Album Review: What The... by Black Flag

First, to say that What Theâ?¦ doesn't "sound" like a Black Flag album makes no sense. Since the band's very inception, they have consistently bucked what came before them, challenging their fans and their fandom in the process. When second and now most recent but also now ex-vocalist Ron Reyes replaced Keith Morris for 1980's Jealous Again, the punk community criticized the band for losing Morris' snarl.

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Greg Ginn was the founder and lead guitarist of Black Flag, and the sole constant member during the band's tumultuous 1977-1986 history. Ginn started Black Flag, he ended it, and ultimately he can do as he pleases with the band's legacy, which is troubling because Ginn doesn't seem to understand what made his band memorable in the first place. At least that's how it feels after listening to What The..., the first album of new Black Flag material since In My Head in 1985.

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Even before its release, What The…, the new seventh Black Flag LP, seemed like a footnote. The primary narrative was, of course, the Great Black Flag Debacle of 2013, a yearlong mire of dueling reunions, media mudslinging, a failed lawsuit and—less than a week prior to the record's street date—a face-palm-inducing fallout with vocalist Ron Reyes, who appears on the album. In this tabloid-ready context, it wasn't surprising that advance press for What The...

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"It still defies belief that 'What The...' should ever see the light of day..." If you’d helped define hardcore, forged a DIY touring network, nurtured the talent of numerous genre-bending punx and influenced countless more, you might consider it a job well done and enjoy your dotage. Not so Greg Ginn, who’s gathered two past conspirators for 22 songs of wearisome, spirit-sapping material that begs one simple question: what’s the fucking point? While not quite as cack as recent efforts by Bad Brains or DYS, it still defies belief that this should ever see the light of day. After all, aren’t there enough pale Black Flag replicas currently doing the rounds already? .

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It's impossible for Black Flag to win this one. There's too much riding on the legacy the band have built up for this album — their first in 28 years — to satisfy people who hold them dear. That's the first thing. Then there's the fact that founding guitarist Greg Ginn is a divisive, litigious figure, going after former bandmates, including those who formed FLAG to tour and play Black Flag songs live, just before Ginn's plans to reform a version of the band and do the same thing came to pass.Just last week, vocalist Ron Reyes was kicked out of the reconfigured Black Flag and, in a hilarious open letter, suggested it was because he suggested they attempt to be a good band.

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For almost three decades now, Black Flag has existed in the hearts and minds of hardcore fanatics young and old the way that former presidents do in history books. By 2013, their story had long been written, the pages dog-eared and yellowed with age. They’re iconic, not simply in terms of the savage sounds they committed to record, but in how they bled, physically and metaphorically, for this thing called hardcore.

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There’s no reason to dismiss Black Flag’s new album, What The…, out of hand. True, it’s the legendary hardcore band’s first proper studio full-length since 1985’s In My Head, Yes, it comes out amid a lot of acrimonious drama between former bandmembers, including those who have chosen to tour as FLAG minus the group’s founder and sole constant member, guitarist Greg Ginn. Granted, the cover art is fucking heinous.

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In the late ’70s, if you loved Black Flag, which was led by the guitarist and songwriter Greg Ginn, it generally meant that you had some thoughts about corruption and complacency in American culture, and that you hated expensive-sounding rock bands like Boston, which was led by the guitarist and ….

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Three decades ago, Black Flag helped invent hardcore punk, a form so raging and reductive it always threatens to obliterate all musical distinctions. Yet these Southern California deviants kicked off their 1981 breakthrough “Damaged” by pledging to “Rise Above,” and by the time they disbanded in 1986 they had done just that. “Damaged” and the best from the over-productive years that surround it still distinguish themselves with jabs of menace and humor, stoicism and hysteria.

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