BLACK FLAG: My War LP

There is before My War, and there is after My War. When Black Flag dropped this record in 1984, they didn't just push hardcore punk forward, they broke the genre open at the seams and let something slower, uglier, and more claustrophobic crawl out.

Henry Rollins was fully embedded in the band by this point, and you can hear it. The title track alone runs past five minutes, which in 1984 hardcore terms was basically a prog epic, and the slower, sludgier B-side felt like a direct provocation to anyone who wanted their punk short, fast, and easy to digest. Greg Ginn's guitar work here is genuinely unhinged in the best way, and the rhythm section locks in with the kind of relentless tension that would go on to influence doom metal, post-hardcore, and every slow-burn noise band that came after. This is not background music. This is confrontational, dark, and still essential decades later.

Vinyl LP. Original year of release: 1984. Genre: hardcore punk, post-hardcore, sludge metal. USA origin. Track listing includes My War, Can't Decide, Beat My Head Against the Wall, I Love You, White Minority, and the slower B-side tracks.

Fans of: Dead Kennedys, Minor Threat, The Misfits, Flipper, Discharge, early Neurosis.