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...Ill 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 Pattons 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.
Posted by RiseAbove:
yes it is a great record indeed although the fact that corey taylor was in it didn't make very enthusiastic...but he did a pretty good job on Room 13....as for the rest of the cd it kicks ass and i love it and it's for an amazing cause theese guys deserve justice and i think the west menphis 3 are innocent and i hope they get out of jail soon..but not even that will chancge the years they've lost for a crime they didn't do but life is unfair...Just but this record and support the cause Free The WM3!
Posted by FreeTheWM3:
i think this is a great record and it's for a gret cause i think the west menphis 3 are innocent! go to the benefit concerts and take a stand it could be you next time buy the alnum and help take a stand....
Posted by the Fiend:
all the songs kick ass exept bryan adams cover.
Posted by LithiumBliss:
Fever, you go and plug the piss out of this thing! I thought this was released long ago, but it's always good to bring this up. People, if you liked Black Flag, I don't know if you'll like this, but the lineup looks pretty nice. But even that matters little compared to the fact of where the proceeds are going. I firmly believe that the WM3 were railroaded by a corrupt pig society, and anything to benefit their cause is damn worthy. If it happened to them, it could happen to you or me. I beg of anyone unfamiliar with this heinous travesty of justice to learn about it. Buy this CD (even if it sucks, but I trust Fever's taste). Justice must be served, or what hope do any of us have. F*ck Bush's Iraq hard-on, there was a war against our own citizens in West Memphis. Lend your voices if you dare. FREE THE WM3!!!
