Posted in Whathaveyou on May 1st, 2026 by JJ Koczan
So it’s not exactly the lead story here, but I want to note that I’m not sure if the Crowbar lineup listed below (from an old press release), with Shane Wesley on bass, is accurate. Patrick Bruders — a bandmate of Crowbar founder Kirk Windstein‘s in Down who also did a stint in Crowbar between 2005 and 2013 — would seem to have taken over the low end toward the end of last year. A shift worth noting.
As they announce this Fall tour with Dying Fetus and Sanguisugabogg, joining forces with death metal bands in what seems like a clear attempt to put themselves in front of some probably less familiar crowds, Crowbar are in the midst of being embraced by meme culture. Over the last two months I’ve seen a ton of ‘Crowbar are the heaviest riffs’-themed memes, and I caught a video the other day where Kirk was talking about how people refer to him as “John Crowbar” and he’s not sure why. It’s just the internet being dumb on purpose, man. Don’t overthink it. Everything’s terrible. What else have we got but our appreciation for the absurd?
But anyhow, this is a long tour, and they’re hitting some big rooms, but it seems likely to me that what’s gonna happen is that, like, five years from now, Crowbar are going to have a lot of new fans from this, because they always deliver live, but it’s going to take the more extreme-metal-prone crowd some time to get their heads around how killer what they saw actually was. That’s not for death metallers being dumb — I’m not hating on the genre or its denizens; I’ve never seen Dying Fetus but they’re legends — but Crowbar are very purposefully the odd band out here, and that’s a position they’ve intentionally put themselves in, and sometimes expanding minds takes time. They’re planting those seeds, though.
Dates were posted on socials thusly:
This September @dyingfetusofficial @sanguisugaboggband @lefttosuffer @crowbarmusic @deteriorationmpls
tickets on sale 5/1
9/17 Philadelphia, PA @ Franklin Music Hall 9/18 Silver Spring, MD @ The Fillmore 9/19 Worcester, MA @ The Palladium 9/20 Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Steel 9/21 Montreal, QC @ L’Olympia 9/23 Toronto, ON @ Danforth Music Hall 9/25 Pontiac, MI @ Crofoot Ballroom 9/26 Milwaukee, WI @ The Rave 9/27 Chicago, IL @ House of Blues 9/28 Des Moines, IA @ Val air Ballroom 9/29 Minneapolis, MN @ The Fillmore 10/1 Denver, CO @ Summit 10/2 Salt Lake City, UT @ Rockwell at The Complex 10/3 Boise, ID @ Knitting Factory 10/4 Spokane, WA @ Knitting Factory 10/5 Portland, OR @ Roseland Theater 10/6 Seattle, WA @ Shadowbox Sodo 10/8 Berkeley, CA @ UC Theatre 10/9 Riverside, CA @ Riverside Municipal Auditorium 10/10 Los Angeles, CA @ The Novo 10/12 Phoenix, AZ @ The Van Buren 10/13 Albuquerque, NM @ Sunshine Theater 10/15 Austin, TX @ Emo’s 10/16 San Antonio, TX @ The Aztec Theatre 10/17 Houston, TX @ House of Blues 10/18 Dallas, TX @ The Bomb Factory 10/20 St Petersburg, FL @ Jannus Landing 10/21 Atlanta, GA @ The Masquerade 10/22 Nashville, TN @ Brooklyn Bowl 10/23 Raleigh, NC @ The Ritz 10/24 Richmond, VA @ The National
—
CROWBAR’s most recent studio offering, the critically acclaimed Zero And Below, was released in April 2022 via MNRK Heavy. Led by riff lord and vocalist Kirk Windstein, with guitarist Matt Brunson, bassist Shane Wesley, and drummer Tommy Buckley, songs like “Chemical Godz,” “It’s Always Worth The Gain,” and “Bleeding From Every Hole” are unapologetic emotional outpourings, with a bare-knuckle resolve alongside its soul-searching vulnerability, reliably delivered with crushing heaviness.
