Crowbar "Lifesblood for the Downtrodden" CD
[Candlelight]
Ahhh, it's ramblin' time. Like many, I was a huge Crowbar fan in the early-90's. I actually owned "Obedience Through Suffering" (on fucking cassette) before their mighty (and high profile Phil Anselmo-produced) self-titled sophomore effort hit the streets and everything. But, also like many, I slowly started to lose interest in the band after "Time Heals Nothing" came out... for no apparent reason. Then, sometime in the late-90's or so I caught the band on tour and heard a few tracks from "Odd Fellows Rest" live and was absolutely floored, thus I ran out and started collecting all of their records that I'd missed, and by the time 2001' s "Sonic Excess in its Purest Form" was released I was back on track, buying it the day it came out just like I did with this new one (a painfully long four years later). Long story short: Crowbar fucking rules - I knew it then, and I god damn sure know it now, after a brief and unfortunate deviation from the path on my part. Despite having been kicking ass for more than 15 fucking years and pioneering his own brand of slow, sludgy, and massively intense heaviness, Kirk Windstein hasn't lost an ounce of fucking steam - in fact, I'd say his writing skills have been increasingly on point over the last 10 years of the band's existence. This time out Windstein handles all of the vocals and 99% of the guitars and songwriting, with Rex Brown (Pantera, Down) handling bass duties and original Crowbar drummer Craig Nunenmacher (Black Label Society) back in the fold for the recording process (the touring lineup is entirely different) - which is awesome in my opinion as I was always a fan of Nunenmacher's simple but hard-hitting and subtly unconventional style. As for the material itself, it's what you'd expect from Crowbar (unrelenting rhythmic force, amazing melodic tinges, strained singing/shouting), with the usual dose of unexpected twists and turns - a perfect mix of the sound the band has solidified and developed in the past and just the right amount of looking forward. "New Dawn" kicks it off in classic form with slow to midpaced tempos, raging drum fills, and a few appearances of unexpected discordance; while "Slave No More" picks up the pace a bit and makes excellent use of repetition and quick sludgy runs. "Angels Wings" explodes forth with some very surprising bursts of speed contrasted by flat out doomy passages, making for one of the most varied compositions herein. But it's not until the fourth track, "Coming Down", that the band's trademark melodic intensity rears its head; followed by the ominous and largely chilled out "Fall Back to Zero", topping six minutes with brooding singing and light chorusing effects over portions of the vocals and instrumentation - but never fear, there's no lack of crunchy distorted riffs in tow. "Coming Down" is the definitive classic of this record, though - it immediately jumps out and hits you like a ton of bricks with its more openly emotional angle - I swear, if the band ever did an entire record like this I'd probably fucking die. I love this stuff... fucking brilliant. Then it's straight back to business with "Underworld" and its three minutes of no bullshit chunkiness. "Dead Sun" changes up the tempos more often, slowing down and bringing in some interesting vocal harmonies for the chorus; while "Holding Something" has some winding riffs and lots of the awesome dissonant chords for which the band is so known - in my opinion Crowbar's music represents some of the finest use of such playing ever in the history of mankind: Awesome note combinations, odd chord phrasings and bends, sick uses of palm-muting and twisted little picking patterns, etc. Complex? No, but that's not the fucking point, the shit just crushes. And shit, just check out the eerie acoustic/electric layering in "Moon" for an example of the band's continual progression in sinister mastery. "The Violent Reaction" has some of the slower, pounding tempos that should please fans of the band's early work; but then the largely instrumental "Lifesblood" ends the disc with over seven minutes of dry acoustic guitars, piano, distant vocals, and subdued lead lines (delivered at times via slide guitar). As with the band's last effort the recording is fucking pristine, so they've definitely got a consistent and clear vision of how to get around in the studio at this point. The mix is perfectly balanced and aptly crisp given the density of all involved textures, the drums sound totally natural and have a nice snap, the bass is in check, and the guitar tone is fucking awesome - ultra heavy but very controlled, with just the right amount of light grit around the edges. Visually the cover looks very nice with a strong color scheme and faintly metallic gold printing. Inside are lots of collaged facial images (skulls, medical diagrams, charred corpses, illustrations, etc.) along with lyrics in both faux handwriting and typewriter styles. The lyrics are succinct and deal with anything but happiness or satisfaction - be it persevering and enduring pain in this world, substance vices, etc. "This war I've waged is so far from through, For decades now - it's all I can do, I've learned to live and how to survive, Undying will that keeps me alive." Crowbar always seems to have been one of those love/hate bands, and there are definitely a lot of people out there who talk crazy shit about 'em... but I can't hang with that nonsense at all. I'm all over this stuff. You'll be hard pressed to find much out there that's this heavy while still coming off as emotional and gutwrenchingly melodic. This is heartfelt shit, man. No doubt. Get this and shut the fuck up. Live and learn, kids... live and fucking learn. (9/10)
Running time - 49:55, Tracks: 11
[Notable tracks: Slave No More, Coming Down, Fall Back to Zero, Moon, Lifesblood]
Crowbar - http://www.crowbarmusic.com

This review has been displayed 5194 times.