Corrosion of Conformity
Live Volume

THE REVIEW

There's a word missing in the title of this first live album by Corrosion Of Conformity; I would have gladly added the term Hard. So it would read Live "Hard" Volume; because it's a recording of such power, of overflowing rocky physicality. The four American rascals, in their concluding acknowledgments, provide the key to interpreting the album: "To all the free thinkers and beer drinkers; this one is for you. Much Respect!! Corrosion." It's all already written in this phrase.

Recorded in April 2001 in Detroit, directly without any studio overdubs. With the engaging participation of a reverent and enthusiastic audience. Almost eighty torrential minutes that focus on the second part of the COC's career; the part that saw them shift, with the release of "Blind", towards a Sabbathian Hard-Rock with Southern and especially Stoner influences. Almost definitively putting aside their early Hardcore days of the eighties: this is the only minor flaw I managed to find in the live recording.

They draw heavily from "Blind", "Deliverance", "Wiseblood", and there are also some tracks from the latest LP "America's Volume Dealer" released in 2000: their best period. Pepper, Woody, Mike (three historic members) make their muddy weight felt in all fifteen tracks. Drummer Reed Mullin is absent and replaced by the bearded Jimmy Bower (for those who don't know, he has collaborated with Down, Eyehategod, and Crowbar).

A few-second introduction, with the audience shouting as a propitiatory rite the initials of the band's name, allows them to take the stage, take their positions and start with the Heavy-Doom instrumental "These Shrouded Temples": a slow, obsessive, swampy sound. Dense with groove and suffocating tension that explodes in the subsequent "Diablo Blvd" where Pepper's shouted and grating vocals guide the instruments, with that rough six-string sound that immediately tests the audience's endurance.

The lethal combination "King Of The Rotten - Wiseblood", the long and dragging "Albatross" (with that downtuned guitar sound that's so Stoner!!), the raw auditory assault of "My Grain" where the ancient blind Hardcore fury is dusted off for once. COC knows no pause and continues their relentless work on the sides.

"Vote With A Bullet" is a perfect example of how derivative COC's sound is: they haven't invented anything that's undeniable. But they travel like tanks, with little technique but lots of rage. A massive, pressing track that crushes and shatters; listen to the final minute, and you'll agree with me. For the space of a song, they slow the furious pace and give us "Shelter": a dark and dreamy electro-acoustic ballad.

But they want to close in style, going back to hitting hard on the instruments and the audience: and they succeed grandly thanks to the final masterpiece "Clean My Wounds". Almost nine minutes of delirium: one of my favorite COC tracks. Hard Rock, Heavy Metal, and Stoner unite to create an endless frenetic ride: enough to bring down the venue's walls!!

A grim, badass, and tough album; praise, honor, and glory to COC...EYE FOR AN EYE...

Ad Maiora.