Up until recently I had always been sceptical of The Rollins Band. Not of the multi-talented Henry Rollins himself, but of the soft good-time MC5 style boogie of latter day albums Get Some Go Again and Nice. That was the problem, these albums were too Nice, (Pun intended). These albums left me feeling underwhelmed and disappointed. I wanted Henry howling like a caged animal again. So I decided to give old Hank another chance and see if he could redeem himself, and my god did he! Far from the MTV dross of his latter albums, this was a sucker punch to the head. What you get here is the type of Black Sabbath influenced Hardcore metal that the mighty Flag were
putting out, post-Damaged. All be it with a slight Blues/Rock nroll influence. It resembles a cross between My War and In My Head. Lyrically speaking Henry hasnt lightened up, in fact hes just got darker! Focus on his usual subjects fear, alienation and despair, show that he hasnt entirely exorcised all his demons just yet. The version of this album I picked up even included the Henrietta Collins and the wife-beating child haters, Drive-by shooting'since ep. For those who dont get Rollins own particular brand of black humour, this ep could come across as quite offensive and shocking. Songs like Hey Henrietta where he sings about a person raping and murdering a policewoman and I have come to kill you, which sends up Queens We will rock you to hilarious effect. It uncovers at the same time the sick underbelly of American Society. I have been converted to the church of Henry.
