Black Flag - Damaged (first time album reaction)

[@kirawasareactor]

i've been meaning to listen to this album FOREVERRR full cut up on patreon now :D - www.patreon.com/kirawasareactor

[@chelseaamber3065]

let's goooo

[@stephanx2384]

Literally, this one, the first two Cro-Mags albums, early Agnostic Front and Negative Approach are the reasons I am still here today.

[@chaoszone867]

Love it! The greatest punk album of all time

[@alberttiii]

FINALLY! Some good music! This was a time! Punk was not popular, but we were ever present. You had a normal reaction to this album.

[@marcharley6465]

Excellent reaction, Kira. You really understood what this album is trying to communicate, both lyrically and musically.

[@OGxCSH]

Hey Kira...thanks again for another great video! Black Flag was a very iconic band for us out here in Southern California in the early 80s. It was my 1st official concert I went to as a kid. They were from Redondo Beach which was only 10 minutes from where I lived. I got the whole DIY ethos from the band and the whole scene in general. They used to practice in a Public Storage facility close to my house and us kids would hop the fence just to listen to the band lol! Thanks again for the trip down memory lane. Big ups and mad respect!!! Fun fact...later on down the road they happened to pick up a bass player named Kira. Pretty cool huh

[@iDEATH]

Well fine. I _was_ going to go to bed, but I need to know what Kira thinks of Black Flag. I've been waiting for this one for a while too! Man, I love classic hardcore so much, to this very day. I love how raw it is.

[@kevinmuzerMetalMind64]

DAMAGED One of the Best Punk Albums!

[@chrisdubay02]

Oh shit YES, I love Black Flag

[@alvaro6522]

Ohh!! I like sooo much, this bass intros!!!😎. Thanks and have a nice day Kira!!!

[@nickdrage5774]

You'd enjoy their second album "My War". Side B is considered early Sludge Metal and a big influence on Grunge.

[@mattjohn4731]

Amazing album 💥🎤

[@chrisdubay02]

LOL six pack is talking about beer not the abdomen 😂

[@naytonestew7202]

The album "Group Sex" by the Circle Jerks is another hard core classic from that time period.

[@gavinyoung7085]

It's funny, because the name of the band and the name of the album kinda put me off listening to it for many years. Like, I didn't think it was serious, more joke sort of stuff. Turned out It's a great punk/hc album. Keith's vocals are great. Red Tape is my favorite tune, love the drumming on that one

[@konsolidated]

@@gavinyoung7085 Black Flag would have been better had Keith remained the singer.

[@mercurydylan899]

The best or, at least my favorite, American hardcore album. And that makes it my fave everywhere so not why I added that adjective.

[@Lightning_Alert]

Great freaking album!!!!!

[@electricwizard3000]

This is one of those early albums that defined hardcore at the time, before the metal crossover influence. Black Flag were pretty much right out in front of it in the US. You've really gotta hear the earlier EPs - each with a different front-person - to hear how they got here in Damaged. *Side-note: My old buddy, Greg, is oddly one of the dudes in the TV Party video, and it still cracks me up to this day. **Edit: I should also note that this album [among other punk classics] had a profound influence on metal, especially the thrash and sludge sub-genres - and definitely doom, as Saint Vitus [a band you should check out for real] were SST label and tour mates and have specifically noted as such. All the SST bands played my local punk club back then [the Cuckoo's Nest in Costa Mesa], as we were only about 37 miles South of Hermosa Beach, home of Black Flag and the SST label.

[@cbn6635]

If you are into this stuff, you need to react to the album 'Hear Nothing, See Nothing, Say Nothing' by Discharge at some point. Highly influential to the evolution of punk and hardcore and even metal bands like for example Sepultura. A masterpiece.. 👌

[@murreygellmann7708]

Important record. No records sounded like this before ....Germs "G.I." comes close Hearing this at age 15 in 1981 was quite the shock to the system. Lyrically they turn inward and take on things other bands didn't want to confront in themselves There will be other comments complaining that so and so would have done a better job then Henry blah blah blah but they are dead wrong. Henry nailed this one to the wall.

[@smakkmakk8118]

The Germs "G.I" was at the cutting edge of hardcore in 1979. Its definingly one of my favorites!

