” and “Blues Jam” are two more pieces of abrasive psycho-blues that plod along thunderously, while Rollins utters his lines of disgust and abuse over and over again. The shorter and faster “Another Life” is a harsh story about drug addiction. As we all know, Rollins usually takes an outspoken stand against drugs, having seen the things it can do to people (“your hands are wet – your mouth is dry, you shake and sweat – you want to die, your eyes are hot – your skin is cold, you’re so young – but you look so old”) and the pathetic behaviour in which it results. The worst thing about drug abuse, though, seems to be people’s inability to do anything about it (“if I could make wishes true, I know what I’d wish for you, another life, another life for you”). The closing 11-minute long slab “Just Like You”, is once again about pain inflicted by others and the consequences of having to deal with it, obsessed with the physical and emotional scars. Not being impressed by this album is impossible. Some people may not like it because of the introspective and depressing lyrics (because of his unrelenting honesty and outspokenness, Rollins also became an easy target) or the immensely heavy music (as if buildings are collapsing near you), which creates a truly apocalyptic atmosphere. The playing on this album is the most impressive yet by this line-up, as all the members show their musical prowess. Despite its quite dividing status among listeners, and the rather repetitive nature of the lyrics, I cannot but listen to this record and be in complete awe as I delve into its dark sludge, observing how the main protagonist is trying to find an escape from his pain and depression. And succeeds - on his own terms. |
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Weight ( 1994 )6.5 Disconnect / Fool / Icon / Civilized / Divine / Liar / Step Back / Wrong Man / Volume 4 / Tired / Alien Blueprint / Shine A lot of things happened in between the releases of The End of Silence and Weight. Having recorded an album with a much bigger budget and benefiting from promotion usually reserved for major acts, the Rollins Band suddenly found itself a much larger audience. Henry lost his cult hero status and quickly became something of an alternative icon due to his relentless work ethic and the band’s constant touring, which exposed them to more and more people (in early 1992 they even supported the Red Hot Chili Peppers on most of their European Tour). Suddenly, Rollins was all over the media, writing columns for magazines, hosting shows for MTV, and getting minor movie parts in 1993’s The Chase and 1994’s Johnny Mnemonic. Another crucial moment in the band’s history came when Andrew Weiss left the band (other sources suggest he was kicked out of the band by Rollins, who’d gotten fed up with his supposedly lazy attitude), which came as a surprise, since Weiss definitely helped creating the band’s sound. A worthy replacement, however, was found after Living Color’s Vernon Reid suggested Melvin Gibbs to the band. Gibbs, previously a member of Joseph Bowie’s avant-funk band Defunkt, proved himself to be a technically versatile bass player, but never quite managed to fill in the gap left by Weiss. |
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| Maybe it’s due to Gibbs, maybe just a combination of coincidences or intentions, but Weight is the band’s most groove-oriented and funk-flavoured album. Moreover, the previously prominent punk and blues influences have been toned down in favour of a more straightforward hard rock/metal-approach. The album’s singles, “Liar” and “Disconnect” are representative samples from the album. “Liar” is an example of the band toying around with a combination of introvert, quiet passages and apocalyptic noise eruptions, and offers an easily accessible introduction into Rollins’ worldview. “Disconnect,” the album’s opener, although not boosted by a similar striking video-clip (the first was directed by Dutch star-photographer Anton Corbijn), is a lot better. More than ever before, Haskett’s guitar prowess has gotten a prominent role. Previous albums already had a powerful (Life Time, Hard Volume) or massive sound (The End of Silence), but the guitars had always stayed somewhat subdued in favour of the thunderous rhythm section. In this song, Rollins expresses his wish to escape from a media-governed society overloaded with information. Sadly enough, the band isn’t able to keep up the steady quality of these singles throughout the entire album. “Fool,” however, is one catchy and funky hard rock song that especially benefits from Gibbs’ jumpy bass work, and the great production by Theo Van Rock (an old-time sound man finally in charge). Haskett delivers not one but two awesome guitar solos and the groove laid down is one of their most infectious ever. Next up is the almost equally impressive and ultra-tight “Icon,” which features Rollins dealing with fame and focuses on both sides of the story: idolatry (“All eyes turned up to the hero, charismatic icon animal man, lyrical visionary caught in the spotlight”) and its own volatility (“Strung out self abusive circus freak, one thing that you might