Hey Europe, random-ass American here. I know there’s not a ton of good coming out of my country these days. Bullshit by the hour, an apparently concerted effort to make the world worse in myriad ways, none of them new but most of them horrifying. Hellscape capitalism and war, only the most dystopian of technoligical fealties, on and on. It’s a pretty dark time, and if you see anything US and go “ugh,” you’d be well justified. But, well, we’ve also got Suplecs.
And Suplecs aren’t a horror. They’re actually frickin’ killer. And they don’t do a ton of touring outside New Orleans these days. They’re coming to Norway, the UK and Belgium for a few shows — “select,” you might call them; one’s a private party, and London and Brussels are supporting Unsane — and it’s not the kind of thing that’s going to happen all the time, so regardless of how you’re feeling about the US, about Americans and/or Americanism, I can only urge you to consider getting out for a gig.
Back in February, which was somehow three years ago even though I apparently missed all of March, the three-piece debuted on Ripple with their first album in a decade and a half, Hymns Under a Blood Moon Sky (review here), defying an ancient curse of bad luck with classic boogie groove, more than a tinge of funk, and riffs like they were trying to make up for lost time. Punk at heart and given to only the most wholesome-in-nature mischief, the album has songs and persona in kind, and however much of it they’ll be playing on the road, you’ll be lucky to see it.
To herald the tour, a video for “Pentacle Star” premieres below. The two-minute fuzzbasher arrives early in the proceedings on the album, right behind “Got Nothing” at the outset, and moves deftly between nod and shove, but most importantly, it moves. It is the very essence of classic stoner rock, and that applies to the fact that as I write this post, I still haven’t seen the video that — hopefully — is going to appear shortly following the end of this paragraph. It is a very particular kind of good time.
But heads up to folks in Stavenger, Oslo, London and Brussels. I’m not really keen on US exports right now either, but this is one you should give a shot.
Enjoy the video:
Suplecs, “Pentacle Star” video premiere
Suplecs Spring Tour Europe 2026 09.04.26 w/ Astrovagant @ Blygeharry Ostervag Stavenger Norway 10.04.26 w/ Håndgemeng @ Brewgata Oslo Norway 11.04.26 Private Party Stavenger Norway 13.04.26 w/ Unsane @ New Cross Inn London UK 15.04.26 w/ Unsane @ Magasin 4 Brussels Belgium
SUPLECS is Danny Nick – Bass, Vocals Durel Yates – Guitars, Vocals Andrew Preen – Drums, Percussion
Posted in Whathaveyou on January 27th, 2026 by JJ Koczan
We’re now less than a month out from New Orleans heavy rockers Suplecs releasing their first album in 15 years, Hymns Under a Blood Moon Sky (review here), Feb. 20 on Ripple Music. If you’re not immediately stoked on that prospect, it’s cool. It’s been a decade and a half, after all. A generation of bands has happened in the interim. But take it from me, the fact that this band — whose roots go back to the mid-’90s sludge scene, who released on Man’s Ruin before the collapse of the turn-of-the-century’s most crucial US imprint, and who continue to kick ass all over every stage they play — are announcing any European shows at all is a big deal.
I don’t know when the last time they went abroad was, and I don’t know when they’ll go again. There are two shows with Unsane, in London and Brussels, and a trio of dates in Norway, one of them with Håndgemeng in Oslo and one of them at a ‘private party’ in Stavenger, which is kind of an incredible thought. To whoever’s getting married there, congratulations on both the nuptials/whatever and your likely-legendary taste.
It’s still up in the air how many shows Suplecs will end up doing to support Hymns Under a Blood Moon Sky, but they’re a see-them-when-you-can band, and if you ever wanted to know why a ‘power trio’ configuration became a thing, a perfect lesson in how it’s done.
