Crowbar 1993 Album

Crowbar

Crowbar wisely bucks the Melvins' shadow - perhaps spurred on by the appearance of Windstein's buddy Phil Anselmo in the production chair - and comes up with a classic record of the New Orleans metal scene. It's all about the guitar tone - heavy, thick, and with the noticeable deep-fried Southern Rock shades which attracted fans to Pantera and Down albums. Sonically, they are at their peak on the cover of Zeppelin's "No Quarter", bringing in a totally different perspective to the former psychedelic-in-nature tune, and turning it into a massive, noise-filling cauldron that builds upon itself. If nothing else, Crowbar should go down in history for this trick alone. But elsewhere, they are in fairly good form. "Existence Is Punishment" leads in with a really dark bass riff, setting the stage for Kirk's life of misery played out in song for us all, and maybe the flipside of the misery is - he gets a kick rubbing our faces in it? Who knows? That's not for me to decide or judge. I just think that here, the main thing was Crowbar had definitely found a unique voice and staked their claim as a force to be reckoned with. The question going forward was - could they follow up and consolidate it?