Some eight years after a studio return, Corrosion of Conformity… make a studio return. Good God / Baad Man is the 11th full-length in the 44-year narrative of the band, whose membership at this point draws from North Carolina, New Orleans, Texas and Chicago. Comprising 14 tracks over a sprawling 66-minute 2LP, Good God / Baad Man is both a reassurance and something of a reachout. It marks the studio debut of Bobby Landgraf on bass/backing vocals alongside founding guitarist Woodroe Weatherman, frontman Pepper Keenan on guitar/vocals and drummer Stanton Moore, who after appearing on 2005’s In the Arms of God (review here) returns to the band in place of Reed Mullin, who passed away in 2020.

The absence of founding bassist Mike Dean, who quit the band in 2024 and has a new project called Archaos, is notable. Keenan has spent the last 20-plus years going back and forth between C.O.C. and Down, in which Landgraf (also Honky, etc.) also plays, and has always brought midtempo groove to balance Dean‘s hardcore punk undertones. Even on a ripper like “Gimme Some Moore” here, which was the album’s first single and might be its most charged moment, is denser and more Motörheaded in its push.

That Good God / Baad Man has so much energy in its recording — the production details and little slices of life at the start or end of a track, short divergent intros and instrumental pieces like “Bedouin’s Hand” and “Mandra Sonos,” creating such varied, vivid pictures — stands alongside the compositional depth and an abiding sense that the band are having a party and everybody’s invited; it is the performances that most tie it together.

Another notable absensce is that of longtime producer John Custer. From 1991’s Blind (discussed here) through 2018’s No Cross No Crown (review here), Custer helmed every C.O.C. studio album, eight total, and played a pivotal role in shaping their sound and influence. Warren Riker (Down, Cynic, Cathedral, etc.) debuts as producer and is served in the effort by his prior collaborations with Keenan in recording Down (it was before Landgraf was in that band, I’m pretty sure), and certainly Down are a relevant consideration particularly as Good God / Baad Man works its way toward the finish of its second LP, with songs like the funk-boogie D-side strutter “Handcuff County” and the backup-singers-included finale “Forever Amplified” feeling especially New Orleans blues-rooted in aesthetic terms. But Good God / Baad Man isn’t a Down record. It’s very much a C.O.C. record, and if you want to be more accurate, it’s two of them. It’s Good God and Baad Man.

One might’ve said the same of No Cross No Crown — that it broke into two distinct LPs — and been correct, but Good God / Baad Man revisits this idea with clearer intention. They’re not exactly even, but the first LP ends with the nine-minute mid-paced melancholy sprawl of “Run for Your Life,” catchy in kind of a sad way, and the second starts with the hook and shove of “Baad Man,” which isn’t necessarily held back by some problematic accenting, but kind of skirts the line there, not that political correctness matters under fascism.

The first of the two albums, with the whole-album intro-into-push “Good God Final Dawn” and “You or Me” and “Gimme Some Moore” offering familiar brashness and groove, choice riffing and striking flashes of aggression, torn-open solos from Weatherman and an abiding air of shenanigans, is the shorter. The powerhouse opening salvo shifts into purer Sabbathry with “The Handler” before “Bedouin’s Hand” departs to vague Middle Easternism and “Run for Your Life” digs in to tell its story in its own time, thank you very much.

This LP, the Good God portion of Good God / Baad Man, does a condensed take on the classic heavy rock A/B-sided 12″ progression. It rocks up front, branches out from there and finishes big. It’s not pushing boundaries for the band the way Baad Man is about to, but it effectively hints toward that in “Bedouin’s Hand” and “The Handler” without giving away where pieces like the penultimate “Brickman,” or the jammy “Swallowing the Anchor” just before it are going to go. The second LP, with four songs each on sides C and D, again starting with “Baad Man” and answering with “Handcuff County,” works not dissimilarly but digs in further for both its straightforward cuts and its branchouts.

“Asleep on the Killing Floor” is a destructive highlight, while “Brickman” is an unplugged contemplation kin to “13 Angels” or “Shelter” from out of C.O.C.‘s catalog, and “Swallowing the Anchor” — with that phone ringing intro bound to catch you off guard the first time you hear it — feels like a touch-ground to prior rockers like “Lose Yourself” and “Baad Man” at first but emerges as jammier. Curiously, the word “tits” is bleeped out of the line, “She had the tits of a witch,” as if to acknowledge that that’s not something they actually want to be saying in a song while at the same time saying it anyway. These are dark, dumb times to be a human male.

In many ways, and not the least of them the blowout they reserve for “Forever Amplified” at the end, Good God / Baad Man is the Pepper Keenan-fronted album C.O.C. fans have wanted since In the Arms of God. Where No Cross No Crown was framed around the comeback of the ’90s era of the band and thus set up to live in the insurmountable shadow of albums like 1994’s Deliverance (discussed here) and 1996’s Wiseblood (discussed here), Good God / Baad Man offers a revitalized, refreshed sound, rooted in live performance.

It is dynamic, encompassing, and speaks to the band’s past without trying to recapture it. Keenan‘s strength as a songwriter is well established and all over this material, but his is by no means the only personality on display here, between Weatherman‘s leads and Landgraf‘s bass kicking in for the burner finish of “You or Me,” or pretty much anything Moore touches throughout, be it the cowbell on “Swallowing the Anchor” or just the way he sits back and holds together songs that go to so many different places.

I won’t mince words or pretend I’m not a Corrosion of Conformity fan. One suspects that for most who hear it, Good God / Baad Man will not be their first exposure to the band. So much the better to become a fan all over again.