From social media:
European Spring Tour Dates!!! See Y’all in April!!
Suplecs Spring Tour Europe 2026 09.04.26 w/ Astrovagant @ Blygeharry Ostervag Stavenger Norway 10.04.26 w/ Håndgemeng @ Brewgata Oslo Norway 11.04.26 Private Party Stavenger Norway 13.04.26 w/ Unsane @ New Cross Inn London UK 15.04.26 w/ Unsane @ Magasin 4 Brussels Belgium
SUPLECS is Danny Nick – Bass, Vocals Durel Yates – Guitars, Vocals Andrew Preen – Drums, Percussion
New Orleans heavy rock veterans Suplecs will release their fifth album and first in 15 years, Hymns Under a Blood Moon Sky, on Feb. 20 through Ripple Music. If that doesn’t elicit a Stone-Cold-Steve-Austin-circa-’96-level ‘hell yeah’ from the frontal cortex of your brain, feel free to go back and read it again. There’s new Suplecs coming. Rockers, awaken.
It should tell you something that Suplecs — who’ve never been the biggest of big bands or the most hyped, who’ve toured plenty in their time but not in a long time, and so on — have released albums through the three record labels most responsible for defining the course of American heavy rock over the last 25-plus years. Their first two LPs, 2000’s Wrestlin’ With My Ladyfriend and 2001’s Sad Songs… Better Days (discussed here) were on Man’s Ruin. The story of 2005’s Powtin’ on the Outside Pawty on the Inside is complex and the album was released through a local imprint, but 2011’s Mad Oak Redoux (review here) was on Small Stone, and Hymns Under a Blood Moon Sky being on Ripple completes the trifecta. It is not a coicidence.
I went 11 years between seeing them at a Small Stone showcase in Philly in 2011 (review here) and in Richmond, Virginia, in 2022 at Alabama Thunderpussy‘s reunion show (review here), and was still looking forward to it, no questions asked. If you went to Ripplefest Texas in 2025, you already know why. When they got on stage, they delivered like a band who — perhaps contrary to the insistant chorus of opening track “Got Nothing” here — had more to say. Rooted in ’90s-style fuzz, Suplecs have always kept the forms loose and the performances tight, and despite the severity of the title, Hymns Under a Blood Moon Sky retains some of the humor, funk and swing that have made their first two LPs classics by now, and will be recognizable for that. In ideal fashion, the fifth record accounts for the band’s beginnings and roots, while having grown well beyond them.
The narrative of Suplecs‘ sound was never actually so simple as ‘fuzz plus riffs,’ and Hymns Under a Blood Moon Sky reinforces this as well, in part with two side-ending divergences in the string-inclusive “Old Spanish Trail,” which builds around a purposefully slogging jangle guitar line with an evocative melody and is the longest inclusion at 6:45, and the album-capper “La Ti Da,” which harnesses the largesse of side B leadoff “Damn These Pills” and works in a Mardi Gras horn section to blow out the finish with a huge nod that, thankfully, at no point in its drawling ourse approaches being ska. Bullet dodged, gentlemen. And with apparent ease. Other cuts like the strutting “Blackwater Rising,” or the taut two-minute roller “Pentacle Star” or the punker thrust of “$6 Man” or the midtempo howler “I See You” (premiering below), which is apparently a crunching ode to guitarist/vocalist Durel Yates‘ mother, create a flow through material that still holds its ripper sensibility at the core — “Mountain,” “Forest of Fire,” “Heartless Bodies,” etc. — and builds complexity around the root methodology.
Which tells you what? Suplecs aren’t wasting their time. Throughout Hymns Under a Blood Moon Sky, Yates, bassist/vocalist Danny Nick and drummer Andrew Preen are very clearly not unaware of the decade and a half it’s been since they were last heard from in a studio capacity — they’ve still played live, built a local Mardi Gras following, and so on, as you can read in the PR wire info below — and there are aspects of Hymns Under a Blood Moon Sky that speak to the band sitting down, hammering out the songs, putting time and effort into sculpting a sound that, in parts anyway, wants you as the listener to think it’s off the cuff. It works in the sense of making difficult changes sound less difficult, and calls to mind a sneaky songwriterism that’s always been underlying and continues to make songs memorable here.