[@icetech6]

One of my all time favorite albums.... Although my favorite from Black Flag is "Who's got the 10 1/2" it's a live album...

[@volcanicwinter4417]

What I like about you Kira is that you are very expressive and emotive in your reactions. So I've got some suggestions for you. Most of them are from sub-genre of metal (except for the prog rock at the end). Also, I've tried not to put albums that you already have listen to. Trust me; I know those styles and those bands very well and you will definitely love them, or at least, have a strong reaction to them. Have fun Kira! - Thrash: Anthrax - Among the Living Overkill - Talking Over (or The Years of Decay) Carnivore - Carnivore (Extremely Vulgar) Voivod - Dimension Hatröss (Prog Thrash) Corrosion of Conformity - Blind (Some kind of Stoner Thrash) Suicidal Tendencies - How Will I Laugh Tomorrow When I Can’t Even Smile Today Exodus - Bonded by Blood - NWOBHM Tygers Of Pan Tang - Wild Cats Diamond Head - Lightning to the Nation Girlschool - Hit And Run Venom - Black Metal - Industrial Metal: Ministry - Psalm 69 Fear Factory - Demanufacture KMFDM - Angst Front Line Assembly - Millenium Rob Zombie - The Sinister Urge Rammstein - Mutter - Punk: Ramones - Ramones Misfits - Walk Among Us Stray Cats - Stray Cats (Rockabilly) Social Distortion - Mommy’s Little Monster The Exploited - The Massacre (Hardcore Punk) Wednesday 13 - Fang Bang (Horror Punk) - Prog Rock: King Crimson - In the Court of the Crimson King Gentle Giant - Octopus Mike Oldfield - Tubular Bells Yes - Relayer Alice Cooper - Welcome to My Nightmare I've got more but I'll write you in a couple of weeks for the rest… Toutes mes salutations!

[@springinfialta106]

Henry Rollings (the lead singer) is doing great. I got to hear him as the narrator in a public reading of the beginning of David Foster Wallace's "The Pale King". He did a masterful job.

[@sumonjamal1653]

Henry Rollins was the vocalist of Black Flag on this debut album 'Damaged' in 1981... After leaving Black Flag, he actually became more successful w/ his hardcore band Rollins Band... the 3rd Rollins Band album 'The end of silence' in 1992 became a huge indie record. 4th album 'Weight' became a hit on MTV in 1994 w/ the unusual single and video "Liar", and the record sold near half million copies in the US. Unfortunately, Rollins Band's commercial fortunes dropped after their 5th album 'Come in and burn' in 1997... despite being a banger record... 6th album 'Get some go again' was another banger in 2000 but sold even less. After the release of 7th album 'Nice' in 2001, Rollins Band ended their run... Henry Rollins has stayed busy as a spoken work artist and has retired his musical career.

[@snuffcore9686]

You're not gonna mention SOA?

[@OGxCSH]

@snuffcore9686 Heck yeah bro...State of Alert

[@fredarsenault8987]

The video for TV Party is hilarious

[@ghostofyourmom]

And it was in an episode of Futurama!

[@randytate6848]

I graduated in 1981 and this album has been with me my entire adult life. I can't describe how much it means to me.

[@AbidingDude420]

The 80's punk scene was wild. Great you had fun with this album.

[@jsc315]

What i love about punk especially about this era was that the songs get in and out and get right to the point

[@springinfialta106]

I loved your reaction to "Rise Above". Imagine a performance where cheerleaders did a routine on stage while the band played that song.

[@MacGuffinExMachina]

One of the many former band members shares your first name.

[@michaelwoodward5787]

First Punk album I ever heard. Changed my life.

[@IH8YH]

know that you got fully introduced to Henry Rollins as the lead vocalist of Black Flag, you GOTTA check out his later stuff with ROLLINS BAND, specially the albums WEIGHT and COME IN AND BURN. you gonna be surprised!

[@RAAZR-]

Bad Religion - No Control (you know what to do Patreons)

[@alvaro6522]

Yeeeees!!! And "Stranger than fiction" whole album is AWESOME!!!

[@joealvarez8733]

​@@alvaro6522Stranger Than Fiction is my favorite LP by them...

[@Blisteryn]

First Ramones album is your obligation.

