Cataloguing My Metal Collection Pt. 51

ARTIST:  Down
ORIGIN:  New Orleans, LA (United States)
TITLE:  NOLA
LABEL:  Elektra
YEAR:  1995
GENRE:  Southern Metal
FAVORITE SONG: "Stone the Crow"
NOTES:  A side project featuring members of Pantera (Phil Anselmo), Corrosion of Conformity (Pepper Keenan), Crowbar (Kirk Windstein and Todd Strange) and Eyehategod (Jimmy Bower).  This has been one of my favorite albums for a long time.  Each song is incredibly catchy.  Each of the members brought their own unique style to the proceedings.  I have seen Down live once opening up for Metallica.

Corrosion of Conformity: Megalodon

Corrosion of Conformity did not waste much time following up their self-titled reunion album.  The band just this year released an album as a reformed trio made up of the three original members.  Pepper Keenan, quite possibly the driving force of the band over the previous fifteen years of the band's existence, is gone.  So the band's sound reverted to more of a sludgy hardcore, the sound that the band first rose to prominence with.

As I have previously mentioned Deliverance is where I got on board with Corrosion of Conformity.  As far as I am concerned, the band has never done better than that album before or since.  But I did enjoy some of their other work, including on their self-titled album released earlier this year.  So I did not really have any qualms about checking this one out.  Especially since it was free.

There are a couple of moments on this album where the band really does sound like Deliverance-era C.O.C.  "Feed On" and "The Megalodon" both really have that Southern metal swing to them.  The only thing missing on those tracks are the vocals of Keenan.  Not to say that the three members of C.O.C. (I honestly do not know enough about them to tell their vocals apart) are not fine vocalists, a couple of them anyway.  I just do not think they quite have the same charm.  Again, perhaps that is due to when I got into the band and I might have felt differently if I had gotten into them earlier.  Most of the songs on this EP would have fit in reasonably well on Deliverance, so I am definitely liking it, at least musically.  My only real complaint is with the vocals which do not grab me as much.

For a free EP, I am definitely not complaining.  This is a pretty good release from C.O.C. and is shockingly even better than the full-length from earlier.

Cataloguing My Metal Collection Pt. 13

ARTIST:  Corrosion of Conformity
ORIGIN:  Raleigh, NC (United States)
TITLE:  Deliverance
LABEL:  Columbia Records
YEAR:  1994
GENRE:  Southern Metal/Sludge Metal
FAVORITE SONG:  "Clean My Wounds"
NOTES:  Corrosion of Conformity frequently changes their sound, and this definitely stands out from anything the band had done previously.  Taking a Southern/sludge metal sound, this was quite a bit different than anything I had heard before.  But the results, including the tracks "Clean My Wounds" and "Alabatross" were incredible.  A great album.

Initial Impressions: Down IV: Part 1 - The Purple EP

Down is my favorite side project band.  And it is not even particularly close.  I have been listening to the band since I first heard about them around the time that NOLA was released.  As most are aware, Down was originally formed from members of Pantera, Corrosion of Conformity, Crowbar, and Eyehategod.  There has been a little bit of turnover at the bass guitar, but the basic idea is still there.

Of course with a side project it is sometimes difficult to find time to record which explains why the band has only released three full length albums since their formation in the early 1990's.  This is just an EP, but the band has announced that they will attempt to release four such EPs in quick succession.  All with new songs. It is a lot easier for the members to get together and put out shorter releases.

As much as I love the band though, none of their subsequent releases have really held a candle to NOLA.  There was just something about the energy on that album.  And every single track was a classic.  It ranks as one of my favorite albums of all time.  The other releases have just not come close to that one.  It is still the one I spin the most frequently when I am in the mood for some Southern fried metal.

This is probably one of the strongest releases, if not the strongest, that Down has put out since their great debut album.  Because there are only six tracks, there is no filler here.  Each song is well-crafted and sounds incredible.  Of particular note are the lead single "Witchtripper" and "Misfortune Teller".  Phil Anselmo's tortured croon is used to full effect on this album.  The riffs are as heavy as anything you would expect when you have Pepper Keenan and Kirk Windstein on guitars.  The band does a terrific job of taking their influences from Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, and Southern rock and mixing it into one package.  This has always been the band's trademark and it sounds just as good here as it did on the first album.

This is an incredible EP, one of the best releases Down has ever put out.  It is just six killer tracks with absolutely no filler.