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Rollins Band

Hard Volume (1999)
Henry Rollins

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Contributed by: BrandonSideleau
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Published on December 13th 2002

When you think of hard, loud, and violent music bands like Slayer, Black Flag, Danzig, and Samhain come to mind. But nothing prepared me for the beautiful and utterly brutal assault that this album unleashes. This was the second Rollins Band album and consisted of the "End Of Silence" record lineup.

The record begins with the rollicking and fast hard rock song given the suitable title of "Hard", it seems to be about how the more shit you take, the stronger and more intelligent you get. It seems to flirt with hardcore and jazzy elements with the trademark Rollins touch. Next is "What Have I Got?" which begins with a couple hard slams and then breaks down into a groovy, hard blues rock extravaganza with Rollins' tortured and violent vocals giving it a punk rock-ish feel. "I Feel Like This" is much like the songs on Rollins' first record "Lifetime" in the fact that it is fast and in a "Damaged" era Black Flag kind of style while creating a creepy sense of atmosphere with a spoken word breakdown during the middle of the song. The next song is titled "Planet Joe" (after his late friend Joe Cole's book), it begins with riffs so crushing it would give any of today's hardest bands a run for their money and some of the most angry and violent vocals that I have ever heard come from Rollins. With lyrics like "This world is loaded, it's ugly. A sprawling ghetto, it's ugly. See him walking with a gun in his hand, see her walking with a gun in her hand, see me walking with a gun in my heart, loaded, ugly." it seems that Rollins is thoroughly and rightfully disgusted by the world around him. Next is "Love Song" and it captures what it would sound like if you could hear the psychotic heartache of rejection. It begins very quietly and slowly builds a creepy atmosphere through 3 minutes of Rollins growling and speaking softly "I Hate You, I Want You", then he breaks down into a screaming fit and yells until his throat is coarse, the lyrics are very minimal, but the idea here wasn't to write a shitload of lyrics, but to create a sound, and this IS the sound of true heartache. It proves he and his band were masters of capturing a feeling and an emotion. Just when you think the songs can't become anymore twisted and utterly venting comes "Turned Inside Out", a disturbed, freaked out blues jam about learning from humiliation, disgust and being hurt. Rollins spazzes out and sounds like a beast trying to escape his cage....the amount of gut wrenching passion in this song is frightning. "Down & Away" is slightly faster than the previous 3 songs and sounds similar to "Hot Animal Machine", it is equally raw and effective however.

The next 6 songs are two 1989 recordings of songs from "End Of Silence" (Tearing & You Didn't Need"), "Thin Air" (an excellent song, one of Rollins' best), a much harder, rawer and longer version of the Suicide cover "Ghostrider" and alternate versions of "What Have I Got?" and "Down & Away". These last 6 tracks were added to the new remastered re-issue of "Hard Volume" and are all demos from these sessions.

Overall this album is one of my all time favorite, mainly because it is so fucking real. At the time the band was strapped for cash and living on very little food, the pain and anguish depicted on the record is very real. While it is DEFINITELY not for the weak of heart or lightweight, this album is the absolutely best at what it does- capturing intensity, rage and frustration. The ultimate soundtrack for weight lifting, bad days at work and just raw power.

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Anonymous (July 31, 2003)

i bought this cd, it is indeed superb. thank you reviewer, you amde a difference in how i spend cash

Anonymous (December 19, 2002)

Great review, and much better album.
I got this one years ago, not the remastered version. Very rough music. Nothing polished at all, and you get to hear rollins in tip top vocal shape.
This is fucking music. Couldn't get anymore emotion on this album.

waste_elite (December 17, 2002)

"I agree with everything expect you forgot to mention people like waste_elite and wizo that come around and will jab at the bands they dont like but dont bother to ever say "Hey I like this band, they rock my world.""

yeah, uh hu, you must have that selective reading thing. i praise just as many bands, if not more, than i bash.

Anonymous (December 17, 2002)

isnt that always been the way with anything alternative?

u cant possibly like such and such a band cus your not kool enough? or u like such and such a band how un punk are u!

BostonMusicGuy (December 16, 2002)

I agree with everything expect you forgot to mention people like waste_elite and wizo that come around and will jab at the bands they dont like but dont bother to ever say "Hey I like this band, they rock my world." They just sit around and bash people for liking certain bands... and bash the band for supposedly sucking.Other than that... your overview of the site was right on.BostonMusicGuy

Anonymous (December 16, 2002)

wow thats the best description of this site i've ever read.
-moldy

Anonymous (December 16, 2002)

Yea, and it's worse than the other half of the stuff that gets reviewed on this website when someone reviews it after somebody listens to it and we all comment on it and then we argue over what is cool or not and somebody is stupid for liking this or that band and then it's on to some other review of some cd that none of us likes but somebody like wussemorock likes so he reviews the cd and we are all like "wow you suck" and then he is like "nuh uh" and we are like "uh huh" and he starts to cry and he threatens suicide and we all laugh and cross our collective fingers in hopes that he will actually have the balls to do something constructive for once and then we go to another review of some band that half of the people like and half hate so it just turns into a huge argument over a band and then it's back to check on wussemorock to see if he pulled it off yet then he says he isn't doing it and we all call him a pussy because he can't do anything on his own and he begins to cry so his mommy buys him a mockingbird and a diamond ring just to be on the safe side then he is happy again and we laugh at him anyway and he says "what" and we point and laugh ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha and it goes on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on

BrandonSideleau (December 14, 2002)

And this is better than half the shit reviewed on this site anyway.

BrandonSideleau (December 14, 2002)

What the fuck are u talking about.....arnold? hank isn't THAT big....shit.