Now in stock on CD.

      An unequivocal classic of pioneering hardcore punk, Bad Brains' 1983 firestorm Rock For Light just got reissued on vinyl, apparently from the same label that originally put it out. The follow-up to the Brains' seminal self-titled ROIR cassette, their second album propelled these iconoclastic punks even further into the stratosphere upon its release, yet another quantum leap from what had initially started out as four black kids from Washington, DC playing jazz fusion. By this point, the Bad Brains were titans in the American underground, blowing minds with their electrifying fusion of superfast hardcore thrash, screaming metal licks, and soulful reggae, permeated with the band's growing immersion into Rastafarianism. That uniqueness caught the attention of none other than Ric Ocasek, gangly mastermind behind 80s New Wave gods The Cars. Sure seemed like an odd pairing when I first picked this album up, but Ocasek kept the band's sound raw and raucous; while Rock features re-recordings of a number of songs that had already appeared on the ROIR tape (starting a long tradition the Bad Brains had throughout the 80s of continually re-recording various songs for new releases), it might be my favorite version of that stuff.

      And in 1983, these guys still sounded completely unique with their ferocious blend of Rastafarian spirituality and dope-fueled positivism, welded to a mix of blitzkrieg hardcore and laid-back reggae jams. You get turbo-charged renditions of stuff like "Big Takeover", "Right Brigade", "Banned In DC" and "Attitude", while new songs like "Joshua's Song", "Destroy Babylon", the uber-catchy title track and the utterly ferocious "Coptic Times" and "At The Movies" are all blasts of triumphant, turbo-charged speed and power, with riffs that begin to hint at the metallic direction the band would head in with subsequent releases. When the Brains unleash the speed, it's about as fast as anything in hardcore at the time, and H.R.'s strangled shriek and velvety croon engage in wild vocal acrobatics through the whole album, delivering one of the most powerful vocal performances ever heard in hardcore punk. But when that ferocity suddenly slams into the mellow, dubbed-out reggae grooves of "I And I Survive" and "The Meek Shall Inherit The Earth", the sudden juxtaposition is gloriously disorienting. An eternal favorite around the C-Blast compound, and a crucial slab of pioneering mutant hardcore.