STUDIO ALBUM BY BLACK FLAG

Year Released: 1984

My War is the second studio album by American band Black Flag. It was the first of three full-length albums the band released in 1984. It polarized fans due to the LP's B-side, on which the band slowed down to a heavy, Black Sabbath-esque trudge, despite the reputation the band had earned as leaders in fast hardcore punk on its first album, Damaged (1981).

After a period of legal troubles which prohibited the band from using its own name on recordings, Black Flag returned to the studio with a new approach to its music that incorporated a greater variety of styles, resulting in a sound orthodox punks found difficult to accept. The line-up had shrunk from five members to three: vocalist Henry Rollins, drummer Bill Stevenson, and co-founding guitarist Greg Ginn. Ginn doubled on bass guitar under the name "Dale Nixon" for the recording as bassist Chuck Dukowski left the band shortly before recording; the album includes two tracks Dukowski wrote.

The A-side of the LP is composed of six generally high-paced, thrashy hardcore tracks, featuring guitar solos unusual in punk music. On the B-side are three heavy tracks that each breach six-minutes with ponderously slow tempos and dark, unrelenting lyrics of self-hatred. The band members had grown their hair long when they toured the album in 1984, which along with the change in sound further alienated their hardcore skinhead fanbase. Despite mixed reception at the time of the album's release, My War has come to gain a reputation as one of Black Flag's seminal releases and had a major influence on the development of post-hardcore, sludge metal, grunge, and math rock.

 

TRACK-LIST:

Side A:

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

Side B:

1. Nothing Left Inside
2. Three Nights
3. Scream