10 Albums That Created Grunge Music

Black Flag’s sophomore album was anathema for a lot of hardcore fans, appalled by the severely dropped tempos and often sluggish pace. But while many were turning off, many more in the process of starting bands listened deeper.

My War isn’t so sonically different to debut Damaged; it just sounds as though Greg Ginn et all have grabbed the songs and stretched them out. The guitars are sludgily aggressive, but rhythmically airtight. On “Nothing Left Inside”, almost everything is percussive, guitar and bass following in lockstep with the drum track.

This leaves Henry Rollins free to do his thing. The charismatic frontman was a key part of grunge - you had to buy into what the band was selling. No one sells better than Rollins, whether he’s delivering wry witticisms on “Can’t Decide” or losing control of his emotions and linguistic abilities altogether on the aptly named “Scream”.

The heavier grunge acts can be heard most readily here, but in the band’s ability to deliver quite basic concepts of isolation and discontent as though they’re unique experiences of the listener, the whole ‘90s angsty sound is to be found.