Corrosion of Conformity, “You and Me” official video

Corrosion of Conformity, “Gimme Some More” official video

Corrosion of Conformity, Good God / Baad Man (2026)

Corrosion of Conformity website

Corrosion of Conformity on Instagram

Corrosion of Conformity on Facebook

Nuclear Blast Records website

Nuclear Blast Records on Instagram

Nuclear Blast Records on Facebook

My big question going into the evening was which band was I more looking forward to seeing. A no-brainer evening with Clutch and Corrosion of Conformity, plus JD Pinkus, at Starland Ballroom. First night of the tour, no less.

It’d been a couple years for me with both bands. Last I saw Clutch was Freak Valley 2023 (review here), where they played an all-timer greatest hits set, and my last C.O.C. show was Desertfest NYC 2022 (review here). It’s been business as usual for Clutch since then, touring and whathaveyou, kicking around rumors of the ‘next album’ to a point where I expected a new song or two in the set. C.O.C. on the other hand are fresh off last Friday’s release of Good God / Baad Man, on Nuclear Blast and all the according shortform video content making that apparently goes with putting out a record on that level in 2026.

I haven’t reviewed it yet, because timing, but I had it on this afternoon and in addition to being the most Nola record a band that still says they’re from North Carolina ever put out, it’s a burner with its focus where it belongs: on kicking ass. 2018’s seemingly-less-down-with-deity-goodness No Cross No Crown (review here) was a welcome return for the Pepper Keenan-fronted incarnation of the band, but was almost too much in the shadow of their classic 1990s era, where the new one lets loose a bit and is stronger for that. Of course, the intervening few years have also seen founding bassist/sometimes-vocalist Mike Dean leave the band and Bobby Landgraf (Honky, Down) take up that role (minus the founding part, anyhow) and though Stanton Moore handles drums on Good God / Baad Man — he’s in Galactic an you’ll surely recall 21 years ago when he played on C.O.C.’s In the Arms of God (discussed here), right? of course you do — for the tour the band have brought on Nick Shabatura as drummer.

Was curious for that, of course, but first up was JD Pinkus. The former Butthole Surfers bassist, Melvins alum and Honky bandmate to C.O.C.’s Landgraf took stage circa 7:30 and the place looked like it had taken off from work the next day. A Starland blowout was fresh in mind from Acid Bath, but I don’t even know if any of these bands are on TikTok, and it was an older crowd even factoring in the WSOU contingent, as that local college radio stalwart and my acknowledged undergrad alma mater was presenting the night. How rowdy would it get on a Thursday? Was this show sold out? I think it might’ve been. I’ve seen Clutch in this room before. I know that particular drunken sway from Starland Ballroom.

Pinkus wasn’t bringing that kind of party, but people were into it just the same. He stood on the stage by himself for half an hour, plus banjo, sangin’ and songin’ as one might, his experimental side coming through in effects use and the general bent-toward-shenanigans, some distortion, drone swells, loops and the like. You wouldn’t generally think of a one-instrument show as unpredictable, and at a certain level, that’s fair — he got up and he played — but while he was going you didn’t quite know what was next, and it was exciting if not overly loud. He’s someone who’s worked in and across so many styles and I guess a solo set could pretty much have been anything from him alone to a full band playing songs from his last record, 2024’s Grow a Pear. Good vibes persisted, in any case. Ended weird. I didn’t meet him, but dude seemed friendly as hell.

C.O.C. were just the thing.

Came out and hit hard, which was what I was hoping for, honestly. The set wasn’t all new or all old — there are some songs they can’t not play — but the balance was right on and even for being the first night of the tour, they were furious and grooving. Charged. “Killing Floor,” “Baad Man,” “Lose Yourself” and “Gimme Some Moore” featured from the new record, and sat well alongside “Migraine” and “Who’s Got the Fire.” If there was rust, I didn’t see it. The room was full, like, nowhere to stand, and plenty of familiar faces, but once C.O.C. got going, that was it. Clutch are Clutch, and they have Clutch songs, and that’s fortunate because there aren’t a ton of bands who could make sense going on after C.O.C. My understanding is Judas Priest held their own last Fall. “Vote With a Bullet” was rad. Some songs age into different contexts as they go. Also, Pepper Keenan has been to Starland enough times to know it’s in Slayerville.

Keenan noted they were frontloading new songs because they were “stoked on it,” which one would expect and was good to hear anyhow. “Albatross” and “Clean My Wounds” still finished out, so there you go. Like I said, songs they have to play.

Crazy to think they’ll probably be tighter three days from now, considering how sharp was the end of “Albatross,” but such is touring, or so I’m told. The screen that came down between bands, which is a thing at Starland Ballroom, stayed up as the stage was cleared and set for Clutch, and a rousing cheer went up as the Marylander groove kingpins’ banner was hoisted. The set list was right there, and I’m down for spoilers always because I hate fun, so I looked and it was gonna be a good one. Any night you get “Big News I & II” is a win.

Clutch hit the stage at 9:30 — wait, I thought the show was at Starland; now you now why I usually bold these things — preceded by their standard funky about-money intro, and the room (wherever, whenever) was ready. A slew of uptempo numbers at the start — “Earth Rocker,” “X-Ray Visions,” “Firebirds” — left you no choice but to get on board for the duration. While we’re daring toward things context and relevance, they hit into “D.C. Sound Attack” — I was there when vocalist Neil Fallon recorded that chorus — and its continued relevance is kind of a bummer when you think of Necro City as pretty much the whole country at this point. I mean, is anyone not a war criminal?

