Customer Reviews

Damaged (Vinyl)

5 star:		(30)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Good hardcore album from a lineup that includes Henry Rollins. Not quite as strong as Family Man or Slip It In, but better than most music of the '80's (the Generation of Swine as author Hunter S. Thompson labels the era). Fantastic album cover that embodies the punk movement.

Imagine the rawness, the simple fast catchiness of the Ramones. Now imagine it being even faster, harder, and louder. Imagine it being completely out of control, with extremely distorted guitar riffs and lyrics that explode from the singer's throat. Imagine raw, unchecked emotion flowing from your speakers. You've just imagined Damaged.
Black Flag's first full length is a truly brilliant album, an unparalleled work of punk art that still sounds as dangerous, angry, and intense as it did twenty three years ago.
The music is exactly what it should be, a mix of slashing, high speed power chords, driving, light-speed bass lines, and powerful gut-punching drums, all of which back Henry Rollins' venomous, acidic roar.
The lyrics, penned mostly by guitarist and bandleader Greg Ginn, tackle such topics as hate, depression, rebellion, lonliness, and confusion, with the occasional cynically funny song. Songs like "Gimmie Gimmie Gimmie," "Depression," and "Thirsty and Miserble" are entirely serious in nature telling of suicide, and the general vagaries of being human.
Meanwhile, "Six Pack" and "T.V. Party" mock popular culture (My favorite line off Damaged is from "T.V. Party": "I wouldn't be without my T.V. for a day, OR EVEN A MINUTE! I don't even bother to use my brain anymore, THERE'S NOTHING LEFT IN IT!")
And since Black Flag began to experiment with art rock and poetry on later albums, Damaged is also important as Flag's last truly "punk" album. Truth be told, Damaged does have a lot of historical significance: It is a perfect document of eighties hardcore punk, and another landmark of Rock (n' roll).

Unlike most punk bands, Black Flag is rather excellent. What did you expect from a band who's singer is Henry Rollins. I like his angry style of music, he's punk but he's not. That means he has the lyrics to be called punk but he doesn't have that stupid punk voice with it. This album is a deffinite keeper and should be listen to by all who love good music.

-I just wanted to point out that "Punk_Rawk_Vetren" thinks this band is not punk. I also noticed that he thinks the Sex Pistols, Dead Kennedys, and several other punk bands, are in fact, "not" punk. This is ofcource making no sence see'in as those are some of the most popular punk bands. Now I start looking at what this guy does like, and i found out that he calls bands like MxPx and Sum 41 "punk." This aint true at all, those bands are new age rock, also called "alternative rock" and is kind of a pop-punk type catagory of music. Finally people should notice the way he talks, he sounds more of a hip-hop ghetto type person, so how would he know whats true punk.
-To everyone actually listening to this guy talk, he dont know what the hell he is talking about. So dont take his advice. And because of the info i have gathered i can rightfully call him a "Poser" and im sure everyone in those bands he is against would call him the same. Sum 41 and mxpx are NOT punk, but Black Flag, Sex Pistols and so on, ARE punk. Im glad i got that off my chest, cuz i cant stand people like "punk_rawk_vetren" he aint a vetren and no punk would spell out "rawk" only idiots.
-This band is awsome i give em 5 stars, thank you very much.

Henry Rollins is perfect as the black flag vocalist. He wasnt the best, but he was good. His voice and Greg Ginn's distorted "buzzsaw" guitair belong together. Songs such as Rise Above and TV party are essential black flag songs. Unfortunately this album is slightly let down by mediocre tracks like police story, but the good stuff more than makes up for it.

Wowowowo mad awesome cd... very very cool. this is what true punk is really is... Henry at his best. I love this album... if you love old school punk ... get this mad awesome

This is a good hardcore album. They're pretty funny. If your a fan of sloppy (i mean it in a good way) 80's harcore then you should buy it.

Ok. I won't sit here and say that this is the best album ever made. I would have to have a Top 20. But I can say that this is possibly the most powerful. (when it comes to rock) This is a very deep album. To the untrained ear, this could come off as very harsh, brutal, anti-life scary movie. "What I See," is pretty intense. Poor Henry is sceaming in spoken word about how he wants to die, and how he doesn't wanna die. If I ever wanted to off myself, this is the wrong song to listen to. "Depression" falls in the same vein, but there is one thing that makes this song positve...He says he's gotta break free. A lot of "anguish" artist seem to glorify feeling like crap and never have a resolution. That's what makes the first song, "Rise Above" so powerful. You hear all this anger and frustration, yet this song is the antecdote to every screwed up emotion on this album. Just like "No More," and "Damaged." There is always a way out. You just have to find it. Yet, this isn't all serious. "TV Party," Six Pack," and "Gimmie Gimmie Gimmie" are fun songs to yell along to. I was only like, a year old when this came out. I wish I could've been coherent enough to witness the outrage this cd caused. If you ask me, this is a very positve, emotional album and if you've been knocked around a time or two, this is the soundtrack to life. It's not easy on the ears. Your punkness will really be tested, but if you make it through the whole act, you'll be happy you did.

this album has many tracks that are good to listen to. If you give it a chance and actually go all the way through it you will see that Henry has something to say in most of the songs. There are a few songs that should never have been made though, "Spray paint" (the walls)"Room 13" and "Padded cell". Those songs I can personally do without. The other songs however go in a very diverse order, whether they are about depression or just having a good time, like having a Tv party or whacking down a six pack! I give this album four stars only because of the songs i didn't like, if they were not on there I would give it 5!One thing that I would like to see come out of this album is a NEWLY REMASTER, because it is kinda quiet, but otherwise keep it loud!

This is the number one hardcore cd ever! A perfect mix of brutal energy and punk flavors! All the songs are well interpreted to make us puke! The best punk cd of the 80's right after Descendents' Milo goes to college!