Ain’t nobody gettin’ any younger, in Suplecs or otherwise, and Hymns Under a Blood Moon Sky resonates with a feeling of the band locking in with a purpose. Part of that is expressive, part is expansive, part is clearly about the chemistry and the joy Yates, Nick and Preen feel creating music together, and all of it results in a gorgeous 48-minute/12-track outing that, yeah, pushes the form of a vinyl LP, but makes its every moment essential through urgent delivery and the already noted, purposeful variety.
I’ll not feign impartiality; I’m glad this record exists, and more, I’m glad it doesn’t suck. Rather, it feels like Suplecs stepping up to a moment that, hopefully, will see them able to get some of the broader plaudits for which they’re long overdue. No, I don’t think they’ll ever be the biggest or most hyped band, but one can’t ignore the fact that Hymns Under a Blood Moon Sky will likely be Suplecs‘ introduction to a lot of listeners in a generation that’s come up since 2010, and I have a hard time imagining it being anything other than well received.
December was last month, and that was year-end list time. I’ll tell you in all seriousness that I have Hymns Under a Blood Moon Sky in my notes for Dec. 2026 already, so when it comes around again, you can’t say you’re surprised. If/when you hear the album, I’m not sure how you could be.
I hope they get added to Emissions From the Monolith.
Enjoy “I See You” in the visualizer below, followed by more from the aforementioned PR wire:
Suplecs, “I See You” visualizer premiere
“Hymns Under A Blood Moon Sky” is a gut-wrenching ride through the New Orleans trio’s world. It ranges from the relentless, Maiden-meets-Sabbath attack of “Got Nothing” to the haunting, brass-backed NOLA jazz funeral dirge of “La Ti Da” featuring the horns of Egg Yolk Jubilee. The album fearlessly tackles themes of death, divorce, suicide and addiction (“Blackwater Rising”), balanced by moving tributes such as guitarist and vocalist Durel Yates’ ode to his mother, “I See You”. It weaves in diverse influences, from Black Flag swagger to prog-jazz intricacy, culminating in the dynamic first single: “No Apologies.”
The album’s title and artwork are deeply rooted in New Orleans history and personal narrative. The cover features a 1960s painting by Danny Nick’s father, famed Jackson Square artist Richard “D.Nick” Nick, depicting the pirate Jean Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop, which housed an arsenal of weapons strategic to the victory of The Battle Of New Orleans in the War of 1812. The title, Hymns Under A Blood Moon Sky, serves as a tribute to the band’s resilient, outsider spirit—forging an arsenal of riffs in secrecy to pay homage to the only home they’ve ever known.
TRACKLIST: 1. Got Nothing 2. Pentacle Star 3. I See You 4. Forest of Fire 5. Blackwater Rising 6. Old Spanish Trail 7. Damn These Pills 8. Mountain 9. $6 Man 10. Heartless Bodies 11. No Apologies 12. La Ti Da
Marked by life’s passages, Suplecs have maintained a vital presence, most notably with their annual Mardi Gras show—a New Orleans staple for over 500 attendees, celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2025. Now, after years of fan-favorite live sets, the band is channeling decades of raw experience, swagger, and heaviness into writing their highly anticipated fifth album, promising a powerful culmination of their storied career.