not know, there’ll be another messiah right here next week”). After this very good opening, the album starts to fall apart, however, as the good songs are scattered about here and there. “Volume 4” is the album’s last song with a claim to greatness, and its dragging pace combined with the noisy backing makes it sound more like a song from the previous album. The album’s bleak conclusion (“Now I go from the day and wait around to die just like He did”) is apparently also linked to a reference to the murder of Rollins’ friend Joe Cole in late 1991 (“I used to live a lie, But then I saw the sidewalk bleed and I watched his mother cry”). “Alien Blueprint” and “Shine,” the album’s last two songs, are also satisfying, the first being a driving celebration of self-reliance, the latter offering further proof of Rollins’ ultimately positive attitude, which is probably what attracts so many people to the guy in the first place. It’s definitely intriguing to see him trying to survive in a chaotic universe governed by primal urges and standards, although the moral message of the song, “No time for drug addiction, no time for smoke and booze, too strong for a shortened life span, I’ve got no time to lose,” may bother some. What we’re left with are some lesser songs, some of which are still interesting. “Civilized” and “Step Back” are two rocking but ultimately slightly boring slabs of hard rock, the former one focusing on the madness of a society in which gun-toting maniacs seem to be the last heroes; the latter dealing with a clash between appearances and reality. “Wrong Man” is even less impressive, but has some funny details about it, such as Rollins’ James Brown-imitation (“Ugh!”) in a song that deals with (anti-)feminism. Finally, “Tired” makes me feel exactly that, as it’s another superfluous piece of poetry backed by some unimpressive backing music. Easily the most accessible Rollins Band album up to this point, Weight starts off great with a bunch of streamlined songs. After that, however, it becomes a bit of hit-or-miss affair, despite the awesome playing. Indeed, the strong production allows all the musicians to shine (the rhythm section adds lots of funky and jazzy touches), making this arguably the most musically accomplished album by the band. However, the songs themselves can be quite boring, and though it’s a worthwhile album for both completists and fans of groove-based power-rock, for a better introduction to the band check out The End of Silence or Live in Australia 1990. |
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Come in and Burn ( 1997 )5 Shame / Starve / All I Want / The End of Something / On My Way to the Cage / Thursday Afternoon / During a City / Neon / Spilling over the Side / Inhale Exhale / Saying Goodbye Again / Rejection / Disappearing Act After the relative success of Weight, which turned Rollins into something of an alternative icon (for 15 minutes), and a switch from Imago Records to Dreamworks, it would be interesting to see what the next move of the gang would be. Unsurprisingly, it took them three years to come up with a new album. In the meantime, Rollins had been his own busy self releasing two spoken word/jazz albums, Everything (1996) and Black Coffee Blues (1996), and acting (minor roles, though) in Michael Mann’s excellent thriller Heat (1995) and David Lynch’s disturbing Lost Highway (1996). After the never-ending tour of 1994 and 1995 (with lauded appearances at Woodstock and several other major festivals), the band had more money and time to take with them to the studio. Why didn’t it come as a surprise then, that they came up with their weakest album yet, their first truly disappointing album? I have no idea, but the fact is that Rollins himself also realized afterwards that the new approach didn’t suit him very well, as he said in an interview: “I just spent sixteen months writing Come In and Burn. I'm not going to spend sixteen months writing an album ever again. Sixteen days, maybe. Not sixteen weeks. Not sixteen months. No way. Did it. Didn't like it. Not doing it again.” |
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While albums like Hard Volume were almost invented on the spot, and large parts of The End of Silence were tested and perfected on the road, the songs that make up Come in and Burn were laboured over, but seldom impress, despite the obvious capabilities of the musicians (you don’t need 10 minutes to hear these guys can puh-lay). Songs that do manage to impress somewhat are “Starve” and, in a lesser way, “On My Way to the Cage,” the first one because of its propulsive energy, the muscular metal riffing (which sounds pretty cool in this song), and the tight playing of the band (with extra kudos to ever-awesome Sim Cain), the second song because it’s a far cry from earlier tracks, a rather short song with Gibbs’s heavily rumbling bass as the most prominent factor, and an effective bridge-section that turns up the heat. The other songs/sections worth mentioning are scattered over the album “All I Want,” for instance, is a decent slab of funk-metal, which competently exploits the silent/loud-dynamics of the song, but in the end comes