#8: Bad Brains - I Against I

One of my main gripes about modern hardcore, besides most of it being completely by the numbers and brainless, is that it has teetered so close to full-on metal that it's ruined my idea of what hardcore is supposed to be, and always messes me up when I try to get into old-school hardcore bands. When I bought Black Flag's Damaged, I was expecting something completely abrasive and grating, and I got joke songs like "TV Party" and other songs that were good, but not what I had in mind. I think only Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables has, so far, lived up to my expectations of classic hardcore in terms of aggression and heaviness.

So by this point, I was a bit more prepared for Bad Brains' I Against I. Really, all I needed was to envision the sound of GWAR's America Must Be Destroyed, and I'd know what I was getting into. And that's a good thing.

After an intro, the first two tracks, "I Against I" and "House of Suffering" buzzed by, and to me, it really just sounds like good rock songs rather than something head-smashing. One of the big gripes about the newest Bad Brains record is that frontman H.R. sounds too restrained - and if it's that bad, I can't imagine how lethargic it must sound, because there's not much mile-a-minute raging going on here. I assume the earlier records are a different story.

Call me closed-minded, but I bet I'll enjoy this more than the other records in the band's catalog, as I Against I is the band's only album that's bereft of Rastafarian themes and the use of reggae elements. As far as amalgams go, that just never sounded like a great match to me. I'll give them a listen at some point, and I hope I'm proved wrong.

It's clear Living Colour took a page or two from Bad Brains' book, and it's interesting to listen to the band as a foundation for what would happen later. Even though I Against I came well after the first wave of hardcore had come and gone, it's cool to hear the album as an evolution of what was probably an exhausted genre after Minor Threat cut their first seven-inch. Regardless of classification, I enjoyed I Against I, and I look forward to digging into the band's earlier material.

As someone who obviously wasn't on hand for the CBGBs matinées or the glory years of Dischord, my perception is somewhat skewed, but so far, I'm having a hard time digging around for the full-on destruction that I imagined classic hardcore embodying.


"I Against I" live in '88. Much more raging than on the record.



"House of Suffering," also live in '88.



Actually, after watching these videos, the fury is there. Maybe the producers at the time had no idea what to do with these bands.