Music review: Crowbar - Crowbar (1993)

Ah, finally getting back to the uglier side of music! This choice may be a small surprise for people who prefer the latter, more atmospheric (and indeed great) sound of Odd Fellows Rest and Sonic Excess in Its Purest Form but let me explain.

This album has three advantages over those, in my opinion:

• Groove. Loads of it, a bit unexpected in the genre and mixing perfectly with the pervading heaviness.
• Diversity. You get the aforementioned melodic melancholy in tracks such as "Existence is Punishment", groovy headbangers like the opener or the much more hardcore energy infused "Self-Inflicted"; even the tempo varies wildly! A bit like Down's NOLA in this respect.
• Bleakness. I'm of the opinion that trve sludge shines at its bleakest and/or angriest, like its genesis My War. Some examples of such unforgiving sound: Eyehategod's In the Name of Suffering, all of Grief or Buzzov•en's Sore.

Comparing it with their previous effort really shows how much the brand new production improved the whole, with its increased focus on weight and greater clarity; courtesy of Phil Anselmo, better known for his role as Pantera's and Down's vocalist.

I just don't have anything bad to say about it, nothing I'd change. Even the Led Zeppelin cover is great! Its modest 35 minutes runtime usually feels like 15, so consistently good and entertaining it is.

This review may be filled with praise and devoid of criticism, but I still feel like I can't give it a 10 because that's not a trifling thing in Art with a big A. Maybe a bit too much consistency leading to redundancy between some tracks? Only because I must justify this 9.