off as slightly generic. “Rejection” offers some listening pleasure, but the problem is you’re not likely to hear it that often, with all the mediocre songs that surround it. While the album starts off in a decent way, the fun is over after the first five tracks: most of the other songs share uninspired riffs (all of the songs I haven’t mentioned yet), the same dragging pace (all of them), the same fancy voice-manipulator (or whatever it is that Rollins uses a few times) and boredom. For the first time in its 10-year career, the band fails in doing what it did best before: the album doesn’t rock, and it certainly doesn’t burn. The lyrics aren’t a departure from the vintage stuff, and are still as edgy and filled with the quintessential Rollins-themes as ever before (“I don’t step on roaches as they crawl across the floor, and if I saw your body burning in the street, I’d put it out with gasoline,” he laconically says in “The End of Something”), but in the end, the lyrics are usually not the most decisive element. The music is, like on Weight, still a heavy blend of metal and, in a lesser way, rock, funk and jazz elements, but as a whole the album has no punch, and also Rollins delivers the weakest performance of his career, by just babbling most of the lyrics in a similar way. On top of it, his voice also sounds very tired compared to his earlier stage antics, and that’s not what you wanna hear from this guy. So, like I said before, Come in and Burn is the first disappointing album by the Rollins Band. There are many worse things than this album available, but after a string of fierce albums that made this unit one of the most awesome acts around, I’d come to expect more. |
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Live In Australia 1990 ( 1999 )9
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Ironically, it’s also the least “live” of all Rollins Band live albums - on the 22nd of May, 1990, the band played a set at a local radio station, with the road crew, the opening band, and a few of their friends as their “audience”. The album is book-ended by shards of guitar feedback, but what is in between may be the ideal starting point for a curious music fan willing to delve into the band’s stuff. The core of Live In Australia is basically the same as on Turned On, albeit without the earliest songs (from Hot Animal Machine), and curiosities (“Mask” and “The Dietmar Song”).“Lonely”, which makes its fourth appearance here, is a great opener that gets the crowd pumped up and deserves its classic status in the Rollins catalogue because of its exemplary character. It offers a clear insight into some of Rollins’ central themes (solitude resulting from communication breakdowns and misanthropy, plus a solipsist attitude), and balances on the thin line between the earlier blues-punk and the later metal-infected jazz-noise. It’s followed by a rather slow but extremely hard-hitting
version of another Rollins classic, “Do It”. “What Have
I Got” is a stunning piece of power-blues for the new generation,
and hearing Rollins yell “I’ve got a heart that hates”
(his lyrics are generally quite serious – and yes, this is an understatement),
guarantees an immense shot of adrenaline. All this is also made possible
by the great guitar sounds Haskett extracts from his guitar, and the twisted
solo he churns out of his Gibson Les Paul. |
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Get Some Go Again ( 2000 )7 Illumination / Get Some Go Again / Monster / Love’s So Heavy / Thinking Cap / Change It Up / I Go Day Glo / Are You Ready? / On The Day / You Let Yourself Down / Brother Interior / Hotter and Hotter / Illuminator / Money Train Tabula rasa. After the disappointing critical and commercial reception of Come in and Burn (1997) and the tour that followed the album, Henry and the rest of the band went on hiatus for a while. During this period, Rollins met Mother Superior guitar player Jim Wilson in a L.A. record store, where Wilson handed him one of their demos. Rollins, intrigued by what he heard, was interested in the band and would soon write liner notes for their first album and produce their second one. In the meantime, instigated by common influences (Thin Lizzy, MC5, Black Sabbath, Motörhead), Rollins rehearsed a lot with the band (Wilson – guitar, Marcus Blake – bass, Jason Mackenroth – drums), and suddenly they had enough material to record a complete new album. The original band was disbanded in the meantime (each of the members soon guest-appeared on a wide range of albums), but the Rollins Band name was kept. |
