In My Head

The final Black Flag studio album shows just how far the band had come. Their Southern California hardcore punk roots had practically vanished while the band’s interest in tough metallic walls of guitar riffs and free-jazz guitar solos made them a challenging listen for all concerned. The guitar lines of “Paralyzed” sound like actual taunts as they skirt singer Henry Rollins’ tortured howls. “The Crazy Girl” follows with further twisted riffage and bizarre vocal lines that veer between mumbled, spoken passages and impassioned screams. “Black Love” sounds like an inverted scale gone awry, “White Hot” sounds like what Black Flag would envision as a radio hit. The original album featured just nine cuts, but subsequent editions have included the I Can See You EP, stretching the total number to twelve cuts. The album’s highlight remains “Drinking and Driving,” a sarcastic anthem to people who get behind the wheel drunk and kill. It came as a great surprise that this was the group’s final album, as all the pieces were clearly locked into their own peculiar groove.