silktempest's Full Review: Six Pack [EP] by Black Flag (Punk)
BLACK FLAG 1981`s Six Pack EP bears 3 tracks only.
None with Henry Rollins onboard.
Why should we give a damn?
I don't care.
The record is considered an early Hardcore masterpiece.
Canonical Punk record? Oxymoron.
Dez Cadena currently on MISFITS is the singer. He was also BLACK FLAG's guitarist in, what many people think of, the masterpiece of the genre - 1981's Damaged.
Cadena's vocals are strained to the breaking point in Six Pack EP. He sings like a possessed man twice his age.
The earnest malevolence that many people associate with Rollins was already onboard a few months before.
Instead of Cadena BLACK FLAG founder and composer Greg Ginn takes guitar duties.
Buzz-saw urgency follows pretentiously. His compositions match all the pretention.
Chuck Dukowski is the bass player. He also founded SST Records, a legendary indie label.
His frantic leads are more noticeable than the opportunity he gave the band to record for SST.
ROBO is the drummer. He also features in the best and most legendary, people say, MISFITS recordings.
Here his playing is reliable and sometimes buried (no puns) underneath the aural brutality of his bandmates.
Today people say the EP is the stuff of legend. BLACK FLAG invented Hardcore, or at lead it to the top of urgency, speed, aggression, vehemence. Six Pack EP supposedly is a benchmark recording, only topped by an evolved, studio-enhanced Damaged a few months in advance.
Today Punk is judged by the same criteria which applied to EMERSON, LAKE AND PALMER 30 years ago. "Precision". "Technique". "Influences". "Coherence". People need hierarchies. Do it yourself, but what must be done is implicit, and how it must be done almost always implicates a household name involved. Doctrines. Genealogies. Status.
Forget about it.
Listen and you may see that what makes such a 5 minute recording worth the effort is not individual prowess. No player here would be half as decent in a solo recording.
Whoever they may be, BLACK FLAG equaled overlapping. Barely contained sonic aggression, bursting through the boundaries of overlapped mad men. Urgency. Incoherence. A sonic battlefield, not a framework for social upheaval.
Six Pack, a track renowned for his ironic approach to drunken boredom. Sinister bass lead. Controlled fury on drums. Razor-thin deranged guitar. They don't gel. This guy shrieking. It would be an utter waste of time to be OK waiting for coherence here. The stuff of people too drunk to unsettle. The only remotely coherent thing here is the militaristic chorus. SIX PACK! They needed 2 minutes to convince you to forget about justifications.
I've Heard It Before. A preachy statement (more drunken than cohesive). ROBO unleashing his loose beast. Drooling guitars. Mid-pace. A blast. Another blast. Find another blast. 100 miles an hour. More cohesive. They get close to the aggression people associate with their sound. I wish this one lasted longer than 1 1/2 minute.
American Waste - the most overtly traditional Punk recording here. American Waste. They've seen their place among American waste. Traditional Punk? Get rid of it. Linear guitars. Cracking bass. Drums? Window-dressing for stress. Preachy and quite monotonic 1 minute and going nowhere.
This was hardcore. Now the time is over. See ya'll.
File under: I don't care
Related reviews: so what?
Out of track listening:
* * * * Six Pack * * * * I've Heard It Before * * * 1/2 American Waste
Recommended:
Yes
Great Music to Play While: Getting ready to go out
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