SUPLECS is Danny Nick – Bass, Vocals Durel Yates – Guitars, Vocals Andrew Preen – Drums, Percussion
Posted in Whathaveyou on December 3rd, 2025 by JJ Koczan
If you can’t funk with Suplecs, we ain’t gonna be friends. The narrative holds it’s been 15 years since the New Orleans fuzzstrutter power trio released their still-latest album, 2010’s Mad Oak Redoux (review here), and that’s plenty long for a band that good to go unheard-from studio-wise, but the horrid truth is Mad Oak Redoux was itself built on sessions that took place earlier. If you want to go further back, their last album-proper was 2005’s Powtin’ on the Outside Pawty on the Inside, which as noted below coincided with Hurricane Katrina. That was neither the first nor the last time circumstances would shit all over the notion of Suplecs getting their due. 20 years later, if the world ended between now and Feb. 20, I couldn’t really say it would be a surprise.
Longtime denizens of Small Stone showcases, the band played Ripplefest Texas this year and no doubt woke up some heads. Last time I saw them was at the end of 2022 in Virginia (review here) and their groove was glorious. This goes right to the top of my most anticipated for 2026 list and if the Deep Purple-derived riff of opening track “Got Nothing” — streaming below, of course — is anything to go by, I have a lot to look forward to.
From the PR wire:
New Orleans stoner metal trio SUPLECS (with former EyeHateGod) to issue new album “Hymns Under A Blood Moon Sky” on Ripple Music; first single streaming!
New Orleans stoner rock veterans SUPLECS announce their great return with the release of their first studio album in over a decade, “Hymns Under A Blood Moon Sky”, this February 20th through Ripple Music and stream the first single “Got Nothing” today!
Get a full shot of adrenaline with new single “Got Nothing”
The album’s genesis took place in a hallowed Mid-City rehearsal space; the same warehouse that incubated the foundational New Orleans sludge of Crowbar or Graveyard Rodeo and echoed with the grooves of The Meters. Drawing inspiration from this legacy, Suplecs started crafting new material before being forced out by complaints of noise — an ironic fate for a room once dedicated to forging the city’s sound. They proceeded to track the album at High Tower Studios with esteemed engineer James Whitten (High On Fire, Thou), resulting in a mature, sonically diverse and emotionally charged collection.
“Hymns Under A Blood Moon Sky” is a gut-wrenching ride through the New Orleans trio’s world. It ranges from the relentless, Maiden-meets-Sabbath attack of “Got Nothing” to the haunting, brass-backed NOLA jazz funeral dirge of “La Ti Da” featuring the horns of Egg Yolk Jubilee. The album fearlessly tackles themes of death, divorce, suicide and addiction (“Blackwater Rising”), balanced by moving tributes such as guitarist and vocalist Durel Yates’ ode to his mother, “I See You”. It weaves in diverse influences, from Black Flag swagger to prog-jazz intricacy, culminating in the dynamic first single: “No Apologies.”
The album’s title and artwork are deeply rooted in New Orleans history and personal narrative. The cover features a 1960s painting by Danny Nick’s father, famed Jackson Square artist Richard “D.Nick” Nick, depicting the pirate Jean Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop, which housed an arsenal of weapons strategic to the victory of The Battle Of New Orleans in the War of 1812. The title, Hymns Under A Blood Moon Sky, serves as a tribute to the band’s resilient, outsider spirit—forging an arsenal of riffs in secrecy to pay homage to the only home they’ve ever known.
TRACKLIST: 1. Got Nothing 2. Pentacle Star 3. I See You 4. Forest of Fire 5. Blackwater Rising 6. Old Spanish Trail 7. Damn These Pills 8. Mountain 9. $6 Man 10. Heartless Bodies 11. No Apologies 12. La Ti Da
Hailing from New Orleans and formed in 1996, Suplecs stands as a powerhouse trio in the stoner rock scene. Consisting of Danny Nick (ex-EyeHateGod), Durel Yates, and Andrew Preen, the trio forged their legacy with their first two albums on Frank Kozik’s iconic Man’s Ruin Records: 2000’s “Wrestlin’ With My Lady Friend” (produced by EyeHateGod bandmate Jimmy Bower) and 2001’s “Sad Songs, Better Days” (produced by Dave Fortman of Ugly Kid Joe). This era cemented their reputation through relentless coast-to-coast tours with heavyweights like Clutch, Alabama Thunderpussy, High On Fire, Corrosion Of Conformity, Gwar and Halfway To Gone.
