Rise Above is a tribute album with a cause behind it. Henry Rollins assembles 20 different artists from punk, hard rock, and hip hop fame to help him deliver 24 different renditions of famous Black Flag songs. Rollins Bands provides the backup music for all the tracks on the album. Present to sing some of Black Flag's classics are former Black Flag singers Keith Morris and Chuck Dukowski, punk legend Iggy Pop, Exene Cervenka, front women of Black Flag's contemporary band, X, grandson of Hank Williams, Hank Williams III, rap legend Ice T, Motorhead's own Lemmy, and Rancid's Tim Armstrong & Lars Frederiksen. Rollins himself appears on 6 tracks, bringing back memories of Black Flag's heydays.
This tribute album was composed to provide fund raising for the defense of the West Memphis Three, three men who were tried and convicted of a triple homicide of 3 young boys in 1993 in Robin Hood hills, West Memphis, Arkansas. One member is on death row, while the other two serve out life sentences.
Though I'm trying to stop myself from track by track reviews, I feel that is the only way this album can be reviewed to give each song the justice it deserves.
1. Chuck D & Henry Rollins - Rise Above
Chuck D only offers an introduction to the album, while Rollins handles the actual vocal duties for the title track. Rollins Band provides an excellent backing and don't sound very different then the actual Black Flag. Having Rollins as the vocals for the first track was a good choice as it takes you instantly back to Black Flag's actual records and you barely realize you are listening to a tribute album. The main difference I can spot is that Rollins Band's guitar player has a very different sound then Black Flag's Greg Ginn. The rest of the band however provides excellent backing vocals. Definitely a great starter to this album.
5/5
2. Keith Morris - Nervous Breakdown
God this one brings back memories. Morris was Black Flag's first vocalist, and Nervous Breakdown was the first song on their first EP of the same name. Morris voice hasn't changed very much since that record was originally released and I still love it. While the music sounds heavier than Black Flag's original sound in 1978, it doesn't take too much away from the actual experience of hearing Morris take over vocal duties again.
5/5
3. Iggy Pop - Fix Me
The man who they say helped started it all comes on next with a classic song from the Nervous Breakdown EP. His vocals are very nasally for this and it hearkens back to the original hardcore punk sound. He does justice to this song, though the ending where he switches to a deep voice kind of ruins it.
4.5/5
4. Neil Fallon of Clutch - American Waste
I'll admit, I haven't heard much from Clutch, so I don't know very much about this Neil Fallon guy. But he gets to perform a song from the Six Pack EP. He does a decent job, his voice sounds fitting for the song and not out of place, but again my limited knowledge of Clutch keeps me from making a comparison of this to his actual singing. Again to comment on the band work, the guitar work is still solid even if it is missing that Ginn flair. Not one of my favorite Black Flag songs, but still well done.
4/5
5. Cedric Bixler Zavala of The Mars Volta - I've Had It
Another singer from a band I'm not very familiar with, but I'm pretty sure for this song he changes his vocal style a bit. He even seems to be using a low quality microphone which seems to mimic the band recording quality of Morris' vocals on the Nervous Breakdown EP. He does an okay job and the fake bad quality is a nice touch, but it is more distracting then it is interesting.
4/5
6. Jeff Moreira of Poison the Well - I've Heard It Before
My knowledge of Poison the Well is their history of being labeled as emo or hardcore when they were not, but my listening is limited. It seems Rollins picked a lot of artists he was more familiar with because of Rollins Band foray into heavier rock rather than the punk spectrum. I don't really like this cover, the guys vocals are really crappy for a Black Flag song, sounding too much like a ***ty generic modern hardcore band then anything else.
3/5
7. Corey Tyler of Slipknot - Room 13
A Rollins-era Black Flag song is next, performed by a very interesting vocalist, at least to me. Rollins even thinking of asking the guy from Slipknot amazes me. Though he surprises me a bit and does a pretty decent job on this song. He doesn't sound like he is from Slipknot and sounds more from a punk influenced hard rock band instead. Back to the guitar sound again, Ginn's lines were really prominent in this song, and the guitarist handles these pretty well. One of the most surprising songs on the album.