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The result is an often brutally effective slab of crunching hard rock. Gone are the experimental influences (in part because the previous line-up had more advanced musicians), replaced by shorter songs spearheaded by concrete riffs. All this is completely unoriginal, and an utter anomaly in 2000, but it found Rollins revamped and supported by an enthusiastic bunch of young players willing to rock their asses off. The band kicks off with “Illumination”, which is similar to “Disconnect” in the building up of tension and lyrical themes (“I stay outside and live within”). Next up is “Get Some Go Again”, one of the tightest and fastest songs the band ever recorded, and it’s really exciting to hear Rollins rock out in such an uncomplicated, straightforward way. The album boasts two other speedy rave-ups in “I Go Day Glo” (which clocks in at 1:45), and the Motörhead-influenced “You Let Yourself Down”. The returning riff of “Monster” reminds me of Guns ‘n Roses’ “Paradise City”, but the song becomes a bit tedious after a while, just like “Thinking Cap” (which nevertheless has a funny spoken-word section) and the bluesy “Change It Up”. Those average rockers are, however, balanced by the successful collaborations between the band and their guests Scott Gorham and Wayne Kramer, former members of Thin Lizzy and MC5, respectively. The former assists on a riveting, energetic cover version of Lizzy’s “Are You Ready?,” while Kramer assists on the co-written track “Hotter and Hotter,” which combines the best elements of both bands. “Love’s So Heavy,” with its ventures into steamy funk-rock, is very similar to the Red Hot Chili Peppers at their heaviest, and is an album highlight. The dragging “Brother Interior” is another fine track that overcomes its weak start (marked by strangely rumbling bass and annoying vocals with too much echo), helped along by some fine guitar soloing and some piano interventions that create a delightfully dark atmosphere. Finally, the album also offers two bonus tracks, though neither really offers much of a bonus. The first is “Illuminator”, an inferior re-working of the opening song. The second (a hidden track) is a 14-minute James Brown-derived funk jam (“L.A. Money Train”) on which Kramer and Wilson trade off cool guitar parts, Mackenroth plays a scorching sax part, and Rollins rants and raves about the vices of the music and other industries in L.A. This may be funny at first, but after you’ve heard it a few times you’ll probably want to skip this one. After the disappointing Come in and Burn, Rollins
has certainly revitalized himself on Get Some Go Again. This line-up doesn’t
offer the technical prowess of the previous one, but makes up for it with
simple but effective playing. The lighter approach (also lyrically) works
surprisingly well, and for the first time ever, it sounds as if Rollins
is enjoying his trade. Despite some shortcomings (some ideas are repeated
a bit too much, and some songs seem underdeveloped), Get Some Go Again
can be considered a minor success, albeit one that might take some getting
used to. |
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A Clockwork Orange Stage ( 2000 )8.5 You Let Yourself Down / What Have I Got / Hotter and Hotter / Thinking Cap / Love Is So Heavy / Hard / Tearing / Monster / Summer Nights / Frozen Man / Get Some Go Again / Are Your Ready / Rocker / Bad Reputation / Change It up / Your Number Is One / Do It Hell yeah! This album kicks some serious buttocks! The 100th concert of the Get Some Go Again-tour captures the band at the yearly Roskilde festival in Denmark, where they were the closing act on one of the stages. Like its similarly named counterparts, Yellow Blues (outtakes from the Get Some Go Again-sessions) and A Nicer Shade of Red (outtakes from the Nice-sessions), A Clockwork Orange Stage is only available from Rollins’ website and at concerts, which is a damn shame, since it’s an energetic and incendiary album that should be easily available, because it proves once again that the Rollins Band has always been, and still is, an incredible live force. Sounding like a crossover of Motörhead’s No Sleep ‘til Hammersmith and Thin Lizzy’s Live and Dangerous, it’s a high-energy hard rock album that burns from start till finish. Whereas previous live albums from earlier shows had several extended songs and jams (Live in Australia, which has about the same length as this album, only had 11 songs), the band keeps things generally short and simple here: there’s no time for laidback stretching out, a logical consequence of the changed line-up and previous studio album. Less proficient and experimental than the previous incarnation, the Rollins Band Mark II is out there to deliver crunching riffs and committed performances. |
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The band tears through 8 songs of Get Some Go Again with an unparalleled fury. Just feel the electricity that’s in the first minute of the show, as the crowd cheers and the band launches into the speed-rock of “You Let Yourself Down”: this band isn’t in it for the money, or because it’s just another date in a long tour. No, they’re there to settle a score, to prove themselves, to do what they love best. Sometimes this is at the expense of some intricate details that made studio versions of the song impressive (and the band, especially guitarist Jim Wilson, also makes their share of little ‘mistakes’), but the sheer passion noticeable here makes up for that. Of course, with the new band and album it means that lots of the earlier classics aren’t played anymore, but it also shows that Rollins wasn’t expecting these rockers to mimic the original line-up. “What Have I Got,” and “Hard,” standouts from 1989’s Hard Volume are still there in all their undiluted blues-punk glory, as is “Tearing.” Two remarkable choices, and the weakest tracks on the album, are “Summer Nights” and “Frozen Man,” which were never used on a studio album. The infatuation with Thin Lizzy is further elaborated upon, by versions of “Are You Ready,” (which they’d recorded with Scott Gorham), but also “Rocker” and “Bad Reputation.” For years, Rollins had been talking about his love for classic 70’s hard rock bands, and now that he has found the suitable backing band, it’s great to hear him pay homage to those very same bands with unbridled enthusiasm. “Do It” finishes the set, and once again the brute power of that song amazes. Played faster than Mark I ever attempted, it’s a glorious ending to an excellent performance by a terrific band. Note: for more information about this and other website-only stuff, check out http://www.21361.com/. |
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Nice ( 2001 )7.5 One Shot / Up For It / Gone Inside The Zero / Hello / What’s The Matter Man / Your Number Is One / Stop Look and Listen / I Want So Much More / Hangin’ Around / Going Out Strange / We Walk Alone / Let That Devil Out The sweet smell of success didn’t linger very long for Henry Rollins. Come In and Burn was a very mediocre and characterless effort by a band that had previously proven that their original sound could win them new audiences. The disappointment of Come In and Burn led to the break-up of the band, and Rollins’s consequent partnership with Mother Superior. Instead of making an album that would surely sell (he’s smart enough to pull that off) or satisfy those who were expecting a return to the pre-Burn era, Rollins chooses the least obvious road. Instead of using the hip elements of the day, the band stubbornly refuses to renounce their intentions and opts for playing what they like best: unfashionable hard rock with loads of 70’s influences. For Henry especially this must have been important: his love for straightforward hard rock was well-known (other proof is his contribution to an album by metal-God Tony Iommi), but it took him almost 20 years in the music business to effectively crank out his own effort, Get Some Go Again. |
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Whereas Get Some Go Again was clearly an album made by a band still looking for an own sound, Nice shows they found that sound. Even more than GSGA (more punk-oriented), this album takes us back to the sleazy, dirty riffs, and the grand soloing of 70’s hard rock (there are also other traces obviously: e.g. blues rock and southern rock), and this may have been nothing special, if it wasn’t for the band’s infectiously enthusiastic approach, which is already apparent in the album’s opener “One Shot”, an effective slab of hard rock with combative lyrics (“I took the hit, and lost my fear, I am starved, hard animal, gratefully guilty as charged”). Within the frame of hard rock, there is also room for some experimentation. At least that is what you could call the use of female back-up singers (“Doooooo doo-wop!”) and horns in “Up For It”, the first funky track of the album. It sounds a bit weird at first (“Henry Rollins, that angry macho guy with the tattoos uses female back-up singers?”), but it is definitely a successful track that will make you shake your ass. Other highlights are “Gone Inside the Zero”, a blistering fusion of punk and hard rock, with a great solo by Wilson, and an enraged Rollins fuming with energy. The slowly thudding “Hello”, with its peculiar militaristic drumming, has some great wailing guitar parts that remind of Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page. Rollins also takes off the ‘angry’ mask for a while: “Sometimes I don’t want so be alive, but then I realize I’m just lonely.” The album’s last two tracks incorporate previously unseen influences. “We Walk Alone” has a Bo Diddley-rhythm, uses supple percussion and white hot slide guitar, and Rollins himself stays tamer than usual. The album’s closing song, “Let That Devil Out”, jumps between playful and swinging jazzy choruses with Rollins rhyming, and with refrains venturing into boogie-rock territory. “What’s the Matter Man” and “Stop, Look & Listen” aren’t very original, but they are enjoyable as long as they last, and they can even qualify as sing-along songs (who would have expected that?). “I Want So Much More” has some great machine gun-drumming, accentuated by horns, backing vocals, saxophone squeals (courtesy of drummer Mackenroth), and some funny lyrics (“Even Mother Theresa got a taste on the sly”). It should have been a bit shorter, though. That could also be said about “Going Out Strange,” a song that reminds a bit too much of GSGA’s “Brother Interior”, mainly because of the grinding bass and guitar, and the bluesy ending. The album’s weakest track, starting off as some southern rock-anthem but quickly becoming too dragging, is probably “Hangin’ Around.” The album would have been better off without it. Once again, Rollins has come up with a hopelessly outdated product. Once again, Rollins has proven himself to be a relentlessly intense artist, always following his own path, for better or worse. The fact that the media largely neglected this album (some other publications ridiculed it, but they can stuff themselves with their impeccably trendy products for all I care) doesn’t make it a less interesting album. At the age of 40, Rollins and his band have churned out another consistent album well worth having, …if you are willing to step through the time gate, that is. Note: some editions of the album have two good bonus tracks, “Nowhere to Go But Inside” and “Too Much Rock & Roll” (a take on the music industry), and some video material. There is also a vinyl edition that adds even more stuff, such as the concert favorite “Marcus Has the Evil in Him.” |