They kept momentum going with “Oregon” — deep cut; wonder if they played it because the second half sounds just like “Albatross” — and “Red Alert (Boss Metal Zone),” and it was absolutely the unflinching professionalism one has come to expect for Clutch shows. Guitarist Tim Sult, bassist Dan Maines and drummer Jean Paul Gaster were of course locked in, of course they killed it, and of course just a bit of pure unadulterated joy was brought into the world. For new material, there was what was called “Streets” on the setlist and will probably have a longer title by the time The record comes out, and they covered “Fortunate Son” and finished with “The Wolfman Kindly Requests…” in the encore. Neither of those is new, so I guess the comma is doing some heavy lifting in that sentence. Sometimes it’s like that.

“Nosferatu Madre” kind of left me cold, but “A Quick Death in Texas” is a nod, and they prefaced “Streets” with “Regulator,” which is a personal favorite. As for the new track, which may or may not be called “The Streets are His,” Fallon said from the stage that their new album is done before they hit into it, and it was a push-boogie riff that felt kin to “Firebirds” or “Crucial Velocity.” The title-cut from Sunrise on Slaughter Beach led into “Big News” and with “The Mob Goes Wild” and “A Shogun Named Marcus” back to back, it was like the encore started early. Nary a complaint was heard.

This tour doesn’t need a push from the likes of me, and if you’re reading this, I’m guessing you don’t need me to tell you to see these bands either. Cool then, I’ll just hang out and enjoy myself. I did do a bit of that at the show as well, though it was packed enough that it was hard to find a place to be. No, it’s not my first time in a Clutch crowd at Starland, but man, it gets tight in there. When that happens, I just key in on the music as best I’m able.

The night was cool but not freezing and the ride up the Parkway was Queens of the Stone Age and Nine Inch Nails. The ride down had been Buzzard and Fu Manchu. Thanks to The Patient Mrs. for the time and Liz Ciavarella for the pass.

And as always, thank you for reading. More pics after the jump.

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C.O.C. relaease their new album, Good God / Baad Man, next week on Nuclear Blast. The band was already confirmed for a Spring tour alongside Clutch, and considering that run is mostly Eastern Seaboard — looking at you, April 9 at Starland Ballroom — to find them announcing a subsequent West Coast headlining stint isn’t a shock. It’s a the first C.O.C. record since 2018. Eight years ago. You can pretty much bet they’re going everywhere.

The album is a burner. Not a minor undertaking at 66 minutes, but for it being the first Corrosion of Conformity LP in 35 years not to feature founding bassist Mike Dean, their ducks are for sure in a row sound-wise. If there are surprises, they were mostly revealed by the initial singles’ aggressive stance, but there’s plenty of groove to go around, and I kind of feel like, longterm, every song this band puts out is a positive. The more the merrier, and so on. I’ll have a proper review up either next week or much more likely in like three weeks because I’m so god damned behind, but as someone who’s been listening to them since I was about nine years old and am not at all impartial about it — as a fan, in other words — there’s a lot to like.

Dates came from the PR wire:

CORROSION OF CONFORMITY Announces Western US/Canada Headlining Tour This July; Tickets On Sale Friday!

CORROSION OF CONFORMITY will head West this July for a two-week headlining tour with support provided by Whores and Crobot. The trek, which begins on July 6th in Houston, Texas and runs through July 22nd in Lincoln, Nebraska, serves as the second leg of their North American tour set to commence next month.

Tickets go on sale Friday, March 27th at 10:00am local time at coc.com/pages/tour. See all confirmed dates below.

CORROSION OF CONFORMITY w/ Whores, Crobot:
7/06/2026 Scout Bar – Houston, TX
7/07/2026 Granada Theater – Dallas, TX
7/08/2026 The Far Out Lounge – Austin, TX
7/10/2026 The Nile Theater – Mesa, AZ
7/11/2026 The Regent Theater – Los Angeles, CA
7/12/2026 The Glass House – Pomona, CA
7/13/2026 Great American Music Hall – San Francisco, CA
7/15/2026 Hawthorne Theatre – Portland, OR
7/16/2026 The Crocodile – Seattle, WA
7/17/2026 Rickshaw Theatre – Vancouver, BC
7/18/2026 Knitting Factory – Spokane, WA
7/19/2026 Shrine Social Club – Boise, ID
7/21/2026 Federal Theatre – Denver, CO
7/22/2026 Bourbon Theatre – Lincoln, NE

Previously announced dates:

CORROSION OF CONFORMITY Live:
4/07/2026 The Masquerade – Atlanta, GA *
4/08/2026 The Pyrle – Greensboro, NC *
4/09/2026 Starland Ballroom – Sayreville, NJ ^
4/11/2026 The Palladium – Worcester, MA ^
4/12/2026 Kodak Center Theater – Rochester, NY ^
4/14/2026 The Factory – Chesterfield, MO ^
4/15/2026 Manchester Music Hall – Lexington, KY ^
4/17/2026 VooDoo at Harrah’s Kansas City – North Kansas City, MO ^
4/18/2026 Anthem at Hard Rock Sioux City – Sioux City, IA **
4/19/2026 The District – Sioux Falls, SD ^
4/21/2026 Mesa Theater – Grand Junction, CO ^
4/22/2026 Metro Music Hall – Salt Lake City, UT (COC only)
4/23/2026 Treefort Music Hall – Boise, ID ^
4/24/2026 Cargo Concert Hall – Reno, NV ^
4/25/2026 Sick New World – Las Vegas, NV Festival Date
4/27/2026 Sunshine Theater – Albuquerque, NM ^
4/28/2026 The Horseshoe – Midland, TX ^
4/29/2026 The Aztec Theatre – San Antonio, TX ^
5/01/2026 Vinyl Music Hall – Pensacola, FL ^
5/02/2026 The Signal – Chattanooga, TN ^
5/03/2026 The Orange Peel – Asheville, NC ^
5/05/2026 Phoenix Concert Theatre – Toronto, ON *
5/06/2026 Fairmount Theatre – Montreal, QC *
5/07/2026 Le Poisson Rouge – New York, NY ***
5/08/2026 Underground Arts – Philadelphia, PA ***
5/09/2026 Mr. Smalls Theatre – Millvale, PA ***
5/10/2026 The Roxy – Lakewood, OH ***
5/12/2026 The Machine Shop – Flint, MI ***
5/13/2026 The Pyramid Scheme – Grand Rapids, MI ***
5/14/2026 Outset – Chicago, IL ***
5/15/2026 Cannery Hall – Nashville, TN ***
5/16/2026 Tipitina’s – New Orleans, LA ***
* w/ Whores
^ w/ Clutch, JD Pinkus
*** w/ Whores, Crobot

