ALBUM OF THE DAY: ROLLINS BAND – WEIGHT

I’m not old enough to have seen Black Flag in any incarnation, including the tenure of the tormented Henry Rollins. Yet like many angst-ridden teens in the 90s, I eagerly digested whatever “buzzworthy” videos MTV had in their bin, and that of course included Rollins Band’s breakthrough clip for “Liar”. A brilliant fusion of his spoken word diatribes with the band’s unabashedly bluesy and grim hard rock, the track captured the attention through its harsh, cynical narrative and sinister imagery.

Fortunately, Weight followed that formula quite closely and sonically the record was as cohesive as they come. Throughout, though most present on cuts like “Fool” and “Shine”, new addition Melvin Gibbs added a heretofore missing funk bass element to the howling, seething miasma present on prior records like Life Time and The End Of Silence. Highlights of this stellar record include “Alien Blueprint” and the chillingly isolationist “Disconnect”.

So if it’s been awhile, pull your copy Weight out of its jewelcase and pop it into the nearest bit of music-playing hardware you can find.

-GS