Black Flag

Loose Nut (1985)

Brandon Sideleau

In my opinion, no punk rock website is complete without a document on the entire Flag catalog. And the magnificent Loose Nut more than earns a place among both the top 50 punk and metal (no, not shitty pop-metal, but real metal) records of all time. The basic musical idea for Loose Nut was to combine the speed and nihilism of punk rock with the heavy and rollicking pound of Sabbath-esque metal, and it works better than you'd imagine. If you've disregarded anything after Damaged because some little kid with a mohawk told you it sucked, then you need to do yourself a favor and pick up Loose Nut and prepare to be blown away.

The album features everything that made the earlier albums great - sarcastic and intelligent if often misunderstood (see "Annihilate This Week" and the title track) lyrics and a gut-pounding musical landscape. Loose Nut is relatively short and sweet with varied song structures, which prevent the tracks from blending together. "Annihilate This Week," a Black Flag staple, is musically a pounding homage to heavy metal, and lyrically, a sharp criticism of hypocritical individuals that feel as though they can do whatever they please, as long as they can repent for their sins at Church the following weekend.

"Loose Nut" is the fastest song on the album, a hardcore punk classic featuring a deliciously catchy chorus. The song is, in general, poking fun at men who are led around by their dicks. This is actually very funny, considering how much of the punk rock community accuses this era of Black Flag as being "macho," when in reality it was quite the opposite.

Other standout tracks include the great Rollins written tracks "I'm The One" and "Sinking," along with the throat-tearing closer "Now She's Black." And, of course, I cannot forget "Modern Man," which had been played at Black Flag shows since 1981 but wasn't officially released until this album.

If you have any real taste in hard music this album will be one of your favorites, hands down. I'm sure many of you know this, but many of you don't as well.