Rollins Band- Come In and Burn (1997)

Rollins Band- Come In and Burn (1997)

“Let's pretend my career in music is a bell. Whether you like my music or not is up to you. But you've got to admit I rang that bell pretty hard and pretty often.”

Henry Rollins

By: Ghost Writer

1994 might have been an awesome year for USA punk rock icon Henry Rollins, his band had just issued its most successful record, Weight and it seemed that old Henry was about to take on mainstream, I don't know if Rollins was interested at the time in mainstream, as he was better known as the leader of one of the most awesome bands coming from the USA underground, the always surprising Black Flag.

With the Rollins Band, it seemed that Henry was up to something more than his punk rock reputation, for me Rollins was about to become as transcendental as musical rebels like James Brown, Fela Kuti or Joe Strummer, Rollins had the chance to reinvent himself thru his band, Weight proved Rollins could leave punk rock in the past and embrace something new, something more universal and creative, he was putting to practice the lessons learned with the Flag, as his music was showing unsuspected influences from funk, jazz and heavy metal, but the best was yet to come.

If you can't stand heat, don't get near the kitchen or so they say, perhaps that's why Rollins named his band's 1997 record Come In and Burn, Rollins Band sound was becoming more and more intense and expansive at the same time, his band composed at the time by Chris Haskett, Sim Cain and Melvin Gibbs was giving Henry the chance to grow in a exponential way, as Rollins compositions could move in any direction wanted, Haskett was amazing not only creating killer riffs, he was also experimenting with textures, getting into territories close to the great Robert Fripp or Reeves Gabrels; Gibbs was giving the band a solid bottom and the dynamics of funk and improvisation, while Cain was exploding like a cannon at every second.

Come In and Burn is surely Rollins Band most ambitious record to date, it wasn't as successful as Weight, and with such band, it certainly put Rollins and his fans to the test, the band was at the crossroads just like The Clash was at London's Calling, they could do whatever they wanted, but perhaps Rollins understood that he had a limited vocal range, or that he didn't wanted to become a real musician, preferring to stay as just an angry man, an angry punk rocker and nothing else, well, also an actor, a poet and social commentator.

In Come In and Burn you get the fabulous menacing Shame, the killer Haskett riffing and ambient textures of Starve, with Rollins pushed to the total edge by his own band, with a terrific performance by Cain relentless drums,  The End of Something, that ironically ends up being nearly autobiographical, of course, there is crash course punk rock with brains like on On My Way to the Cage, the noisy brutal attack of Neon, and the fabulous killer 1-2 punch of Inhale Exhale and the standing on the edge confession of Saying Goodbye Again.

This might not be Rollins Band best record overall, but shows what this band was really capable of, it shows what Rollins had behind him and it was amazing as so few bands at the time were so full of talent, after this, Rollins broke up the band and opted to get back to heavy rock, neither returning to the furious ambition of Black Flag nor what this version of his band were up to, and as Neil Young would say, Rollins preferred to burn out, than to fade away.