Rollins Band
Nice

THE REVIEW

This is not an intellectual review. "Nice" is the first Rollins Band album I've listened to, so I don't have the background to make comparisons with previous works: this CD entered my player without the burden of heavy expectations on its shoulders and gave its best, finding ears well-disposed to listen to it.

If you still have the image of Henry Rollins from his Black Flag days in front of your eyes, the tormented Henry Rollins who, with facial muscles contracted from effort, roared his desperate poems in garage-like venues, well, you're making a gross mistake. If the agonizing screams of "My War" still echo in your ears and the heavy riffs of "Loose Nut" constantly pound your head, prepare yourself for a revolutionary change of sound: everything has changed.
Hardcore is now a vague memory and Doom has been relegated to a tertiary position: this is, more than anything else, an Hard Rock record with vague Jazz influences. The riffs are massive, the solos numerous, and the production is well-crafted. Rest assured, the singer's voice is as powerful as ever. However, the sound always remains at a moderately catchy level, indicating that the much-hated "commercialization" has also pierced the hard and pure heart of Henry Rollins. A pillar of U.S. Alternative music has given in to the enemy, and his compositional vein seems to have dried up.
What to do? There are two options:

1) Throw the aforementioned CD in the trash, lamenting "The Rollins That Was" with a heart full of bitterness;

 2) Do as I did, that is, separate everything produced by good Henry previously and consider this album as a standalone work, far from any reasonable, cultured, and pompous comparison.

This is the classic CD to listen to with an empty mind, relaxing after a long day of work. "Nice" is a good record to play at parties, as it's always enjoyable to shake one's head and create as much chaos as possible under songs like "Your Number Is One" and "One Shot". The highlight of the work is, in my opinion, "Hello": the energy this song releases is remarkable (question: isn't its solo extraordinarily similar to that of "Psycho" by SOAD, a track from a year later?).

Every beautiful story has an end, and if Henry Rollins's didn't conclude with a memorable record, at least it concluded with a pleasant one.