4/5
8. Exene Cervenka - Wasted
Exene is probably my favorite female vocalist in punk, second only to Patti Smith. So this track really sparked my interest when I first saw it. Plus Wasted is such a great Black Flag song. It sounds like a X cover of Black Flag rather than what it really is. There is a male vocalist with Exene who helps keep up the X image taking the place of John Doe. A really nice cover.
4/5
9. Nick Oliveri of Queens of the Stone Age - Jealous Again
Another vocalist I only know because of a dislike of his band. But he pulls through and surprises me with a nice cover of the title track of the Jealous Again EP. This album is really showing that it is really hard to do a bad cover of a Black Flag song, that really shows how great the band truly was. The guitar solo is handle nicely, albeit a bit more distorted than the original it seems.
4.5/5
10. Henry Rollins - TV Party
This song is impossible to ruin, especially since you've got Rollins on vocal duties, so it sounds just like Black Flag all over again. The song that gain some fame from a Futurama song is still as fun as ever and hard not to sing along to. The only change is the middle part of the song where back up vocalists name some television shows, trading some newer shows instead of the originals. The Rollins Band members really offer nice backup vocals, there is even a token female vocalist.
5/5
11. Hank Williams III - No Values
This was actually the first song I heard from this tribute which sparked me to download the entire thing. I love Hank Williams III, especially his punk influenced stuff. And it's obvious he is very influenced by Black Flag, he even adopted a variation of their logo to use as his own, removing one of the 4 bars. He offers a very different vocal take on this song, a lot of the time his country/hellbilly voice sneaking into the song, especially during the chorus. He counters the hellbilly voice with a deeper metallic voice.
5/5
12. Dean Ween - Gimmie Gimmie Gimmie
Who knew a Ween member could pull off a cover of a punk song without making it very weird and experimental. Sounds like a straight cover of Black Flag, which is good in that he pulls it off, but bad in that it is sort of disappointing if you are anticipating something strange and different.
3.5/5
13. Casey Chaos of Amen - Depression
Casey Chaos is one vocalist I cannot stand at all, he is probably one of my least favorite singers, which accounts for my dislike of Amen and my dislike of this cover. His voice is just really annoying . Though he doesn't butcher the song, he doesn't do a very good job either.
3/5
14. Mike Patton - Six Pack
I had to look up who this guy was, so that's probably some music points knocked off for me. I was never that much of a fan of Faith No More, which probably explains that. The bassist of Rollins Band does the intro to the song very well, pulling off an excellent copy of Chuck Dukowski sound. Patton vocals are very unclear and hard to understand. He says them extremely fast and slurred and the recording quality is really crappy, making all of his Ss and other high letters grating on the ears. The backup vocalists do well, the final scream from Patton is horrible.
2/5
15. Ice-T - Police Story
Ice-T picked the perfect song to cover. His voice is great for rap and rock as he showed with his heavy metal band Body Count. He pulls off this cover really nicely. It's more enjoyable than the original song which is kind of boring and disappointing in Black Flag's standards. Very nice.
5/5
16. Tom Arya of Slayer - Revenge
This song has one of my favorite Black Flag intros "It's not my imagination, I've got a gun in my back!" Again looking at the vocalist's band, I was hoping for a very Slayer approach to this, which would've been interesting to say the least. But this cover does not disappoint. His voice is fine, fits the song nicely.
4/5
17. Lemmy - Thirst & Miserable
I love Lemmy's voice, always have since I first heard Motorhead. His voice is why I love Motorhead. But put his voice over a band playing punk music, and it just sounds really out of place. Though it's still ***ing Lemmy, and it is still ***ing godly just by his presence in the song alone. I haven't committed on the guitar playing in a bit, this song has a nice little solo in it and the guitarist does a good job with it. This song is really a 3.5/5, but it deserves a half point just because of Lemmy
4/5
18. Chick Dukowski - What I See
Another former Black Flag vocalist steps up, also a former bassist. This song is appropriate for him as it has a lot of focus on the bass playing. I was never a fan of Chuck's voice when he was Black Flag's vocalist, so I'm not a fan of it now. The actual music of this song is well done, especially the ever prevalent bass line.
