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Rollins Band: Get Some Go Again

Two stars

With his latest album, rock's alpha male Henry Rollins reaffirms his status as one of music's most intense and grumpy figures.

On Get Some Go Again, Rollins - formerly of Washington D.C. hard-core legends Black Flag - has recruited a brand new backing band, but continues the forcible hard rock on which his career is built.

The new Rollins Band - formerly known as LA trio Mother Superior - plays fast, crushing hard-core songs, Rollins' forte.

Rollins' vocals are in typically fine form. Though he is pushing 40 years old, his songs are as irate as ever and his high-volume rants as full of fire, bitterness and poorly considered opinions as his fans have come to expect.

On the album's closing song, the hidden track "Money Train," (featuring ex-MC5 guitarist Wayne Kramer), Rollins manages to rail each of his complaints of the month - for more than 14 minutes.

The Offspring, Beck ("that new visionary turned big spender/taking all those musical genres and putting them in a blender ... just more crap from a culture that's evaporating"), actors, the music industry and even his own hired saxophone player are the recipients of Rollins' wrath.

The album at times stretches out musically, testing out funk on "Love's So Heavy" and the aforementioned "Money Train," and covering 70s dork-rock icons Thin Lizzy (with contributions from Lizzy guitarist Scott Gorham) - but Rollins knows his niche.

He mostly sticks to his punky roots, so most tracks are fast hard-core songs, occasionally spiced up by his frequently hilarious spoken-word monologues.

Ultimately, because Rollins has nothing truly important to say, and his new band is not at all innovative, the album comes across as a resolutely minor addition to his catalog.