The hardcore supergroup Dead Cross, featuring living legends Mike Patton on vocals and Dave Lombardo on drums, have covered the Black Flag classic “Rise Above” in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement.
Patton (Faith No More, Mr. Bungle) and Lombardo (Misfits, ex-Slayer) are joined by Dead Cross bandmates Michael Crain (guitar) and Justin Pearson (bass) on the socially distant performance. The song is preceded by an audio recording of a resident’s profanity-laced tirade against the LAPD as he called in to an actual police commission meeting on Zoom.
In posting the video on Facebook and YouTube, the band stated that the performance was “created in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement and staunchly opposing police brutality and systemic racism.”
Dead Cross hit the studio in late 2019 to begin working on the follow-up to their 2017 self-titled debut LP. Around that same time, guitarist Michael Crain revealed he was making progress in his bout against the skin cancer squamous cell carcinoma, which he was diagnosed with earlier in 2019.
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Patton, meanwhile, just released the first Mr. Bungle recording in more than 20 years, a cover of The Exploited’s “USA” (with Lombardo on drums). The singer also recently joined Anthrax’s Scott Ian and Charlie Benante on “Speak Spanish or Die”, a reworked version of Stormtroopers of Death’s “Speak English or Die”.
Dead Cross’ performance of Black Flag’s “Rise Above” can be seen below, while donations to Black Lives Matter can be made at the movement’s official website.
Listen to Patton discuss his numerous projects, from Faith No More to Mr. Bungle, during a past appearance on This Must Be the Gig:
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