''Slip It In'' is the fourth studio album by the American

hardcore punk Hardcore punk (commonly abbreviated to hardcore or hXc) is a punk rock music genre#subtypes, subgenre and subculture that originated in the late 1970s. It is generally faster, harder, and more aggressive than other forms of punk rock. Its roots ...

band Black Flag, released in 1984 by SST Records. ''Slip It In'' is an extension of the sound Black Flag utilized on its second album '' My War'': heavy, cathartic, intense, dense and progressive. The album pursued the newer, lengthier song arrangements that Black Flag would develop until its demise. It also features Henry Rollins' further development as a lyricist, contributing four of eight tracks on the album. This album also demonstrates Black Flag's increasing use of instrumentals, where Greg Ginn demonstrates his increasingly more complex playing style.

Recording and style

''Slip It In'' was recorded on a brief break on the continuous tour for '' My War'', which saw Black Flag at their most ambitious. This year they would release three full-length albums and toured nearly constantly, with Rollins noting 178 performances for the year, and about that many for 1985. With Dukowski gone, Ginn ceded much of the spotlight to Rollins, who had expressed some discomfort over being the group's '' de facto'' spokesman, while Ginn was the recognized leader (Ginn wrote the majority of the group's songs and lyrics). In many ways, ''Slip It In'' is a fusion of the styles utilized on their previous releases (with vocals), '' Damaged'' and ''My War''. The songs are inspired by heavy metal, yet the material also shows traces of " sludgy 'pre-grunge'

metal A metal () is a material that, when polished or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electrical resistivity and conductivity, electricity and thermal conductivity, heat relatively well. These properties are all associated wit ...

, and thrash to

blues rock Blues rock is a fusion music genre, genre and form of rock music, rock and blues music that relies on the chords/scales and instrumental improvisation of blues. It is mostly an electric ensemble-style music with instrumentation similar to electri ...

and

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

." The track "My Ghetto" even contains traces of a musical style that would later become known as

powerviolence Powerviolence (sometimes written as power violence) is a chaotic and fast subgenre of hardcore punk which is closely related to thrashcore and grindcore. In contrast with grindcore, which is a "crossover" idiom containing musical aspects of hea ...

. At the middle point of the album, there is an instrumental track called "Obliteration" which highlights Ginn's chord progressions where Brandon Sideleau of Punknews.org claims that it "mashes sludge and

into an ominous hybrid."

Cover art

The album cover features a provocative piece of Raymond Pettibon artwork, as many of Black Flag's album/single covers and gig fliers do. The image is of a nun embracing a bare male leg. Bassist Kira Roessler has expressed complex feelings about the image. For example, she has said "I didn't really recognize that they might have interesting ideas about women and that me being in the band was controversial. I didn't think that way until I saw the cover of ''Slip It In'' and I kind of realized, for one thing, they certainly didn't glorify women. That cover does not glorify women." She has also indicated that she has come to terms with the cover art choice.

Music video

A low-budget music video was produced for the album's title track. It revolves around a teacher lip syncing to the vocals to the song along with the class and cuts to clips to the band performing to the song. The video ends with the teacher telling about the album coming out and promoting their "students" to see them on their tour.

Reception

''Slip It In'' has received mixed reviews over the years. Shortly after its release, Ira Robbins of '' Trouser Press'' dismissed the album, writing that it "blurs the line between moronic punk and moronic metal. Songs are mostly built on trite riffs repeated endlessly; the rude lyrics of the title song are performed complete with enthusiastic sex noises for anyone who fails to grasp the point and/or be offended by it."

Robert Christgau Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and later became a ...

was also quite negative, despite reserving some praise for the song "You're Not Evil". In retrospective reviews, John Dougan of

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

wrote that while the album was a bit better than its predecessor and featured "increasingly avant-garde and exciting" guitarwork from Greg Ginn (which was compared to James Blood Ulmer), it "still wanders a bit". Brandon Sideleau of Punknews.org calls it "a classic and a landmark for independent music." He defends the title track, calling it a "punk metal masterpiece often unfairly seen as sexist, when in reality it's quite the opposite. Greg Ginn's lyrics are raunchy and angry, but the song is more about people and their choices than anything else."

Track listing

Personnel

* Henry Rollins – lead vocals * Greg Ginn – guitars * Kira Roessler – bass, backing vocals * Bill Stevenson – drums * Suzi Gardner - backing vocals on “Slip it In”

Additional personnel

*Davo Claassen – backing vocals * Suzi Gardner – backing vocals * Chuck Dukowski – backing vocals *Greg Ginn – production *Bill Stevenson – production * Spot – production, engineering, mixing * Raymond Pettibon – artwork

Charts

References

{{Authority control Black Flag (band) albums 1984 albums Albums produced by Spot (producer) SST Records albums Albums produced by Bill Stevenson (musician) Albums with cover art by Raymond Pettibon