Big-time anticipation for this when the formation of the band was announced a year or so ago, just based on the names involved; Chuck Dukowski, founding member of Black Flag and one of the main brains behind SST Records, joining up with Eugene Robinson from Oxbow/Whipping Boy (the former a previous SST act themselves) to play a bunch of tunes that Dukowski originally wrote back during his tenure in Black Flag? It sounded very promising, although even as a fan of both men's assorted endeavors over the years, I'd been having a tough time envisioning exactly what Black Face would end up sounding like. Well, the first offering from the group was finally bestowed upon us in the form of this teasing two-song 7" that Hydra Head recently released, and although it took a couple of spins for me to really sink my teeth into it, I'm very much stoked on it. The band is rounded out on this record by original Oxbow drummer Tom Dobrov and guitarist Milo Gonzalez from The Chuck Dukowski Sextet, and they end up cranking out an aggressive, atonal punk assault that sounds undeniably like that of the more abstract, experimental Black Flag material, all the way down to Gonzalez's surprisingly Greg Ginn-esque leads and skronk-riffing. The a-side "I Want Kill You" is a mangled ripper, the rhythm section barreling through the song in spurts of angular, jagged movement as the guitar howls out wiry, dissonant runs and Robinson's murderous seething rage soaks completely through. The b-side is further out there, grooving mutant blues and spacey guitar sounds shooting through the bludgeoning intensity of "Monster", the band venturing into a kind of muscular, lurching psychedelia. An impressive debut, I'm looking forward to the next 7" that is supposed to be coming out later this spring...