Various Artists Black On Black: A Tribute To Black Flag

In 2001, Initial Records began assembling a series of 7" records featuring the day's biggest hardcore acts covering Black Flag songs. It wasn't a bad idea and they definitely brought in top-notch talent, including Converge, Coalesce, Give Up The Ghost (then still American Nightmare) and Dillinger Escape Plan. Soon after the disc's release in 2003, however, the label folded and this decent compilation largely fell by the wayside. Fast forward a few years and Reignition Records, the label behind the atrocious Guns N' Roses tribute album, has picked up this competent tribute, given it a new coat of paint and a few new tracks, and re-released it. While the talent assembled for the newly recorded tracks definitely pales in comparison to the original release, the names should be big enough to at least spark some interest. Rather than disrupt the original order of the existing Black On Black, Reignition chose to keep their new tracks at the beginning, so I'll cover those first. Most Precious Blood kicks the disc off with a wisely chosen and well-delivered Black Flag classic, "Rise Above." For many, this is the definitive Black Flag track, and MPB provide a spirited rendition. They don't stray too far from the original, but they put their own hardcore spin on it and it definitely works. Up next is Zao, who definitely didn't choose quite as well with "Black Coffee." Granted, many of the better choices may have already been taken, but the fact that I don't really care about the song to begin with makes it difficult for me to really enjoy their take on it. They definitely do justice to the track and if you're a fan of the song it shouldn't let you down. Bleeding Through follow up with a surprisingly solid rendition of "My War." My only real complaint to this point is that the bands don't really seem to be taking a lot of risks with the performances. It's the problem that you see with most tributes to an artist this respected; either a band does too little with the song and makes the cover pointless or they do too much and ruin classic tracks. The Black Dahlia Murder are the first band to tackle anything of the pre-Henry Rollins (and in my mind, superior) Black Flag repertoire with "I've Heard It Before." The vocals are a bit much, but the crusty d-beat style drums they incorporate into the bridge actually seem to make a lot of sense. Remembering Never's version of "Spray Paint The Walls" is just as brief and slightly more pointless than the original. Drowningman's "Loose Nut" is one of the first genuinely intriguing tracks on this record and it's almost entirely because of the direction they chose to take the song. The original was recorded during one of Black Flag's most experimental periods and lacked the aggressive energy that made their early material so powerful. To hear the composition delivered in a suitably rage-fueled way really works. I'll be honest, it had been a few years since I had even given the original tracks a listen and I didn't remember them being particularly fantastic. For the most part, I was right. Give Up The Ghost's take on "Depression" feels twice as genuine as the original without changing much musically except the tempo and volume. Underrated Boston act Anodyne's "Life Of Pain" is earnestly played but, again, wasn't a particularly amazing song to begin with. Burnt By The Sun take the easy way out with their version of "Drinking and Driving," opting not to recreate Greg Ginn's spacey guitar sound and just playing it relatively straight, but their chops are definitely there and I suspect it had more to do with studio time than desire. In any case, I think I prefer theirs to the original. So this is where things start to get interesting. Coalesce's "Jealous Again" strays about as far from the original as possible without becoming unrecognizable. Unfortunately, the result of their creativity is a song devoid of the meaning and fury that the original possessed. It's a tricky thing playing a song this big and while I'll give Coalesce points for trying, they missed the mark. In a similar boat, but with a slightly different result, is Converge, who have taken a lesser Black Flag song in "Annihilate This Week" and turned it into something ugly and cacophonous enough to make anyone who understands Black Flag proud. I think the rule should generally be that if you're going to do something crazy to a song, make sure it's not one of the biggies. "Damaged I & II" was Dillinger Escape Plan's first recording without Dmitri and for many, the first time they had heard the band play anything with a standard rock structure. It's an odd combination of very raw sounding guitars and vocals with some studio trickery and techno moments near the end that gave a hint of things to come and although it's an unusual choice because of the circumstances, it's a good listen. So as far as I'm concerned, "Nervous Breakdown" is THE Black Flag song. This is the first thing that anyone who bought the first Black Flag record heard blaring out of their stereo when they brought it home from the record store. I can honestly say that this song changed the course of my life at a young age. The Hope Conspiracy's take on it is thankfully pretty standard. While it doesn't hold a candle to the Breathe In version (the band released a re-recording of the entire first Black Flag 7" on Bridge 9 records around the same time as this was originally released), it's not bad. I don't think anyone could ever record this song as well as Black Flag did, but somebody had to try and I'm glad it was a band with a clue. One of the most bizarre inclusions on this tribute is Planes Mistaken For Stars. The band's songs were originally their own 7", which included another rendition of "Depression" as well as "Police Story" and "Wasted." Their version of "Depression" isn't included here to avoid redundancy, although I don't remember it being bad at all. Sadly, PMFS stays a little too close to the original songs. Much like Converge, they have a uniquely powerful identity and style that could have done great things to these already great songs. They chose not to take a chance and the results are fairly bland. Finally, Playing Enemy wraps things up with another classic, "Six Pack," and after putting some nice doomy touches on the intro, they launch into a pretty great take on the song. This track, however, is plagued by a terrible mix and the guitars are twice as loud as the vocals, really detracting from the song. Bottom Line: I'm not really one for tributes, especially ones to bands that I love as much as Black Flag. After spending a few hours with this disc, I'm ready to put it away and pull out my copy of the First Four Years and listen to real Black Flag instead of other bands playing their songs. If you dig covers and most of the bands on this disc, this could be worth your while, but I prefer the genuine article.