4/5
19. Tim Armstrong & Lars Frederiksen - No More
Two guys I do not like at all. Armstrong has such a horrible voice when he is with Rancid, and Lars isn't much better in Rancid or his own mediocre punk band, The Bastards. Luckily the song spares you from their vocals for the first few seconds with a building drum beat and bass riff. Then the vocals come, and they are as horrible as ever. Lars and Armstrong trade back and forth from Down Syndrome inflicted fake British man and just plain ***ty punk vocalist. They do a poor job on this song.
2/5
20. Henry Rollins - Black Coffee
Rollins makes an appearance for the last few tracks of the album to round it out completely with some true Black Flag sound. Black Coffee is a really great song that reminds me of Greg Ginn more than any other Black Flag. I'm not sure way, the guitar playing is really evident in the song, but it just reeks Ginn. At least in the original, in this cover the guitar playing is still good but lacks some of Ginn's presence. This song was made for Rollins to sing however. The solo is well executed, but still misses that Ginn presence.
4/5
21. Henry Rollins & Inger Lorre - Slip It In
The title track from the same album (which Black Coffee was actually on), it was probably the best track on the album along with Black Coffee. I had to look up who Inger Lorre was, and still didn't know who she was. The bass intro to this song is fantastic and really shows that Chuck's simple punk playing was replaced with Kira Roessler's more complex bass playing. The actual music for this song is what makes it really great, the start and stop and the little fill riffs. Inger provides the "slip it in" parts of the verses. Not a very grand participation in the song, but it really doesn't affect the overall sound of the song. Everyone's biggest problem with this actual song (and the entire Slip It In album) was it's length, which shows here. Though the album doesn't go in any real order, it definitely seems they progressed from Black Flag's simplistic hardcore punk sound to their later more intricate sound. And it shows with this song, as it carries on for a long time.
4/5
22. Henry Rollins & Kira Roessler - Annihilate This Week
I'm guessing Kira takes over for Rollins Band's regular bassists for this song. I don't know why she chose this song instead of a more bass driven song where she could show off some of her skills better, like a song from Slip It In. She does make a vocal appearance in the middle of the song, so maybe she didn't replace the bassist, though I'd think that'd be cooler than providing vocals. A nice guitar solo in this and it's handle well, but again my same complaint comes back again. Kira is definitely a better bassist then she is a vocalist which shows near the end when she calls off the days of the week to be annihilated.
4.5/5
23. Henry Rollins - My War
Henry Rollins takes his one without any extra help. This song is from my personal favorite Black Flag full length and favorite from the Rollins era Black Flag. It feels like I'm listening to the actual album rather than a tribute. Everything seems spot on in this song. Even my reoccurring complaint of the lack of Ginn presence can't be applied to this song. It's still obvious it's not Ginn behind those 6 strings, but it doesn't really affect the song's quality overall.
5/5
24. Ryan Adams - Nervous Breakdown (Bonus Track)
I don't know why this is labeled a bonus track, the CD is supposed to have 24 songs. Maybe because Ryan Adams is alone, no Rollins Band in the background, just him and a guitar. This is one of my favorite tracks on the album because it's such a different take on a Black Flag song that is the epitome of the 80's hardcore sound. It really gives new life to the song.
5/5
Overall the album is interesting to listen to and is for a good cause. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone but Black Flag fans though. A non-Black Flag fan may get lost in some of the songs. Sometimes the sameness of the songs got a little boring, a lot of artists decided on keeping the punk sound rather than adding their own twists, which I wish I would've seen more of, that's what makes tribute albums especially interesting to me.
Overall rating : 4/5
