Broken Glass 1996 Album

Crowbar

The first four albums for Crowbar reveal a minor, odd trend at work - every other even-numbered album seems to be more interesting than every other odd-numbered album, for some reason. This time around, Jimmy Bower from EyeHateGod and Down stepped into the drummer's seat, and guess what? Now the achy, creaky, Zeppelin-aping Down sound is in full effect, which, as it turns out, isn't that much of a change in direction from the original Crowbar sound. In many respects, it is a slightly disappointing development - though not unexpected - as Windstein and Bower had performed with Down the year before, so naturally, why not do a Crowbar record with all the same tricks they picked up from the other band? Parts of this are great to hear - the cinematic atmosphere of "Nothing", by itself, is pretty notable - but a lot of it feels very playbook-ish, especially with the Phil Anselmo vocal overdubs in the background.