The End of Silence

The title of Rollins Band’s 1992 full-length is telling; The End of Silence feels like a new start for Henry Rollins and his crew of pile-driving musicians. These performances show creative momentum and focus, leading listeners to believe that this is the first total realization of a sound Rollins had been chasing for decades. Though the players are the same as on previous albums, the impact is much different. This is due in large part to Andy Wallace's production; he had engineered Slayer’s three breakthrough albums. From the opening salvo of “Low Self Opinion,” the album maintains an extremely dry, very live sound, which puts the focus squarely on the physicality of the playing. This is music that writhes and surges and pounds. Rollins took the heavy riffs of doom metal and married them to the contorted lust of funk music. There's also a deep current of blues in these compositions, bubbling to the surface on the molten epics that close the album: “Blues Jam” and “Just Like You.”