CORROSION OF CONFORMITY will be touring in support of their mammoth new double album, Good God / Baad Man, set for release next Friday, April 3rd via Nuclear Blast!

Produced by Grammy award winner Warren Riker (Fugees, Down, Cathedral) and featuring cover art by famed New Orleans artist Scott Guion, Good God / Baad Man was recorded at Blak Shak Studios in Riffissippi, USA, Dockside Studios in Maurice, Louisiana, and Bee Gee Barry Gibb’s home studio in Miami, Florida.

Find all preorders at THIS LOCATION: https://coccabal.bfan.link/ggbmlp

CORROSION OF CONFORMITY:
Pepper Keenan – guitar, vocals
Woody Weatherman – guitar
Stanton Moore – drums
Bobby Landgraf – bass

http://www.coc.com
https://www.instagram.com/coccabal/
http://www.facebook.com/corrosionofconformity

http://www.nuclearblast.com
http://www.instagram.com/nuclearblastrecords
http://www.facebook.com/nuclearblastrecords

Corrosion of Conformity, “You and Me” official video

Corrosion of Conformity, “Gimme Some More” official video

Of course, for a band who’ve been around for over four decades and have transcended genres a couple times over, one knows better to expect them to only do one thing across a 2LP, but the new C.O.C. track, titled “Gimme Some Moore” — lest we forget Stanton Moore (Galactic) is on drums — is a burner. And Pepper sounds pissed. 2018’s No Cross No Crown (review here) had its brash moments as well and operated in a four-sided structure, so it will be interesting to hear how the rest of Good God / Baad Man plays out upon its arrival April 3. The cover(s) art you’ll find below, and preorders are up, and there are tour dates with Clutch (I hope I get to go to that Jersey show) and the video’s at the bottom of this post. I’m not sure what else you’d need to know here.

Don’t let me keep you. The PR wire brought urgent news:

CORROSION OF CONFORMITY To Release Massive Double Album, Good God / Baad Man, On April 3rd Via Nuclear Blast; New Video/Single Now Playing + Preorders Available

American heavy metal legends CORROSION OF CONFORMITY will release their long-awaited new double album, Good God / Baad Man, on April 3rd via Nuclear Blast!

Much has gone down in the CORROSION OF CONFORMITY universe since their last album smacked us upside the head. Back in 2018, when No Cross No Crown dropped like a rock ‘n’ roll atom bomb, the tried-and-true CORROSION OF CONFORMITY lineup of Pepper Keenan (vocals, guitar), Woody Weatherman (guitar), Reed Mullin (drums), and Mike Dean (bass) was still going strong. Four brothers united in a decades-long history kicked off by a roving pack of teenage punks in Raleigh, North Carolina circa 1982.

CORROSION OF CONFORMITY’s first four albums left a permanent mark on headbangers, longhairs, and street punks everywhere: Underground classics Eye For An Eye (1984) and Animosity (1985) followed by slightly more overground bangers Blind (1991) and Deliverance (1994). By the time CORROSION OF CONFORMITY carved off No Cross No Crown nearly a quarter century later, they were legends in their own time, revered by two generations of punk, metal, and rock fans.

Then tragedy struck: In January 2020, Reed Mullin left this earthly plane. It was a devastating blow, both personally and professionally. How do you replace a brother? You can’t. All you can do is soldier on in his memory. Which is what the rest of CORROSION OF CONFORMITY did – until COVID-19 shut down the globe. Then Mike Dean decided to go his own way. It was an amicable split, but it left Pepper and Woody to contemplate their next move. They hunkered down at Keenan’s place in Mississippi, listening to all the music they love. Discharge. ZZ Top. Motörhead. Neil Young. Black Sabbath. You know: The good stuff.

They started writing. They didn’t stop; not for a long time. In fact, they composed a massive double album. “As we went on, we had such a crazy plethora of songs, it was almost like two different directions,” Pepper says. “We knew we had to split it into two different albums. Then we came up with this concept.”

The concept happens to be the title of the record. It’s called Good God / Baad Man. “Our producer, Warren Riker, kept calling it Dark Side Of The Doom,” recalls Pepper. “In my head, it’s a weird love letter to all things rock ‘n’ roll. We used that for the freedom to go in different directions. Each album is its own tiny universe and has its own identity. Good God leans toward the heavier/pissed end of the spectrum. Baad Man is more on the throwdown rock scope. As we went along, it became clear which songs went on which album.”

They brought in drummer Stanton Moore, who played on CORROSION OF CONFORMITY’s 2005 album, In The Arms Of God. They brought in bassist Bobby “Rock” Landgraf, who did time with Pepper in New Orleans heavyweights Down when he wasn’t terrorizing the locals in his own band, Honky. “With a lot of these songs, we’re trying to make Reed Mullin proud,” Pepper says. “He was a badass, and a one-of-a-kind drummer. And the stakes were high.”