Their third album, 2004’s “Powtin’ On The Outside, Pawty On The Inside” was produced by another NOLA heavyweight, Pepper Keenan of Corrosion of Conformity. Unfortunately, the album failed to gain the traction it deserved as it was released on local label Nocturnal Records, which was sidelined along with the band and everyone from New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina.
After a period of rebuilding, Suplecs reemerged through various appearances over the next few years at SXSW, helped by their new home Small Stone Records. In 2011, they would release their fourth album “Mad Oak Redoux” and gained a coveted High Times Magazine Award as “Stoner Rock Band Of The Year”. The following years saw them continue their musical journey with appearances at Voodoo Fest, Mutants Of Monsters Fest, and Bayou Boogaloo, along with yearly pilgrimages to their second home in Austin, Texas. Their music has been featured on TV shows such as “Dog the Bounty Hunter” and “MTV’s Fun Factory”.
Marked by life’s passages, Suplecs have maintained a vital presence, most notably with their annual Mardi Gras show—a New Orleans staple for over 500 attendees, celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2025. Now, after years of fan-favorite live sets, the band is channeling decades of raw experience, swagger, and heaviness into writing their highly anticipated fifth album, promising a powerful culmination of their storied career.
SUPLECS is Danny Nick – Bass, Vocals Durel Yates – Guitars, Vocals Andrew Preen – Drums, Percussion
Posted in Whathaveyou on June 3rd, 2025 by JJ Koczan
If you like your sludge sludgy and perhaps wrought by some of the progenitors of the style, then you’ve probably already seen the dates posted around for the Crowbar and Eyehategod co-headlining summer tour. The two acts, both based in New Orleans and either of which you could rightly call ‘legends’ in the style, will spend much of August plundering around the East Coast, and one recalls both bands having done boat shows in New York in summers prior, so certainly the two of them, well, take your Dramamine, is all I’m saying.
The particulars on where and when follow here, as per the PR wire, along with a stream of Crowbar‘s 2022 album, Zero and Below (review here), which remains their most recent work. I know it’s probably not top of anybody’s priority list in terms of marketing, but this lineup of Crowbar‘s been together for years, are tight as hell onstage, and are enough of a force to give the band’s catalog its due at shows. Maybe a live album is in order at some point in the near future? Just thinking out loud, I guess.
To the info:
CROWBAR To Join Eyehategod For Summer US Co-Headlining Tour; Tickets On Sale Now!
CROWBAR will join their comrades in Eyehategod for a US co-headlining tour this Summer! The journey, which will commence on August 8th in Tampa, Florida and close on August 30th in their home city of New Orleans, Louisiana, includes a performance on the Rocks Off Concert Cruise in New York City.
Tickets are on sale now. See all confirmed dates below.
