Rollins Band: Come In And Burn

Henry Rollins' career has spanned numerous albums with the influential Black Flag, eight solo spoken-word releases, a whole bunch of books, the creation of his own prolific record label, 10 years worth of albums with Rollins Band, and cameo appearances in movies ranging from The Chase to Johnny Mnemonic to Lost Highway. In other words, he's a master of multiple media, though it's been three years since his most recent Rollins Band release, Weight. And frankly, that's a good thing. As media saturation kicked in a while back, Rollins' humorless message started to sound like little more than, 1) You are weak; and 2) I hate you, because you are weak. Fortunately, while there's lots of loathing to be found here, there's more to the new Come In And Burn than that: The songs—muddied with a surprisingly bottom-heavy mix, propulsively fluid bass and chunky guitars—benefit from conscious variations in Rollins' vocal delivery. (He sings/speaks as often as he bellows to the heavens.) Come In And Burn often lacks the hair-raising power that usually accompanies Rollins' vein-popping rants, but fans will be glad to hear him doing something a little bit different with his demons.