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Rating:
No, Henry Rollins is not for everyone. He's a damn difficult guy. He's excessive. He always has been, from the days when he was a skinny long-haired young man writhing on stage with the Black Flag of the hated Gregg Ginn to this kind of cross between a shaven-headed Tibetan monk and a square-jawed Marine sergeant. He's not the one who's changed, maybe it's us who have cautiously approached this animal curled up inside an impressive body covered in tattoos, ranging from the darting snake on the ankle to the unsettling eye behind the skull. A body that can disconnect the tiny earpiece that links him to the outside world to concentrate before the explosion. Those who have had the fortune to attend a Rollins concert know very well what it means to be overwhelmed by an explosive manifestation of the force of nature, if someone were to connect an electric cable deep into his ass, he could light up any damn metropolis.
At some point in his history, this inaccessible man decided to express himself as a poet, as an actor, and to continue as a singer. But already in 1990 with "Hard Volume," Henry Rollins proves that by now he is no longer as fast as hardcore requires, yet he's not even shitty when it comes to hard rock at moderate tempos. Take this 1997 album, remove Rollins and then the majestic trio that accompanies him might seem like Led Zeppelin lost in the primordial soup or Black Sabbath pushing their obsession with heavy riff to the limit. But there's Henry, suspended between reading and singing: his voice, which dominates the electronic wind blowing at the start of the opener "Shame" among the torrid and classic hard riffs, makes the difference! The apocalyptic sound wall raised by the drumming rhythm of the loyal Sim Cain and the new impressive bass work of former Defunkt Melvin Gibbs (who had made the previous album "Weight" metal-jazz) well illustrates the descent into hell of pieces like "Starve". Elsewhere ("The End of Something") Rollins manages the absurd operation of seeming a sinister crooner that takes advantage of Melvin Gibbs' funky heritage to whisper "...touch your fear, don't be scared ...it's just the end of something, it's so cold ...it's the end!". The work of the three musicians with Chris Haskett on guitar is hard perfection! When they push the pedal to the metal like in "On My Way to the Cage", they risk breaking your neck for the headbanging you're forced into. The insurmountable barrier they construct around a piece of technical perfection like "All I Want" is only broken by Rollins' filtered voice climbing to its summit to launch into the void.
He could have taken advantage of the success of "Weight" from three years before, yet he waited until 1997 to let us in his new album and burn. "Come in and burn" may not be among his masterpieces, but you can bet that Charlie Manson's friend put in all the hate he's capable of: "... I talk and sing about myself because I'm the only person I know, I don't write protest songs about Central America, I've never been there."
And Rollins doesn't need to wield spiked clubs or impale Nazarene figures to gain respect, all he needs is a pair of underpants. He's the hero we might absurdly think to call for help when the upcoming apocalypse of our ambiguous conscience begins to overwhelm us. He's the upright knight whose hand we would reach out to while we flounder amidst the eddies of contradiction that will lead us to score a 1 for consistency.
The beauty is that he will refuse it.
Epilogue: Hey, and the DeGenres?
"I know where you're going and I hate those kinds of questions. My music has no labels, tags, or damn definitions. I hate definitions. In my music, there is every genre of music, just like the records I listen to. I keep asking myself why there's a need for these kinds of classifications. Listen to me and have your own experience. After that, you won't need labels anymore."