CROWBAR w/ Eyehategod: 8/08/2025 Brass Mug – Tampa, FL 8/09/2025 Respectable Street – West Palm Beach, FL 8/10/2025 Trolley Pub – Summerville, SC 8/11/2025 529 – Atlanta, GA 8/12/2025 Ground Zero – Spartanburg, SC 8/13/2025 Cobra Cabana – Richmond, VA 8/14/2025 Rocks Off Concert Cruise – New York City, NY 8/15/2025 Phantom Power – Millersville, PA 8/16/2025 Geno’s – Portland, ME 8/17/2025 Brighton Music Hall – Boston, MA 8/18/2025 Space Ballroom – Hamden, CT 8/19/2025 Lost Horizon – Syracuse, NY 8/20/2025 Preserving Underground – New Kensington, PA 8/21/2025 Black Circle – Indianapolis, IN 8/22/2025 Ace Of Cups – Columbus, OH 8/23/2025 Reggie’s – Chicago, IL 8/24/2025 Sanctuary – Detroit, MI 8/25/2025 Red Flag – St. Louis, MO 8/26/2025 89th Street – Oklahoma City, OK 8/27/2025 Club Dada – Dallas, TX 8/28/2025 House Of Rock – Corpus Christi, TX 8/29/2025 Come And Take It Live – Austin, TX 8/30/2025 Southport Hall – New Orleans, LA
CROWBAR’s most recent studio offering, the critically acclaimed Zero And Below, was released in April 2022 via MNRK Heavy. Led by riff lord and vocalist Kirk Windstein, with guitarist Matt Brunson, bassist Shane Wesley, and drummer Tommy Buckley, songs like “Chemical Godz,” “It’s Always Worth The Gain,” and “Bleeding From Every Hole” are unapologetic emotional outpourings, with a bare-knuckle resolve alongside its soul-searching vulnerability, reliably delivered with crushing heaviness.
Posted in Whathaveyou on February 14th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
As Ripple Music continues its ‘Beneath the Desert Floor’ series exploring the heavy underground of the turn of the century era, let’s say roughly ’97-’05, that New Orleans Suplecs would end up included feels inevitable. Still absolute killers on stage as the attendees of Ripplefest Texas 2025 will find out thanks to a recent confirmation, their 14-years-running studio absence, and the fact that 2011’s Mad Oak Redoux (review here) was comprised of tracks being re-recorded, while the album prior, 2005’s Powtin’ on the Outside Pawty on the Inside landed concurrent to Hurricane Katrina, and yeah let’s say it’s been a long time since Suplecs were last on track to get their due for being so gosh darn kickass.
A new record, a real Suplecs studio album with heart, groove and fuzz poured into it in like measure, would surely go a long way to alleviating that, and you can see the phrase below: “new music.” It’s right there. That’s not the same as a date, however, and I’ll note that even last Spring the band let it be known they were writing. I’ve no word on whether or not recording has happened or if and when it might. But those first two records, 2000’s Wrestlin’ With My Lady Friend and 2001’s Sad Songs… Better Days (discussed here), are classics by now and should be back out there, however terrible the band’s luck has been for the last quarter-century.
When I see more on either the reissue or reissues, or a fifth Suplecs album, I’ll say something:
Last week we had some great announcements for Ripple family, so let’s keep the love flowing. How’s this? Please welcome the one and only SUPLECS to the Ripple family! Look for reissues of their past Man’s Ruin catalog and, damn straight, new music. Psyched!!
Fair to call Crowbar‘s self-titled sophomore LP a classic, I’d think. The album was released in 1993 through Pavement Music as the follow-up to the New Orleans-based band’s 1991 debut, Obedience Thru Suffering, and was notable at the time for being produced by Pantera‘s Philip Anselmo, but it’s the songs that have stood the test of time, in no small part because Crowbar still plays them. I can’t remember seeing the band live that they didn’t play at least “High Rate Extinction” or “All I Had I Gave,” if not “Fixation,” “Self-Inflicted,” “Existence is Punishment” or “I Have Failed,” and that’s more than half the record’s 10-song tracklist some fraction of which might feature in a given night’s setlist. The songs are still relevant for the band, is what I’m saying, before you get to the genre-defining influence Crowbar have had on sludge metal — they and Eyehategod should feature in New Orleans tourism ads — and their impact remains visceral.
“High Rate Extinction” sets the chug, and the chug is a vital part of what Crowbar is about. Topped with guitarist Kirk Windstein‘s clenched-stomach barks switching from channel to channel, before smoothing out for a rolling chorus, Windstein and Matt Thomas‘ guitars are immediately central to the proceedings, and while the world outside was consumed by grunge and the beginnings of ‘heavy’ as something distinct from metal — even if the language for it wasn’t there yet — Crowbar seemed to exist in both worlds, and their aggression was as much about the inward searching of their lyrics as the impact of the instrumental lurch that often but not always accompanied, but generally seemed to because the tones were so goddamned heavy.