The band’s first preview of this mammoth offering comes in the form of lead single, “Gimme Some Moore.” The track features backing vocals from Ministry’s Al Jourgensen and Madonna guitarist Monte Pittman. The hook of the song is, “Struggle is worth the fight/Leather, chains and spikes.” “Me and Woody wanted to write a song as if we were 17 years old again,” Pepper explains. “We even made a seven-inch for it.” Said seven-inch, released during their Mexico/South American tour last month, is an early ‘80s punk throwback, complete with a black and white photo collage and a Fear cover on the flipside. It’s a ripper. The video for “Gimme Some Moore” was filmed by Mike Holderbeast and directed by Pepper Keenan.

Produced by Grammy award winner Warren Riker (Fugees, Down, Cathedral) and featuring cover art by famed New Orleans artist Scott Guion, Good God / Baad Man was recorded at Blak Shak Studios in Riffissippi, USA, Dockside Studios in Maurice, Louisiana, and Bee Gee Barry Gibb’s home studio in Miami, Florida.

Good God / Baad Man will be released on digipak CD and digital formats as well as vinyl in the following color variants:

Gatefold 2xLP w/ Belly Strip – Black Vinyl (Retail)

2 Separate Jacket LPs w/ Belly Strip – LP 1 Blue/LP 2 Red (Mail Order + Band Exclusive)

Find all preorders at THIS LOCATION: https://coccabal.bfan.link/ggbmlp

Additionally, limited quantities of the band’s “Gimme Some Moore” seven-inch are available at the band’s website HERE: https://coc.com/

Good God / Baad Man Track Listing:
Album 1
1. Good God? / Final Dawn
2. You Or Me
3. Gimme Some Moore
4. The Handler
5. Bedouin’s Hand
6. Run For Your Life

Album 2
7. Baad Man
8. Lose Yourself
9. Mandra Sonos
10. Asleep On The Killing Floor
11. Handcuff County
12. Swallowing The Anchor
13. Brickman
14. Forever Amplified

In support of Good God / Baad Man, CORROSION OF CONFORMITY will return to stages this Spring on a North American headlining tour with support provided by Whores and Crobot.

The journey begins with a pair of headlining shows on April 7th and April 8th in Atlanta and Greensboro respectively, with Whores. From there, the band will head to Sayreville on April 9th to join Clutch for a run of dates through May 3rd in Asheville (with additional support by JD Pinkus). CORROSION OF CONFORMITY reconvenes with Whores on May 5th in Toronto and May 6th in Montreal with Crobot joining the caravan for all remaining dates through May 16th in New Orleans.

Tickets are on sale now. See all confirmed dates below.

CORROSION OF CONFORMITY Live:
4/07/2026 The Masquerade – Atlanta, GA *
4/08/2026 The Pyrle – Greensboro, NC *
4/09/2026 Starland Ballroom – Sayreville, NJ ^
4/11/2026 The Palladium – Worcester, MA ^
4/12/2026 Kodak Center Theater – Rochester, NY ^
4/14/2026 The Factory – Chesterfield, MO ^
4/15/2026 Manchester Music Hall – Lexington, KY ^
4/17/2026 VooDoo at Harrah’s Kansas City – North Kansas City, MO ^
4/18/2026 Anthem at Hard Rock Sioux City – Sioux City, IA **
4/19/2026 The District – Sioux Falls, SD ^
4/21/2026 Mesa Theater – Grand Junction, CO ^
4/22/2026 Metro Music Hall – Salt Lake City, UT (COC only)
4/23/2026 Treefort Music Hall – Boise, ID ^
4/24/2026 Cargo Concert Hall – Reno, NV ^
4/25/2026 Sick New World – Las Vegas, NV Festival Date
4/27/2026 Sunshine Theater – Albuquerque, NM ^
4/28/2026 The Horseshoe – Midland, TX ^
4/29/2026 The Aztec Theatre – San Antonio, TX ^
5/01/2026 Vinyl Music Hall – Pensacola, FL ^
5/02/2026 The Signal – Chattanooga, TN ^
5/03/2026 The Orange Peel – Asheville, NC ^
5/05/2026 Phoenix Concert Theatre – Toronto, ON *
5/06/2026 Fairmount Theatre – Montreal, QC *
5/07/2026 Le Poisson Rouge – New York, NY ***
5/08/2026 Underground Arts – Philadelphia, PA ***
5/09/2026 Mr. Smalls Theatre – Millvale, PA ***
5/10/2026 The Roxy – Lakewood, OH ***
5/12/2026 The Machine Shop – Flint, MI ***
5/13/2026 The Pyramid Scheme – Grand Rapids, MI ***
5/14/2026 Outset – Chicago, IL ***
5/15/2026 Cannery Hall – Nashville, TN ***
5/16/2026 Tipitina’s – New Orleans, LA ***
* w/ Whores
^ w/ Clutch, JD Pinkus
*** w/ Whores, Crobot

CORROSION OF CONFORMITY:
Pepper Keenan – guitar, vocals
Woody Weatherman – guitar
Stanton Moore – drums
Bobby Landgraf – bass

http://www.coc.com
https://www.instagram.com/coccabal/
http://www.facebook.com/corrosionofconformity

http://www.nuclearblast.com
http://www.instagram.com/nuclearblastrecords
http://www.facebook.com/nuclearblastrecords

Corrosion of Conformity, “Gimme Some More” official video

I mean, it’s free to stream, but it’s also a cover of the band Free. Corrosion of Conformity — operating as the four-piece of guitarist/vocalist Pepper Keenan, guitarist/backing vocalist Woodroe Weatherman, bassist Bobby Landgraf and drummer Stanton Moore — have posted a take on Free‘s “Fire and Water” as a herald for something called ‘Riffissippi Studio Jam Sessions.’ Keenan gives some of the preliminaries below, but the gist is that the cover is separate from the band’s awaited next album, which as of last month was a 2LP coming next year on Nuclear Blast, and is apparently one of a series. Note in the cover art/promotional image below the part where it says “Vol. 1.” Obviously the implication is there’s more.