[@cthulues5527]

this is so awesome thank you

[@IRGeamer]

If you have never heard Henry Rollins spoken word, I HIGHLY recommend it. One of the most thoughtful, reasonable, articulate and unique voices I have ever heard. His description of watching his best friend's murder around this time in his life is harrowing.

[@mattjohn4731]

R.i.p. Joe Boyd 🕊️ he was also honored in 2 songs on Sonic Youth - Dirty album 💪

[@barush9624]

Omg one of my favorite album, thank you beautiful

[@jeroenkoster1366]

Black flag with Rollins was amazing.

[@seallen71]

I've always had the impression that this album was meant to be listened to from the end to the beginning. Gotta do some Fear too!

[@fyessssss]

i love this album!

[@stevegambini8318]

Great reaction.

[@jeanneaconda2664]

Excellent. This is one of the 10 best punk album in the world. Very interesting to listen to your clever comments. I never realized side 2 was so depressing but that's probably because english is not my first language and I also never saw a lyric sheet in that record. Maybe side one consists of songs pre-Henry Rollins and side two are lyrics written by him ? (Somebody said here that lyrics were written by Greg Ginn but I'd like to see proof of that). In any case this is raw as raw can get, not so fast but very violent and angry music. Greg Ginn's guitar is unique. Thanx for the share. Did you check "Plastic Surgery Disaster" by the Dead Kennedys yet ? Cheers.

[@bryanforis1839]

One great album they use it in a lot of movies sound tracks and there great live performances I saw live

[@LucTonnerre2000]

If you like Henry Rollins' lyrics you HAVE to react to "The End of Silence" from Rollins Band, his solo project after Black Flag. Totally different, very much groove oriented. You will love it. Lots of cool bass, killer riffs and a whole album full of pain, anger, self-hatred and misery. It's glorious. EDIT: I wrote this comment before your second thoughts. Just wanted to point that out. I think it's great that you're being that honest that these lyrics have a negative effect on you. To me and a lot of people somehow lyrics or songs like these are a way to cope and feel understood. Like we're not alone with all the crap that's happening all the time. But I get why this can be painful to listen to.

[@LucTonnerre2000]

And I really appreciate how you don't want to rate songs based on the personal issues of the artist. A thought that not a lot of people bring to the table. Thank you for that, too. It shows how much heart you put in consuming music and that's what it's all about.

[@cbn6635]

'The End of Silence' and 'Weight'; my favorite Rollins Band albums.. 👌

[@LucTonnerre2000]

@@cbn6635 True. End of Silence is perfection front to back.

[@cbn6635]

@@LucTonnerre2000 Song like 'Low Self Opinion' and 'Tearing' are evergreens.. 👌 ..but 'Blues Jam' is a deep cut.. so 'heavy' both musically, lyrically and emotionally..

[@fredarsenault8987]

The lyrics on Damaged are written by Greg , so there s that...

[@matthewgerken7487]

Loved this reaction. As I tell most people getting into punk and hardcore for the first time. Black Flag (and Dead Kennedy’s for that matter) are really an acquired taste. It’s definitely not for everybody. I personally like their entire catalogue and they got really experimental in the later years and you could see how they really influenced alternative bands like The Meat Puppets, Dinosaur Jr., and Sonic Youth.

[@Ca11mero]

Listened to this album many times. Since they changed singers a few times there are quite a few different versions of some of the songs if you look around for releases prior to this one :D

[@seeyounomore]

Tv party was time ago a kind of our suburban gang... Great Album.

[@joealvarez8733]

Sick of It All

[@ryansilvan2927]

If you played this record walking down the street on a boom box in 1981 people would throw bottles at you from cars.

[@jeffreyhinkley4651]

You should check out My War by Black Flag. One of my favorite albums of all time. No skips at all

[@DEATHBYPROXYY]

Top 10 album of all time

[@sylvainnaud2970]

Hope you'll listen to Rollins Band since you like Henry style. Henry is strait edge and have a unic personality.

