Crowbar 'Sever The Wicked Hand' (an expanded review)
Out now on Century Media
It's been a while folks, the weight of January, house hunting, work colleagues indulging in fuckwittery and coupled with the malise that kicks in after Jesus' Birthday and I have been somewhat remiss in continuing the journey through Metal & Time...
I though I'd try and be a bit clever and give a historical perspective on Crowbar before reviewing their excellent new slab of Southern Sludge 'Sever The Wicked Hand'.
My personal journey brought me to Crowbar in 1998 - late to the party I appreciate, but I was already aware who founder Kirk Windstein was from his work with New Orleans supergroup Down.
Kirk formed Crowbar somewhere around the late eighties with best friend Jimmy Bower who is known as "the Godfather of Southern Metal" due to his frankly impressive involvement in Eyehategod, Superjoint Ritual, co-founding Down and playing significant parts in the histories of Corrosion Of Conformity and of course Crowbar (Windstein affectionately refers to him as 'the fat drummer from Down').
The pair decided to take the hardcore sound of the time and break it up by playing slower and heavier - going in direct opposition to bands trying to achieve the speed of light on the back of the thrash explosion of a few years earlier. The lead heavy dirge became known as Sludge and through Crowbar a genre was born.
The first album came in 1991, by this time the band had collapsed and then reformed. Bower had returned to Eyehategod and Kirk had nearly joined thrashers Exhorder before deciding to press on as the mainstay of the band.
Obedience Thru Suffering fell in the woods and frankly no one heard it; well that's a little harsh, but it would be fair to say that if at that point Kirk got involved in a Battle Rap his opponent would be taunting him with the standard 'You couldn't sell two copies if you pressed a double album' line such was the limited exposure outside of the NOLA bar scene.
It is not a bad release, having the trademark hardcore speed and the slow grind that would define the band in later years.
However by 1993 the band found themselves blessed with the patronage of personal friend and rising MTV favourite Philip 'Is that my foot in my mouth or did I say something cuntish?' Anselmo. Anyone reading this should know, that when not making a massive twat of himself, Phil has been one of the finest metal vocalists of the last twenty years fronting Pantera, Down, Superjoint Ritual, numerous side projects, running the House Of Shock in New Orleans, founding Housecore Records and still taking time out to cultivate and kick a debilitating heroin addiction which cost him more than his band and public respect... but that is undoubtedly a tale for another day.
Producing the self titled release, childhood friend Anselmo oversaw a band coming on in leaps and bounds with songs like 'All I Had, I Gave', 'Self-Inflicted' still finding their way into the live set today and an astounding cover of Led Zep's 'No Quarter'. Having the frontman for the darlings of the metal press wearing your shirts in their videos doesn't hurt either, nor does getting played on zeitgeist show Beavis & Butthead.
Over the next 5 years as well as contributing to Down's incredible debut album Windstein turned in two more solid Crowbar releases in Time Heals Nothing and the superior Broken Glass which saw Bower back into the fold and with Anselmo and contributing backing vocals.
Fast forward to 1998 and this is about where I come in, being as big a Pantera fan as most angry teenaged boys in the '90's it was only natural I had heard of Down. I had already fallen in love with the smokey, heavy, riffs of Keenan and Windstein topped off with the raging and crooning of my favourite vocalist of the time (Dickinson languishing in solo purgatory turning in patchy sub par albums - Balls To Picasso - or grungy space rock that I wouldn't appreciate until I grew up a bit - Skunkworks) and Crowbar promised exciting new avenues of heavosity (I know it's not a word, sue me).
This, coupled with the fact a dude from the local rock scene who went everywhere with a long sleeved Crowbar t-shirt (baring the legend NONE FUCKING HEAVIER - sadly discontinued before I could get one, but now will only buy their shirts in long sleeve as a result) tied round his waist, made me want to check out this band.
Right on cue Crowbar hit a rich vein of form that continues to this day releasing the astounding Odd Fellows Rest which features Kirk's own favourite song in the immense 'Planets Collide'. This was followed by the powerful Equilibrium and the possibly career best Sonic Excess In It's Purest Form, albums that defined and cemented the band as masters of a genre of one.
It wouldn't be until 2005 before the follow up surfaced, Kirk occupied with Down II, the death of friend Dimebag Darrell and all members of Down working on serious addictions of their own personal nature.
Lifesblood For The Downtrodden saw the band more introspective (although no less heavy) and expanded on the rich melodies that they had been cultivating since Odd Fellows...
Following this the band was effectively shelved whilst Kirk took the metal world by storm with the reactivation of Down for Over The Under, reuniting after Hurricane Katriona ravaged their home town, destroying Pepper Keenan's bar, wiping out Michael William's (Eyehategod singer) home and stranding Anselmo in the swamp with no one to talk to for like, hours man.
Under the circumstances relentlessly touring the world for four years might be enough for some, but also during this time Windstein has worked with wet dream for throat lozenge adverts and Hatebreed frontman Jamie Jasta on the increasingly cool Kingdom Of Sorrow project producing two brilliant albums, dedicated time to getting sober and somehow managed to squeeze in writing and recording a new Crowbar album.
Which brings us to Sever The Wicked Hand...
A clear reference to sobriety runs through out Crowbar's 9th studio album but unlike the harrowing tales of abuse in the past this one roars from the speakers with the confidence of a man who has faced his demons and won.
Sever... sounds like a band revitalised and focused; the hardcore edge of their 1991 debut is honed to razor sharpness, married with the more mature melodic leanings of later years and this release is more crushing than being sat on by a lead elephant.
At times lyrics have been Crowbar's Achilles Heel, heartfelt and rending, but occasionally seemingly tacked on as an after thought. Here every word is considered and hits home like a smart bomb detonating. On 'The Cemetery Angels' the influence on Kirk of sobriety is plain to see as he rages against the pull of alcoholism with lines like 'You gave me wings, and took the sky away' and 'Sooner or later we all give in and drown'.
Of the twelve songs on offer there is absolutely no fat on display, all are taught and crafted with the expertise of a man who has spent 20 years developing his skills and is now able to deliver with the best of his abilities.
The songs fly by in a blur at first there are that many highlights, 'Protector Of The Shrine', 'As I Become One' and 'Isolation (Desperation)' all bludgeoning and belligerent; 'Let Me Mourn' and the sombre 'Liquid Sky & Cold Black Earth' mature and almost stately, making this feel like a well rounded and complete album.
For those of us fearing the popularity of Down meant the death of bands that I hold dear from these individuals - Corrosion of Conformity album next please Pepper! - has been greatly exaggerated. Having reunited with the same line up that has graced the last few albums and publicly stating that it is the most satisfying period of the groups history this settled and, dare I say, happier Crowbar have matured with age and lost none of their fire.
I live by my mistakes
And learned all the hurt it takes
To overcome and grow
These things you need to know
- Isolation (Desperation)
