Album Cuts: Rise Above: 24 Black Flag Songs to Benefit

Although tribute albums oftentimes water down the music of the band they intend to pay homage to, Rise Above, with an all star cast of singers, effectively captures the songs of Black Flag in order to benefit the famed — and "wrongly accused" — West Memphis Three.

In the CD's liner notes, Henry Rollins explains his intentions for putting this project together: "I figured that to do nothing about (the verdict of the WM3 case) would be to align myself with the forces of injustice that got them pulled into this horrible situation."

So, Mr. Rollins decided to align himself with the forces of justice and construct a benefit record to aid the plight of the boys from West Memphis, Ark., who in 1994 were convicted of murdering three children. And although Black Flag's Greg Ginn might disagree with the amount of justice portrayed on this record, the intent is nonetheless benign.

The Black Flag music on the album is flawlessly recreated by the current members of the Rollins Band, with guest vocalists ranging from Chuck D and Ice T to Iggy Pop and Ryan Adams. Even Lemmy takes a stab with a lovely rendition of "Thirsty and Miserable." Other key songsters include Cedric Bixler of At the Drive-In, Corey Taylor of Slipknot and Mike Patton, formerly of Faith No More.

True aficionados of Black Flag will surely prefer the raw original recordings to the blatantly overproduced songs on this album. But considering it includes an ideal cast of vocalists and is a benefit album, Rise Above is at least worth checking out,

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