Black Flag “My War” 1983. SST Records. Today, February 13th, is Henry Rollins’ birthday (b. Henry Garfield, 1961). Rollins joined Black Flag in 1981, taking over vocalist responsibilities from Dez Cadena (who had taken over after Keith Morris left in 1979) A Black Flag fan, Rollins had joined the band onstage briefly in 1980 while the band toured the east coast and then famously quit his job at Haagen-Dazs in DC (where he worked with Ian MacKaye) and moved to L.A. to join the group. Internal band tensions and Rollins’ hyper-macho antagonistic stage personality changed the band from a straight-up west coast punk band to a sludgy heavy-metal infused hardcore group, resulting in My War. (Dez Cadena had left Black Flag by this point and Greg Ginn fired bassist Chuck Dukowski and took over the bass parts on My War). According to a wiki article, the change in musical style, members and hair (now long), Black Flag fans were pissed and “focused their displeasure on Rollins by punching him in the mouth, stabbing him with pens, or scratching him with their nails, among other methods. He often fought back, dragging audience members on stage and assaulting them. During a Black Flag concert, Rollins repeatedly punched in the face a fan who had continuously reached for his microphone.” The change in musical style did, however, have a profound influence on later 80′s/early 90′s grunge, inspiring the punk-metal fusion sound of bands like Mudhoney and Nirvana (Kurt Cobain’s first punk show was Black Flag during the My War tour and he cited the album among his favorites).

Side A of My War is filled with screaming guitar solos, screaming Rollins, and a few relatively upbeat, albeit dark and menacing, punk songs, especially the title track “My War” (which, incidentally, was written by the now-fired Dukowski). Allmusic calls the B-side “a totally worthless second side. Featuring three tracks [“Nothing Left Inside,” “Three Nights,” and “Scream”] of slower-than-Black Sabbath muck with Henry Rollins howling like a caged animal, it was self-indulgence masquerading as inspiration and about as much fun as wading through a tar pit.” That said, it is easy to hear the direct link to the more ponderous grunge recordings that came later that decade.