With Rollins, Black Flag began work on their first full-length album. The sessions for the album (chronicled in Michael Azerrad's book "Our Band Could Be Your Life") were a source of conflict between the band and engineer/producer Spot, who had worked with the band and the SST label since their early years. Spot had already recorded many of the "Damaged" tracks with Dez Cadena on vocals (as well as Keith Morris and Ron Reyes) and felt that the band's sound was ruined with the two guitar line-up (these versions can be heard on the albums "Everything Went Black" and "The First Four Years"). Whereas the earlier four-piece versions are more focused and much cleaner sounding, the "Damaged" recordings are more akin to a live recording, with little stereo separation of guitars, and somewhat muddy. When asked about the lo-fidelity production, Spot has said "They "wanted" it to sound that way." However, the artistic content and expression on the album showed the band pushing punk or hardcore music to a new level, with deeply personal and intensely emotional lyrics. As such, "Damaged" is generally regarded as Black Flag's most focused recording. One critic has written that "Damaged" was "perhaps the best album to emerge from the quagmire that was early-'80s California punk ... the visceral, intensely physical presence of "Damaged" has yet to be equaled, although many bands have tried." "Damaged" was released in 1981, and the group began an extensive tour in support of it, forging an independent network for touring independent music acts that would form a cornerstone of the independent music scene for the decade to come.