Thou - In the Pines (AKA Where Did You Sleep Last Night?)

Black Flags Over Brooklyn was heavy metal festival held earlier this year in Brooklyn.  The event was billed as an anti-fascist and anti-racist gathering for like-minded, progressive metal heads.  I wish i could have gone.  Anyway, continuing their string of being awesome, the folks behind the fest have now put together a benefit album called "Riffs for Reproductive Justice," featuring a whole slew of different artists offering up their finest metal, hardcore punk, and dark folk songs to raise money for abortion access.  Read their statement:

'Riffs for Reproductive Justice' is a new compilation of metal, hardcore, punk, and dark folk songs from a wide range of artists who have united to raise money for an extremely important cause: abortion access.

Abortion clinics across the country are being forced to close, robbing people of the ability to access crucial healthcare services. A theocratic fascist regime is working overtime to control the bodies of those who have uteruses, to force us into unwanted pregnancies, to wrest away our human rights. We cannot stand by and let this happen. All of us—people of every gender, with every kind of body—need to fight back against this horrifying attack on bodily autonomy, by any means necessary.

This compilation is just one small effort made by a few dozen people who care, who are intimately affected by this, and who love other people who are afraid of what the future will bring. There are so many other brave individuals and groups who have been putting in work around this issue for decades, and my hope here is to raise a significant amount of funds from within the metal, punk, and overall music fan communities to allow them to continue that necessary work.

100% of proceeds from this compilation will be donated to the National Network of Abortion Funds (NNAH: abortionfunds.org) and the Yellowhammer Fund (yellowhammerfund.org). Donation receipts will be posted in a Dropbox folder which will be shared with the bands and with anyone who requests access.

Say it loud, with distortion, with fucking feeling:
ABORTION IS HEALTH CARE.
HEALTH CARE IS A HUMAN RIGHT.
WE WON’T GO BACK.

This is a really important cause, and all of your dollars will help.  Plus, the compilation has some excellent artists on it, from Violet Cold to Emma Ruth Rundle to Ails, as well as the first track that caught my ear, a blistering and massive cover of Leadbelly's "In the Pines" by Louisiana sludge metal band Thou.  It basically counts as another Nirvana cover too.  Check it out below and get the whole thing here.  Do it!