somewhere around 10th grade is where i got into metal outright, previous to that dude was on his rap shit and some alternative/grunge as was the practice of the time. in tenth grade (circa '95-'96) my dudes put me on a steady diet of Metallica, Pantera, Biohazard and life of agony to get my metal weight up. This was also the days when a young dude was trying to learn how to play guitar and Dimebag Darrell of Pantera was the coolest motherfucker known to man, see evidence of such below.
so one day im reading guitar world or some such guitar related periodical with Dimebag on the cover and dude drops knowledge about how hes really into Crowbar and how theyre heavy as shit. So young me is like "if its Dimebag approved it must be good", which to this day probably isnt too bad of a rule to follow, with the exception of his fascination with KISS. fuck those dudes.
so i ran out and coped "Time Heals Nothing". and was seriously floored by how incredibly and unflinchingly heavy this stuff was. a great mix of punk and metal with none of the superfluous indulgences of either genre. the songs are all simple but destroy entire ecosystems with their mixture of 2-step parts, quarter time evil break downs and pure fat dude metal sludge. Kirk Windstein's vocals sound like he delivered them while trying to pass a kidney stone and yet he doesnt get anywhere near cookie monster vocal land (and he even pulls of some great melodies parts with no hint of wussery). Im totally convinced that the weight of this band adds to the enormity of their sound. back when todd strange was on bass they had to be pushing a cool 1000lbs collectively, which is impressive for a four piece. especially when your drummer is actually thin. you can't even begin to listen to or play crowbar without having that face you get when you get the first whiff of the dog shit you just stepped in.
check it:
Crowbar - Lack Of Tolerance
Crowbar - I Am Forever
I'm at a loss as too how these dudes never got Uber famous, they toured with Pantera1 non stop at the height of their popularity, they made four records (at least) of brutal music and yet they still remain relatively unknown. in 1997/98 when Hatebreed put out "Satisfaction is the Death of Desire"
the innanets went nuts because that record was so focused and lean and terrifyingly bludgeoning. but heres the thing, that record is pretty much a Crowbar tribute album and Jamey Hatebreed openly admits to having a bromance with Crowbar2. Hatebreed goes on to be one of the top 5 metal bands out right now and Crowbar is..well not so much.
Crowbar- All I Had I Gave
1 Kurt Windstein from Crowbar joined up with dudes from EYEHATEGOD, Corrosion Of Conformity and Pantera to create a southern metal supergroup known as DOWN. their first record was pretty much a flawless victory as it showed a heavy Crowbar influence, later records showed less Crowbar influence and hence were less awesome.
DOWN - Bury Me In Smoke & Syptoms of the Universe (Sabbath Cover)
When the first riff drops out and we get that behemoth crushing second riff at 1:32. WTF!!! that's why i love metal
2Kurt Windstein also started a band with Jamey from hatebreed which despite what'd you'd expectwas not the most crushing thing ever. instead it was simply pretty aight.