[@mattjohn4731]

Most of their records are gnar AF. Who's Got The 10 & 1/2, My War, In My Head, Loose Nut, Slip It In.. Any record but What The #@*!? Which is not ok 😂🏴‍☠️🏴

[@svartmetall]

I cannot sufficiently recommend 'Rise Above', the album of Flag covers that Rollins put together with an all-star cast (Tom Araya, Lemmy, Ice-T, Mike Patton, Chuck D, Iggy Pop, Corey Taylor etc etc) to help the West Memphis Three with their fight against their corrupt convictions. It's just pure righteous energy from start to finish :)

[@mattjohn4731]

Tread cautiously with Family Man. Black Flags most experimental. The vocals were just Henry's poetry except he joins the band on one song. Very freaky album. Genre-defying like some of their labelmates 🏴🎤

[@kevinmuzerMetalMind64]

KIRA ❤❤💯❤❤😊 My Crush

[@kevinmuzerMetalMind64]

SIDE 1 MANIA. SIDE 2 Depression

[@MrNerdyBrit]

Love this album, the only thing that slightly lets it down is TV Party, it kind of breaks the flow of the album.

[@SonicProfessor_a.k.a._T._Andra]

Henry Rollins' first album with the band. ...it altered their prominence and impact, greatly!

[@naytonestew7202]

I was in high school when this album came out. My friends and I couldn't figure out why the metal heads didn't like this album. To me, it sounded like a more intense, violent version of Black Sabbath. This album is pure metal...just a bit more primitive than Black Sabbath. 🙂

[@electricwizard3000]

And then later bands like EHG took the influence to a more 'metal' level on the production, while keeping the desperate hardcore punk edge to it.

[@shaneseger9267]

You should check out Rollins band. It's the lead singers metal band .. ps he became a motivational speacker

[@07BSPtC]

Listen to the process of weeding out by black flag. Instrumental album Henry was still in the band and they wanted to weed out the fake fans.

[@cf3887]

Please react to Spermbirds 'Something to prove/Nothing is easy'

[@AlfredSoul]

Might be a stretch, but the first half of the album topically seems to be what you would know about Henry Rollins, the lead singer, on a surface level.

[@rov411]

please do my war its the best black flag album imop

[@Alix777.]

Black Flag late albums are much more interesting...this record is fun tho

[@Blisteryn]

React to Toy Dolls

[@fredarsenault8987]

Pro Tip: this is just Damaged with new vocals, the original with DEZ singing is superior in everyway. The music is the same.

[@MacGuffinExMachina]

Everyone says that, but I disagree. I feel the pain so much more from Henry. He always performed with so much feeling. He's finally kinda mellowed, but he was such an intense guy for so long.

[@snuffcore9686]

Except those songs were found on 7". The only singer on Damaged was Rollins, and there is only one Damaged.

[@mattjohn4731]

Heard Dez' psych rock band DC3? I think he was an amazing guitarist and vocalist. Totally different from his Black Flag vox. SST opened doors for genre-defying 🎸🎤

[@gavinyoung7085]

On the Everything Went Black comp album of demos and stuff Keith, Ron, and Dez all do a few of these Damaged songs. Depression. Gimme, gimme, gimme, and a few more. Ron was always my favorite

[@fredarsenault8987]

Contrary to popular beleif the lyrics are all written by Greg the guitar player. So much misinformation about BF out there.

[@unkindestcut]

Rollins gets a lot of crap for being the guy that "destroyed Black Flag," when in fact, Ginn dictated what direction the band would go from Day One, and that didn't change when Rollins joined.

[@snuffcore9686]

One thing most can agree on is Greg is a prick.

[@lalomillar6335]

Now Anaal Nathrakh

[@kevinbennett2239]

Just an observation, because I live in Florida and its been 105 to 110 since may.... your wearing gloves and a scarf and coat... What mountain do you live on?

[@kevinmuzerMetalMind64]

ROLLI S BAND

[@snuffcore9686]

Rollins

[@RobertSmith-pl8oh]

Please do something on kirawasadiver please. Cutie.

[@RobertSmith-pl8oh]

You are adorable!

[@search895]

People who understand Black Flag understand Nirvana better. Often, Nirvana haters don't know anything about Black Flag and similar dirty dark bands.

[@rong2912]

It worries me that you have to wear gloves and a scarf inside.

[@electricwizard3000]

It's dead of Winter in Oz.

[@rong2912]

@@electricwizard3000 It's 14C in Sydney right now. That's t-shirt and shorts weather where I live in Canada.

[@electricwizard3000]

@@rong2912 You Canuks are used to it though. It's generally about 1000º down there.