DOWN: NOLA

Produced by Down and Matt Thomas

Released: 1995

It's pretty rare when both critics and fans agree about the greatness of an album, but an album like NOLA is a very rare thing indeed. Supergroups are usually pretty hit-and-miss affairs, with most of them not being particularly "super" at all. But Down is one of those that really worked, fusing its various talents to create one of the best metal albums of all.

Written almost entirely by Pantera's Phil Anselmo and Pepper Keenan from Corrosion of Conformity and fleshed out with the assistance of Crowbar's Kirk Windstein and Eyehategod drummer Jimmy Bower, NOLA is a glorious sludge-fest, a relentlessly murky album that simply defines its genre. Anselmo puts in a slow-burning vocal performance that is in parts mournful, desperate and angry and really quite different from his Pantera style. Keenan's riffs are catchy and immense and Bower's drum sound borrows from the enormous, up-front style of John Bonham: powerful, echoing thunder. The raw production only enhances the atmosphere of this release. NOLA sounds like it was recorded in a rehearsal studio during a jam session in which ridiculously copious amounts of controlled substances were being imbibed.

From the opening chords of "Temptation's Wings" you know that this is going to be a dark, pained but strangely enjoyable journey through tales of prison, hard living and celebrations of drug use drawn into stark reality by Anselmo's cryptic, seemingly train-of-thought lyrics that rank as some of the best he ever penned. The sensational, layered "Stone the Crows" is the album's stand-out and rightly its best-known cut, but immediately after it is "Pray for the Locust", an acoustic interlude that recalls Tony Iommi's on Master of Reality, the album NOLA most closely resembles. Then comes the monumental closer, "Bury Me in Smoke", a cataclysmic stoner epic that perhaps only Sleep could match.

NOLA is a true masterpiece, easily as good or better than anything Down's individual members created with any of their other bands. One of the best heavy rock albums ever.

1. Temptation's Wings
2. Lifer
3. Pillars of Eternity
4. Rehab
5. Hail the Leaf
6. Underneath Everything
7. Eyes of the South
8. Jail
9. Losing All
10. Stone the Crows
11. Pray for the Locust
12. Swan Song
13. Bury Me in Smoke

Rating: 100%

CORROSION OF CONFORMITY: Wiseblood

Produced by John Custer

Released: 1996

Corrosion of Conformity's previous album Deliverance showed that the band's journey from hardcore band to sludge metal overlords was complete. With Wiseblood they tweaked a few things and created their masterpiece, even managing to rope James Hetfield in on the fun.

Deliverance may have scored the band some US chart action and elevated their status somewhat, but while it had plenty of moments there weren't nearly enough memorable songs and it was obvious COC was still trying to perfect its Southern rock/sludge thrash crossover. Where they had failed there, on Wiseblood they nail everything perfectly. "King of the Rotten" gets things underway with a scorching riff and Keenan's snarling vocals and mid-way through the running order is a knock-out trio headed up by "BOrn Again for the Last Time", leading into the pure gem that is "Drowning in a Daydream" and following through with "The Snake Has No Head".

There isn't really any filler on here, just one killer cut after the next as COC veers effortlessly from Southern-style sludge to doomified rock to ultimate bottom-feeding drone (titled, erm, "Bottom Feeder", no less!) while delivering nothing less than an thoroughly enjoyable and consistent album. Keenan and Woody Weatherman fire off some truly tasty riffage with Mike Dean's huge bass sound rumbling along underneath. The debt paid to Black Sabbath here is both obvious and enormous, but that could be said about lots of bands, and Corrosion of Conformity adds a well-honed groove to it that Pantera would not only envy but admire. Another admirer was Hetfield, who chimes in with some backing vocals on "Man or Ash", marking one of few musical contributions outside of Metallica.

Put simply, Wiseblood is just musical dynamite, a fantastic album from a band at the very top of their game and one that should find a home amongst the collection of any devoted listener of quality heavy music.

1. King of the Rotten


2. Long Whip/Big America


3. Wiseblood


4. Goodbye Windows


5. Born Again for the Last Time


6. Drowing in a Daydream


7. The Snake Has No Head


8. The Door


9. Man or Ash


10. Redemption City


11. Wishbone (SomeTomorrow)


12. Fuel


13. Bottom Feeder

Rating: 92%