So be it. If that becomes a pressed-to-CD covers EP or LP over the next however-many months either to precede or follow the actual record of original songs, what, I’m gonna complain? And if it’s just videos of the band jamming to keep content algorithms happy and their name in the forebrain of their fanbase for when said record starts its promo cycle? Not arguing with that either. Ain’t none of us getting any younger. The more the merrier.

Video’s at the bottom of the post. Here’s what Nuclear Blast had to say about it, plus the dates of the band’s current tour with Judas Priest and Alice Cooper from the PR wire:

CORROSION OF CONFORMITY – “Fire and Water”

CORROSION OF CONFORMITY are back with a special rendition of ‘Fire And Water’ by English rock band, Free! The classic track was originally released in 1970 on the album of the same name. CORROSION OF CONFORMITY’s version came spontaneously in the studio during some downtime while recording their forthcoming new full-length, set for release next year, and serves as the first of the Riffissippi Studio Jam Sessions, a special collection of jammed out interpretations of songs by some of the band’s favorite artists.

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Comments guitarist/vocalist Pepper Keenan, “When we were tracking this record, we had a very cool space set up where we would essentially hang in the large room with everything mic’d and everything we needed, including a turntable and a bunch of our favorite records, which we would play and chill out between takes. We were hanging together, and I pulled out a Free album and ‘Fire And Water’ popped up. [Drummer] Stanton [Moore] jumped up immediately and said, ‘Who the fuck is that!?.’ He had never heard it before. We were baffled, but it was awesome to us that he had never heard it. He said, ‘let’s cut that!’ I said, ‘man, that’s friggin’ Free and kind of like holy ground that you don’t fuck with.’ But we started thinking about it and damn Stanton charted it out like the drum wizard he is. I said, ‘I can’t sing like that, man. He’s the king.’ Someone in the room said, ‘just sing it like you,’ so we went for it and had a blast doing it. It was a nice fun break from the recording. It’s nothing too serious, just a bunch of fellas leaning into it, loving the rock. It’s an exercise in restraint. Hope y’all dig it.”

CORROSION OF CONFORMITY w/ Judas Priest, Alice Cooper:
9/23/2025 Hartford HealthCare Amphitheater – Bridgeport, CT
9/24/2025 Veterans United Home Loans Amphitheater – Virginia Beach, VA
9/25/2025 The Golden Pony – Harrisonburg, VA **
9/26/2025 PNC Bank Arts Center – Holmdel, NJ
9/27/2025 Broadview Stage at SPAC – Saratoga Springs, NY
9/29/2025 Budweiser Stage – Toronto, ON
9/30/2025 Stan’s Room at Piere’s – Ft. Wayne, IN **
10/01/2025 The Pavilion At Star Lake – Burgettstown, PA
10/02/2025 Pine Knob Music Theatre – Clarkston, MI
10/04/2025 Riverbend Music Center – Cincinnati, OH
10/05/2025 Credit Union 1 Amphitheatre – Tinley Park, IL
10/06/2025 Wooly’s – Des Moines, IA **
10/08/2025 Intrust Bank Arena – Wichita, KS
10/09/2025 Warehouse on Broadway – Kansas City, MO **
10/10/2025 Broadmoor World Arena – Colorado Springs, CO
10/12/2025 Utah First Credit Union Amphitheatre – Salt Lake City, UT
10/14/2025 Shoreline Amphitheatre – Mountain View, CA
10/15/2025 Toyota Amphitheatre – Wheatland, CA
10/17/2025 The Usual Place – Las Vegas, NV **
10/18/2025 North Island Credit Union Amphitheatre – Chula Vista, CA
10/19/2025 Kia Forum – Inglewood, CA
10/21/2025 Rockhouse Bar & Grill – El Paso, TX **
10/22/2025 Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre – Phoenix, AZ
10/23/2025 Isleta Amphitheater – Albuquerque, NM
10/25/2025 Germania Insurance Amphitheater – Austin, TX
10/26/2025 The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion – Houston, TX

End Tour
11/08-09/2025 Damnation Fest @ BEC Arena – Manchester, UK
1/10/2026 Foro Alicia – Mexico City, MX
1/12/2026 Sala Métronomo – Santiago, CL
1/14/2026 Club Paraguay – Córdoba, AR
** CORROSION OF CONFORMITY headlining date

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Corrosion of Conformity, “Fire and Water” (Free cover) official video

The first Corrosion of Conformity album in 20 years to feature Stanton Moore on drums. The first C.O.C. album in 34 years, just one of two in their catalog, without bassist Mike Dean in the lineup. And, to boot, a double-LP following up on 2018’s No Cross No Crown (review here), which ran nearly an hour long and also took place over two 12″ platters.

I’m intrigued. A little worried about it, if we’re honest, but in my view C.O.C. don’t have a bad record. The early hardcore stuff isn’t my thing, but it’s not bad, and from there, well, they were one of the first rock bands I ever really took to. I was a little baby no-bloggy boy. The internet was barely in houses. So I’ve got nerd-fan’s certain amount of trust in how it’ll pan out, despite the oh-no-it’s-different situation 2025 finds the band in with Woodroe Weatherman as the lone remaining founding member and Pepper Keenan likely in the driver’s seat in terms of songwriting. Curiouser and curiouser.

They’re touring with Judas Priest and Alice Cooper this Fall. I don’t know that I could get a photo pass for that, but I want to badly. We’ll see.

