RISE ABOVE

Apart from this one. Get 18 of America’s premiere hardcore rockers doing guest vocals on a bunch of old Black Flag songs. You know, Henry Rollin’s first band. The band that sound like a punch in the face with a big black rock. Long long before chancers like whomever adorns kiddies bootleg tops rose to fame, Black Flag were out there serving up doses of naked, raw rock music with titles such as “My War”, “Depression”, “Police Story”, and “Revenge”.

Got the picture yet?

This wasn’t just music : this was exorcism. And even now, listening to twenty year old songs exhumed and sung by members of the original band – and the stars of today who stand in awe of their shadow, it still sounds vital. I need music like this in my life. It makes life easier. It speaks to all of us.

You ain’t heard anything til you’ve heard Ice-T giving up “Police Story”. Hank Williams III singing “No Values”, or Iggy Pop decimating “Fix Me”. These aren’t songs : they’re postcards thrown from the chasm of existence and fused with a desperate need for spiritual healing.

When Henry Rollins slips into “My War”, with it’s insistent, limited autodiadactic repetition of “You say you’re my friend, but you’re one of them, You’re One Of Them, YOU’RE ONE OF THEM!” there’s no doubt in your mind. This is about so much more than music : this is a skull peeled back and dropped onto vinyl.

This is the sound of the fear that lives at the heart of the human psyche, and the sound of resistance as we fight against a world we neither want or made being forced upon to us. And our struggle to rise above the bullshit that tries to drown us.

You’ve Got To Rise Above. Starring Chuck D, Ice T, Iggy Pop, Henry Rollins, Mike Patton, Queens Of The Stone Age, Ween, Slipknot, Amen, Lemmy, Slayer and Rancid. And proceeds go to trying to clear the convictions of three teenagers whose only crime was wearing black and listening to rock.

You don’t need any more reasons to go out and buy this. You’ve got to rise above what tries to drown you. Now.