Now re-issued on cassette, which is the original format that this classic Rasta speedpunk album came out on back in '82...
With what is essentially ground zero for American hardcore, the Bad Brains� self titled debut from 1982 (originally released by ROIR on cassette) remains one of the most influential and ferocious records to ever come out of the underground. The impact that this Lp had on extreme music as we know it is hard to overstate - just about every corner of metal and punk in the 80s was in some way touched by the music that these four young black musicians from Washington DC created here. Blending together reggae, dub, and a hyperspeed hardcore assault into an unclassifiable sound that is still as unique sounding as it was thirty years ago, this first Lp is an essential slab of genre-crushing music that's absolutely essential for fans of hardcore punk and adventurous thrash. It's got that iconic album cover image of the DC Capitol building being destroyed by a bolt of lightning from the heavens, and the songs are amazing, every one of the hardcore punk songs is a ripper and unforgettable, and even the reggae tracks fit perfectly on this record (and much more seamlessly than they would on later albums). At the time of it's release, this was the fastest shit EVER, instantly creating the template for hardcore and yet instantly defying the constricts of hardcore with it's touches of jazziness, the skilled musicianship, the wailing metal solos, HR's possessed vocal performance, the stop-on-a-dime time changes...it's a work of collective genius. This is one of my favorite records of all time, the euphoric punk thrash anthems "Don't Need It", "Sailin' On", an "Attitude", the ferocious rocker "The Regulator", the supersonic thrash of "Banned In DC", the dub reggae resistance anthem of "Leaving Babylon" complete with steel drum sounds and dub echo/reverb effects, all of this is crucial listening, now reissued by ROIR on cassette on the original classic tape format.