Getting Even - Greg Ginn - 1993

Anger ages well. Greg Ginn took his time "going solo" following his infamous phone call to Henry Rollins that rendered Black Flag inactive in August 1986. There were a few posthumous releases and a Gone record out around the same time but one has to wonder what the man was doing musically (aside from running SST and Cruz) in those seven years. Saving it up, I would say. Because a slew of releases followed after the release of Getting Even; by 1995 four Gone titles, two Confront James records, and debuts from Mojack and Hor appeared in addition to two more full lengths credited solely to Ginn. And, out of the gate, Getting Even was an impressive roar. And "roar" is exactly what this record is. Fourteen bursts of dense, aggressive anger ranging from 90 seconds to three minutes and rarely letting up.

Ginn's three albums credited solely to his name are the only instances of which I am aware in which we're treated to Ginn as lead vocalist.He also handles bass and guitar on Getting Even with drums credited to David Raven. I have seen plenty of other write-ups on this record naming the supposed drum machine used for this record and acknowledge that I do not know enough of industry standards to know if programming a machine is credit-worthy for drums (and am not even sure for 90s recordings of this ilk if I can distinguish what is machine and what is heavily otherwise processed). I will say that about two-thirds of the way through, Getting Even tends a little more toward the "organic" with Ginn's bass gaining prominence and the percussion having more of an alive feel to it. Regardless, this doesn't matter to me. What matters to me is "Do I like what I am hearing?" In this case, a resounding "yes" as everything Ginn fans love about Ginn is here in concentrated form. Perfectly dissonant, ragged riffs against soulless rhythm drenched in angst. The production, also credited to Greg, feels just like wrapping yourself in a certain Flag (or rather burying yourself deep beneath it - it's pretty muddy and messy with everything layered well below the guitars). Lyrical content likewise continues the same themes fans had come to expect from the Black Flag repertoire. Artwork is minimal but the elements of steel screen at least correspond the the feel of the content. I'd rank it a "1" on the Ginn album art spectrum.

Getting Even has two speeds. "Hard Thing" slows for a proto-blues crawl whereas everything else rolls along as fast as it can (even the fastest Ginn material feels a little like the sonic equivalent of running in sand). Standouts include "Pig MF" and "Yes Officer" (Greg didn't spend '86-'93 learning to love LAPD) as well as my personal favorite (and 12" extended single fodder), "Pay Day" (the payoff, I suppose, of being "Clocked In"). Arguably an industrial record of sorts,fans of bands like Ministry in the 90s should have been satisfied with this sonic direction, even if the execution comes across as significantly stripped down and slightly less ferocious compared to something like Psalm 69 or anything Nine Inch Nails was producing after Broken.

Maybe Getting Even doesn't quite roar or rage then. It seethes. It seethes like it's been holding a grudge for seven years. Anger ages well.