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
02 Starve (04:08)
I stay out late
I go alone
I needed sleep
I go without
I go along
I go all night
I go all night
I make the colors go
I push my senses out
I push my senses out
I keep my existence lean
I starve starve
I make the colors go
I starve starve
I make the colors go
and hear I am keen eyed my mind is low to the ground
and in my mind real time is mine and I know what I know
I step up and get none
I step up and get none
I take less and less and less and less and less than none
I starve starve
I make the colors go
I starve starve
I make the colors go
at the back of mind I hear the engines whine
at the back of mind I hear the engines whine
go all night go all night
I make my blood scream
I kiss my fear on the mouth
I kiss my fear on the mouth
I make my blood burn
I starve starve
I make the colors go
I starve starve
I make the blood scream
I make the blood burn
and when I step up I get up all the way
and when I step up I get off all the way
when turn my back and walk away
I never come back
I go without I feel the cold but I never come back
I go loooooong
I am goooooone
I starve starve
I make the colors go
I starve starve
I make the blood scream I make the blood burn
05 On My Way to the Cage (03:20)
On my way to the cage
I'm getting taught a lesson
On my way to the cage
I'm choking on the medicine
On my way to the cage
I'm stepping hard on four-leaf clovers
On my way to the cage
I'm learning the same thing over and over
On my way to the cage
The taste of blood is in my mouth
On my way to the cage
My fear is in their eyes
On my way to the cage
My animal blood is pure
On my way to the cage
No regrets and no last words
On my way to the cage
I heard the crowd roar
Thoughts of you were long behind me
I couldn't ask for more
The lights are almost blinding
Come closer, tears open my eyes
And fear me, and fear me
Your soul is on a leash
Your mind is on a string
Your world's inside my fist
You push yourself above me
But there's something you have missed
You always say you hate me
But you watch me anyway
It's a pain you can't resist
On my way to the cage
I'm larger than life and laughing at death
On my way to the cage
I'm sipping on pain and feeling fine
On my way to the cage
You're paying your price and I'm paying mine
On my way to the cage
I'm watching you cry and wave goodbye
On my way to the cage
I heard the crowd roar
Thoughts of you were long behind me
I couldn't ask for more
The lights are almost blinding
Come closer, tears open my eyes
And fear me, and fear me
Your soul is on a leash
Your mind is on a string
Your world's inside my fist
You push yourself above me
There's something you have missed
You'll always say you hate me
But you'll watch me anyway
You can't resist
10 Inhale Exhale (03:39)
Inhale resolve, Exhale ambition
Inhale all I need, Exhale all I want
Inhale love of life, Exhale fear of death
Inhale power, Exhale force
I have all I need
I can live without
I have what I need
I can live without
Inhale tolerance, Exhale judgement
Inhale what I am, Exhale what I think I am
I have all I need
I can live without
I have all I need
I can live without
Don't hold me down
Don't hold me down
Don't hole me down
Inhale fact, Exhale assumption
Inhale what I want to be, Exhale what I want to be seen
Don't hold me down
Don't hold me down
Don't hole me down
I have all I need
I can live without
I have what I need
I can live without
I have all I need
I can live without
I have all I need
I can live without
I can live without
I can live without
I can live without
12 Rejection (04:38)
I had it wrong for so long in my head
I was walking around like I was dead
And all the time my mind was stuck on you
And I clawed, while you stalled
I was a fool to think we were involved
I guess I needed to believe it, so bad
Rejection never felt this good
Everything unclear, now so well understood
At first I didn't see it as kind
But you did me a favor when you left me behind
You might not believe it was true
It's all those things you never said that told me all about you
It's the things you try to conceal that get revealed
And I had to get it wrong before I had got it right
And I'm not the kind to argue, I'm not the kind to fight
By the time I'd reached the truth I'd reached the end
Rejection never felt this good
Everything unclear, now so well understood
At first I didn't see it as kind
But you did me a favor when you left me behind
Now I'm alone, and I'm burning
I am hurting like hell but I am learning
The scars will take me far like they always do
And I believe I'm alright
I do believe I am alright
Rejection never felt this good
Everything unclear, now so well understood
At first I didn't see it as kind
But you did me a favor when you left me behind
'Cause now I see how you are
Now I see how you are
Now I see how it is
And now I see what you do
And I watch them line up
I watch them fall down
One after one
One after one
I watch your smile grow and grow and grow
I think to myself, it couldn't be me!
No way!!
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Other reviews
By cretinalbo88
"Rollins knows how to flex his muscles very well in the music while leaving room for the mind in writing the lyrics."
"The guitar follows precise and sharp riffs... the voice in Rollins' classic spoken style follows higher notes as the songs burst."