On to mixing the record goes. I’m assuming it’s an early ’26 release, also assuming that it’s through Nuclear Blast. This was posted on socials:

For all the freethinkers and beer drinkers….

Woody and Pepper have just finished tracking one of the most meaningful and powerful records we have ever been a part of. This would not have been possible without the skills of all those that have joined this caravan, that is still in hot pursuit. Stanton Moore, Bobby Rock and Mr. Warren Riker between the speakers and never telling us to turn down…now he’s off to mixland..There’s many others that this would have not been possible without and whom will not be forgotten .This is what was in our head for three years and today we can say it is no longer ours.

Thank you all …see you on the horizon

oh yeah ..

It’s a double album.

FOREVER AMPLIFIED
COC

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Corrosion of Conformity, Live at Sonic Temple, Columbus, OH, May 11, 2025

Twenty years ago this month, Corrosion of Conformity issued this 64-minute beast of a seventh album. It was an unexpected tour de force, released through Sanctuary Records, which had made its name picking up major label and bigger metal refugee acts either whose contracts had ended or whose companies had moved on. C.O.C. had done a run of three full-lengths and countless CD singles (it was the era of ‘let’s make $10 off three songs’; things other than weed used to be worth money sometimes instead of just costing a lot) through Columbia Records and before this 2005 wallop, their prior release was 2000’s America’s Volume Dealer, also on Sanctuary.

Now, among C.O.C. fans, America’s Volume Dealer kind of gets crapped on unfairly for the smoothness of its production and the accessibility of its sound. And to be fair, it’s a long, long, long way from the hardcore punk of 1985’s Animosity and/or the Southern-heavy epic that was 1994’s Deliverance — arguably their two pillars by which to measure — but I’ll go to bat for America’s Volume Dealer on the song level every time. “Double-Wide,” “Over Me,” “Congratulations Song,” “Take What You Want,” etc. These are killer tunes, and so when In the Arms of God was coming out, I was looking forward to it as a fan more than perhaps some others.

Two decades later, apparently I’m still patting myself on the back for it because In the Arms of God kicks unmitigated ass. But by the time they had toured for America’s Volume Dealer, drummer Reed Mullin (R.I.P. 2020) was no longer in the band — Jimmy Bower (Eyehategod) plays drums on 2001’s Live Volume — and they needed to find somebody. Not only this, but guitarist/vocalist Pepper Keenan had reignited the mid-’90s Southern heavy supergroup Down, with Bower and Kirk Windstein from Crowbar and others, which continues to this day, and so would be splitting his time between projects, one of which was very definitely at this point in history making more money than the other. So between a prior album that got early-internet panned and a distracted frontman, expectations weren’t high going into In the Arms of God.

But from “Stone Breaker” and “Paranoid Opioid” through the acoustic “Crown of Thorns” and the seven-minute jam-inclusive finale title-track, In the Arms of God is all-go and the band sound duly charged. Hooks abound through “It Is That Way” and “Dirty Hands Empty Pockets (Already Gone)” — one of the best breakouts in this band’s entire history in its later reaches — carrying its momentum into the Zeppelin-unplugged strum of “Rise River Rise” and the expansive-but-cohesive “Never Turns to More” dividing the first and second halves with an eight-minute runtime not at all shy about it’s we’re-off-a-major-label-now-so-here’s-a-jam ethic. Founding bassist/vocalist Mike Dean would take this further as Keenan went off with down to front an updated version of the oldschool trio incarnation of the band for two LPs and an EP between 2010 and 2014.

As with their Deliverance-lineup 2018 comeback, No Cross No Crown (review here) — still their most recent LP — the structure of the album is essential to the listening process. In the Arms of God essentially resets after “Never Turns to More,” with guitarist Woodroe Weatherman and Dean contributing vocals alongside Keenan in “Infinite War,” which remains unfortunately relevant. But while the first six songs are on-the-beat bangers, there’s an effort to space out in the Soundgardeny “So Much Left Behind” that works well before “The Backslider” regrounds between burl and sleek effects, and “World on Fire” declares itself in a nodding groove and one more hook before “Crown of Thorns” and “In the Arms of God” — the later of which should be taught as an example of how to do Southern metal without sounding like a cartoon character — round out.

It was the very tail end of the CD era, and the rock radio success that C.O.C. found in the ’90s had been capitalismed into oblivion. Keenan, Weatherman and Dean, in the absence of Mullin, turned to drummer Stanton Moore of the New Orleans jam band Galactic to fill the role, and with no disrespect to the memory of Mullin or what he contributed to C.O.C. up to and through No Cross No Crown, the drums on In the Arms of God are just of a different kind of character. On some level, it’s the difference between punk and heavy jazz, but Moore not only made the position his own, he owned it. However, he also had his own successful group he was part of, so couldn’t really be the full-time drummer C.O.C. wanted.

I don’t know if that’s changed or not, but Corrosion of Conformity have been in the studio — John Custer producing, as always; I didn’t mention it before now because it’s a given — throughout the last couple months, piecing together their next full-length. They’ve been doing so without Dean, who announced last Fall he was leaving the band — their new bassist is Bobby Landgraf, known for his work in Honky and for sharing guitar duties with Keenan in Down — for the first time since 1991’s Blind (discussed here), and with Stanton Moore once again stepping into the drummer position, 20 years later.

