Various Artists - Rise Above: 24 Black Flag Songs To Benefit The West Memphis 3 
Review by Dr Fever

Various Artists - Rise Above: 24 Black Flag Songs To Benefit The West Memphis 3
Label: Sanctuary Records
Rating: 
 

Tracks: Rise Above-Henry Rollins with Chuck D. Nervous Breakdown-Keith Morris Fix Me-Iggy Pop American Waste-Neil Fallon (of CLUTCH) I've Had It-Cedric Bixler Zavala (of THE MARS VOLTA and AT THE DRIVE IN) I've Heard It Before-Jeff Moreira (of POISON THE WELL) Room 13-Corey Taylor (of SLIPKNOT and STONE SOUR) Wasted-Exene Cervenka (of X) and Henry Rollins  Jealous Again-Nick Oliveri (of QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE) TV Party-Henry Rollins No Values-Hank III Gimmie Gimmie Gimmie-Dean Ween (of WEEN) Depression-Casey Chaos (of AMEN) Six Pack-Mike Patton (of FAITH NO MORE, MR BUNGLE, TOMAHAWK, and FANTOMAS) Police Story-Ice T Revenge-Tom Araya (of SLAYER) Thirsty and Miserable-Lemmy Kilminster (of MOTORHEAD) What I see-Chuck Dukowski No More-Lars Frederiksen and Tim Armstrong (of RANCID) Black Coffee-Henry Rollins Slip It In-Henry Rollins and Inger Lorre Annihalate This Week-Henry Rollins and Kira Roessler My War-Henry Rollins (*Bonus Track*)Nervous Breakdown-Ryan Adams

Anybody who's ever paid attention to my column here at antiMUSIC has more than likely noticed the West Memphis 3 banner at the bottom of each column. Now, I won't go into my opinion of that (already did that in one of my rants). 

But, in a nutshell...3 guys are wasting away in a jail for a crime they didn't not commit. Convicted on, well, NO evidence whatsoever. So, a defense fund has been started, and a grass roots campaign that spawned two award-winning documentaries is slowly, but surely, getting more attention from the mainstream. We have people like Henry Rollins to thank for that. 

Rollins (former vocalist for Black Flag, current vocalist for The Rollins Band, and outspoken political activist) decided he needed to throw his weight into a project that would not only raise awareness of the situation, but too also attempt to raise money for the WM3 defense fund, which this album does both (all proceeds go to the defense fun.)

As far this album goes...I’ll go on record and say it very well good end up as my Album Of The Year come December. It's just an amazing collection of songs put together by some amazingly talented artists, a lot of which happen to be a large cross section of my personal favorite artists. 

Standout songs on this album include; Neil Fallon's take on 'American Waste', Mike Patton’s always creative interpretations, this time he interprets 'Six Pack', Ice T (in full Body Count mode) doing the most ironic song of the album (considering, well, it is ICE T doing the song) with 'Police Story' and Hank III's blistering take on 'No Values'.

There are a number of reasons to get this album, even if Corey Taylor's on it (*shudder*), but most important of all, it is for a great cause. So, don't wait and don't hesitate. Get this album. If you local shop doesn't carry it, ORDER the thing. If nothing else, you are in some small part raising awareness of a horrible tragedy that can still be made right.

Read Dr Fever's previous Rant about the case of the West Memphis 3

Listen to samples and Purchase this CD online

Visit WM3.org to get more information on the West Memphis 3