4 out of 5

Label: Hydra Head Records

Produced by: Monte Vallier

Black Flag bassist Chuck Dukowski teams up with his son on guitar, and Oxbowers Eugene Robinson (vocals) and Tom Dubrow (drums) for Black Face, a 2-song 7″ of tracks Dukowski apparently penned during Black Flag times.

…And that tracks, but I’d have to believe these’ve been modernized and influenced to an extent as well. I Want To Kill You on the A-side is pretty awesome, Robinson reigning in his Oxbow theatrics for something straightforwardly raw and cranky, with a bass-led crunch and a somewhat even keel putting the track into more Big Black-ish territory than Flag punk.

B-side’s monster tips more towards Oxbow thanks to its bluesy swagger, but is again a bass-heavy groove, building to a fun swirl of noise towards its conclusion, and only really lagging behind the A-side due to its more limited and repetitive nature.

This was pretty exciting stuff – said as a fan of neither Black Flag or Oxbow – and it’s too bad we didn’t get to see some further material to find out if this was just lightning in a bottle.