As to what the Keenan/Weatherman/Landgraf/Moore incarnation of Corrosion of Conformity might conjure in terms of craft, Keenan‘s songwriting is a long-since proven consideration, though as a fan, one worries about not having Dean‘s punk-rooted voice as part of the craft. But the underlying message they gave 20 years ago was that C.O.C. were going to find a way forward, and through Dean‘s version of the band to bringing back the four-piece for No Cross No Crown — the major complaint with which that I heard was that it was too long; eight years and zero records later, I don’t mind the “extra” — and the years of touring they’ve done since, I don’t doubt they’ll still find a way forward. “It is that way because it is,” and such. I have to think if C.O.C. could be undone as a concept, an entity, etc., the band would have been put to rest a long time ago. I think it’s too much in their blood for that.

And I’m glad.

In a spirit of looking forward to new things and new ideas while treasuring what the past has already brought us, I hope you enjoy. Thanks for reading.

—

What did I learn at this year’s Roadburn? That I’m unpleasant. I learned that people don’t really like talking to me, even some of my friends, and that when I walk away, it’s a relief. So I tried to walk away quickly and at least not obligate people to, I don’t know, look at me or have some kind of conversation. I also have basically nothing to say that isn’t “hi I’m terrified of life,” so I’ll 100 percent cop to my own role in making myself unbearable to be around. Anybody want to hear my middle-aged ass complain? No. Indeed not.

It’s a good thing I have a blog. Ha.

It felt good to come home this past Monday. I got a big hug from The Pecan, who very quickly remembered she doesn’t care for me all that much either and really only wants to talk to me when she needs something or her mom isn’t around. It do be like that, I’m told. My wife being legit wonderful, I try not to take the constant outright rejection personally, but as you may have guessed, fail outright just about every time. I go to bed most nights feeling like garbage. She’s been having a hard time at school — I will be genuinely surprised if I get through today without a call to come pick her up; it would be the second of this week and she didn’t go yesterday — and doesn’t have a lot of friends because she loses it and yells and wants to control everything and is autistic as fuck but hell no I’m not getting her diagnosed when some moron is out there talking about how people on the spectrum don’t pay taxes so maybe we just put them in these camps over here or whatever wacky horrifying bullshit came out of his bloated face last week while I was in the Netherlands. Fuck that.

But it’s a hard time, mostly for her, but definitely also for everyone around her. She’s got a couple dickhead boys in her class who’re gonna be giving her shit through high school. You can already see which kids it is. Normal-little-fucker whiteboys. I refuse to tell my kid not to defend herself. She’s going to need to.

Up and down week, I guess. Feel good but tired coming home from Roadburn and the energy-comedown is always a shift to make. But this isn’t my first time at the dance either and I set up this week purposefully so that it was the Buzzard video, the Dead Shrine premiere and today’s Conan review in a row basically as a favor to myself — those are all projects I enjoy and am interested in writing about, and in the case of the latter two, there’s a back catalog for context and I enjoy exploring that as well, if you couldn’t tell in the part about In the Arms of God above.

Zelda update: I just last night finished the Tower of Gods and let The Pecan pull the Master Sword from sunken Hyrule Castle in The Wind Waker. I never played it when it came out because I didn’t have a GameCube and thought it looked stupid, but it’s a pretty great game and my head was up my drunk ass in my 20s in just about everything except getting married and listening to stoner rock. I’m running an emulator on my computer with a couple quality of life mods and it’s been great.

Hope you have a great and safe weekend. Thanks for reading, for giving me space to vent without getting shit for it. I value that more than I can say. Next week is full. There’s news to catch up on (always) and premieres slated for Slow Draw (full album, Monday) and Burning Sister (video, Tuesday), as well as a review of the new Hippie Death Cult live LP and so on. It’ll be a good time, and thanks if you tune in for it.

Don’t forget to hydrate. It’s getting hot out there. And watch your head as you go. Listen to the new Turtle Skull.

PS – Thanks to everyone who bought merch in this round. It’s down now, but I appreciate the support and got about $450 in off of that that goes to paying bills and buying coffee. Helps keep me afloat and feel like I’ve contributed to the house this month, so yes, thank you.

FRM.

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Granted it wasn’t the first time in Corrosion of Conformity‘s more than four decades that they did so, but it was a surprise nonetheless in September when the band bid farewell to founding bassist/vocalist Mike Dean, announcing they’d be continuing on with someone new. The someone has turned out to be Bobby Landgraf, who solidifies the lineup around guitarist/vocalist Pepper Keenan, guitarist/backing vocalist Woodroe Weatherman, and onstage drummer (I think it’s still) John Green.

The band didn’t make an announcement as such — it was the holidays, you know how it is — but Landgraf posted the photo-collage and brief confirmation on his socials. If you’re not familiar, his pedigree includes shenanigans-laced heavy rockers Honky, playing guitar alongside Keenan, fronting Snakes of Central Texas, teching for Pantera and a bunch of others, and so on. And of course, there’s video of him doing the thing filmed at Headbangers Boat a few weeks back (the photos below would seem to have originated there as well). It’s bootleg sound, but it’s also “Albatross,” so even if they weren’t showing off a revamped dynamic, really it’s its own excuse for being.

Last I heard, C.O.C. were still in-progress on the follow-up to their 2018 album, No Cross No Crown (review here), working with drummer Stanton Moore (who last appeared on the band’s 2005 outing, In the Arms of God) in the studio with Warren Riker producing. Videos go up periodically of this or that being recorded, but you wouldn’t accuse them of rushing it, and fair enough. No doubt the proceedings will be different without Dean there, but change is the order of the universe, so there you go.

2025 release? Surprise album and tour drop sometime in Spring? That’d rule. I, of course, know nothing. Ever. About anything. You get used to it after a while. A stupid kind of zen.

From socials:

Absolutely Thrilled to be in Corrosion of Conformity. Onwards and Upwards

Pics by Kevin RC Wilson

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C.O.C., “Albatross” Live on Headbanger’s Boat