Rise Above is an attempt by David Longstreth to rewrite the entire Black Flag album, Damaged, from memory. Rather than short, angry shouts of protest, the songs often double or triple (quadruple in the case of Spray Paint (The Walls)) the original lengths of the songs and present the lyrics in an array of highly melodic tapestries of music. The album boasts strong string and wind arrangements, most of which came from the album's original 4-track demos. A large clip of the first take of one such arrangement appears as a post scriptum to Room 13, and another chunk of unidentified strings are the bonus track.