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Rating: ...2005 was a wonderful year in terms of record releases, including Black Label Society, Corrosion of Conformity, the return of Eye Hate God, and Crowbar.
These latter ones, the founding fathers of sludge metal, are back four years after the excellent Sonic Excess In It's Purest Form (it's impossible for me to forget nihilistic melodies like The Lasting Dose and Thru The Ashes...), with 'Life's Blood For The Downtrodden'. I've been following the band for several years, and I can say that with this latest CD, they have achieved an impressive level of maturity; once again, the lineup has undergone some changes, with Craig Nunenmacher on drums (now also with Black Label Society), and on bass, just for this occasion, Rex Brown (ex Pantera, Down), while Kirk Wendstein takes on the role of guitars, singing with his unmistakable vocal timbre. The production, entrusted to Rex and Warren Ricker, is excellent, with a great emphasis on the heavy drumming and the thick and melancholic guitar riffs; this time the bass is clearer than in the past, where it was almost absent. With this premise, all you have to do is close your eyes and inhale the dark feelings that the myth Kirk Weindstein feels, take a look at the lyrics, to create the right decadent atmosphere...
The songs are all to be savored to embark on a rough, funereal, angry, and damn rational journey. The band does an excellent job conveying the blackest melancholy and anguish, with heavy riffs like boulders, but not only that, more "intense" tracks like the third "Angels Wings", or "The Violent Reaction" provide the right balance to this album's character. Some stylistic "innovations" are decisive and surprisingly positive, as in the enchanting "Moon" where echoes of the best Paradise Lost can be heard, or in "Coming Down" where it seems like listening to an even more doom version of Black Sabbath. I was greatly surprised by Kirk's vocal parts, decisively improved, not on the technical side, but on the practical one; he has abandoned certain claustrophobic solutions of past albums, especially the early ones (give a listen to the title track and you'll see, an acoustic song to tears).
Doom parts that adapt to more "core" parts, passing through the most ruthless metal, this has been Crowbar's trademark for at least 10 years, if you have no idea what sonic heaviness is, give a listen to any album, maybe start with this one which is perhaps the most accessible along with the penultimate 'Sonic Excess In It's Purest form'.
Tracklist and Lyrics
01 New Dawn (03:59)
I'm at the point where I can do what I feel
But I can't break away - these things are still real
I recreate as I hold on
Re-animate as I burn long
Into my eyes - come take a long hard look
There's no disguising it - I've known what it took
I recreate as I hold on
Re-animate as I burn long
New dawn brings me all I need
New dawn gives me all
03 Angels Wings (02:54)
The energy inside - the damage I can’t hide
Got me by the throat as I become another slave
This angel’s wings still growing form the cradle to the grave
An attitude exhumed
The poison I’ve consumed - an attitude exhumed
Carry me back to a place I once loved - nothing below me
It’s all up above
Please take me back to the place that I love
Dirt underneath me but light up above
Destroy what’s in your way and never lose love for yourself
Control your everyday and never lose love for yourself
05 Fall Back to Zero (06:27)
Fall back to zero - come back to life
You can't hold me down (2x)
That light ahead has always shown the way
That voice above is why I'm here today
Take all my sorrow - leave all my love
You can't hold me down (2x)
That light ahead has always shown the way
That voice above is why I'm here today
A better life has grown from all the pain
A stronger mind is what I long to gain
06 Underworld (02:59)
I got a call to rule the underworld
That passion burns in me
I've got a gift and a commanding mind
My faith will set me free
Stand before me now
Take what I give and you will make it back
There ain't a law
There ain't a reson why
No man should feel that hurt
What's in your heart should be enough for you
Believe in what you're worth
Forget the past
Rorget the negative
Just crush what brings you down
Be merciless in your awakening
Accept the things you've found
Release that hold
Take all you've known
Release that hold
That world is gone
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