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The Only Way to Know for Sure ( 2002 )8 Disconnect / On the Day / Up for It / What’s the Matter / Tearing / Illumination / Hotter and Hotter / Monster / Stop Look and Listen / Ten Times / All I Want / Hello / One Shot / Going out Strange / Starve / Thinking Cap / Get Some Go Again / Your Number Is One / Gone Inside the Zero / Nowhere to Go but Inside / Are You Ready? / Do It / You Didn’t Need / I Want So Much More / Low Self Opinion / Always the Same / We Walk Alone / Marcus Has the Evil in Him The fourth “official” Rollins Band album (after Do It, Turned On, and Live in Australia), the 2-cd The Only Way to Know for Sure is the first one featuring the current line-up of Rollins-Wilson-Blake-Mackenroth. Referring to his motto “Live is the proof, live is the only way to know for sure,” the album title stresses the importance Rollins attributes to playing live. Concerning this, he also mentions in the liner notes: “On the festival circuit and the occasional corny outdoor multi-band radio-sponsored charades, we open for many contemporary, multi-platinum, much lauded groups and we keep seeing the same thing: a lot of these bands can’t cut it live. What an insult to a paying audience.” Big words from the big man, but unfortunately he’s right (I can’t keep up with mediocre performances I saw on festivals either). On the other hand, he needn’t worry about his own dedication, as he still is one of the most committed stage animals out there. At the age of 41, Rollins presents an incomparable discipline and stage presence. His voice may have lost some of its power (as it over the years evolved from outrageous screaming to a ‘barking’ style, which has become even more “mellow” the recent years), but he still prowls the stage like a wild cat, limiting the banter to bare minimum, and sets most of the venues on fire with his bluesy style of hard rock, that still shows traces of his punk beginnings. |
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Recorded in 2001, the set obviously contains a lot of songs from Nice (a dozen) and Get Some Go Again (seven), but also a few older classics (“Disconnect,” “Tearing,” “Do It”) and a few non-album tracks (the excellent “Ten Times,” “All I want” and “Always the Same”). One could probably argue that this band expresses less brute power than the previous line-up, which was more oriented towards led-heavy metal/funk/jazz, but they do play credible versions of the older songs. In fact, “Tearing” and “Do It” almost sound as if they were written by this band, as they made the songs their own, and found a suitable balance between the original and their own take. As for the rest of the set: it’s less fierce and primal (but also less messy) than A Clockwork Orange Stage, as the band dabbles in a wider variety of styles: the energetic MC5-styled rock of “Hotter and Hotter,” the speedy punk of “Thinking Cap” and “Gone Inside the Zero,” the funky “Up for It” and the no-nonsense hard rock of “Monster and “One Shot.” While most songs don’t differ very much from their studio counterparts, several of them are seriously beefed up and a bit rawer. Rollins also seems more at ease with himself, something which also shines through in the overall sound of the previous albums, his relaxed interaction with the audience, and his lyrics, which have become a bit less bleak and obsessed with pain and solitude. Containing 28 songs, The Only Way to Know for Sure is probably a bit too much for the casually interested music fan, who is probably better off with either one of the last two albums. Fans of the man, however, will be thrilled by this two disc set, which makes it obvious that the current line-up of the Rollins Band has almost no equal when it comes to live performing. How many more albums will follow seems unsure, as Rollins has repeatedly insinuated he is going to stop making records in order to concentrate on publishing and writing. But hearing stuff like this makes you wish the band will stay around for much longer, even if it’s only to harass your precious trendy publications, who’ll try to convince you into believing that Rollins is an unwanted anomaly in contemporary rock. The quality of this album makes it very obvious that they are wrong,... again. The Rollins Band has been a great outfit for 16 years, and I've not grown tired of them yet! |
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