Like perhaps some others of a certain age, I found Crowbar on Beavis and Butt-Head. I would’ve been maybe 11 or 12 at the time, and Beavis’ approval carried weight as regards opinion leadership. Crowbar at that point featured Todd Strange on bass and Craig Nunenmacher on drums alongside Windstein and Thomas, and while it would be years before I eventually picked up the album, there was always an awareness of who Crowbar were and what they were about. When I finally got there, it was like they’d been waiting for me all along, brooding and volatile, the very epitome of ‘crunch’ in their sound. I had a friend at WSOU who was so into them that the association still lingers these 20-plus years after the fact. I guess what I’m saying is Crowbar‘s Crowbar is an album you can live with, grow with. It’s not perfect. The production is raw compared to subsequent efforts in the band’s 12-LP catalog, and its dudely contemplations operate from a gender framework that feels dated, but again, the songs are undeniable.
Whether it’s the landmark from-the-depths rumble of “All I Had (I Gave)” or the even-harder-landing “Will That Never Dies” right after, the dare of melody throughout that comes to the forefront on the nodding cover of Led Zeppelin‘s “No Quarter” — which I’ll take over the original every single time — or the fact that “Holding Nothing” is three minutes and 11 seconds long and is so heavy it seems to take at least twice that, the material on Crowbar is varied in approach and dynamic in tempo, but informed by a sound so distinctive that it draws together as one 35-minute entirety. Gritty and tumultuous, “Negative Pollution” or “Will That Never Dies” might be called proto-crushing, but the two cuts on either end of the LP each have their own purpose, and as rough as they are, there’s no lack of expressiveness or emotionality to them. There’s more than chestbeating going on, and even that level of emotional complexity was a reach for something so metal at the time, however hyper-masculine it might seem in hindsight.
A not-insignificant portion of Crowbar‘s legacy comes from this record, and it set a template for methodology that one could argue they’ve been working from ever since — which isn’t to accuse them of trying to do the same thing over and over, necessarily; they have a defined sound, know it, and have been able to deliver it for more than three decades; this is commendable, not the least because they kick ass — to some degree or other. But you can also hear the underpinnings of hardcore punk in Crowbar‘s early sludge, and while their primary impact would be on the next generation of metalcore purveyors — close associations with Jamey Jasta of Hatebreed, and so on — Crowbar never really have gotten the credit they’ve deserved for the intricacies of their approach, perhaps as a result of being so outwardly bludgeoning. Can’t have everything, I suppose.
But the self-titled is something of a given in my mind. A record I take and have taken for granted for years — it’s always there, waiting, but I’ve heard the songs live more than on the CD in the last decade — its solidity is unflinching, and it shouldn’t be seen as a coincidence that so many of their covers feature classic-style art and architectural elements, in addition to often representing their New Orleans roots. They’re speaking to that same carved-in-marble, painted-in-oil sensibility in their music. Anachronistic in terms of what was the trend in both pop-rock and the metallic underground of its day, Crowbar sounds like it was made to stand the test of time, and it has. Never pretentious despite the philosophizing, and never so deep in its own head as to lose sight of the song in question, it’s the kind of tape you’d buy and perhaps be surprised to find how much it informed your taste going forward.
It would be a couple years after this that Windstein (whose work has held up) and Anselmo (whose yarl and white-supremacist-adjacent antics are distinctly less appealing) would take part in Down with Pepper Keenan from C.O.C. and Jimmy Bower from the already-mentioned Eyehategod, and I won’t deny that band’s effect in terms of leading listeners from more mainstream metal into the heavy underground, but Crowbar‘s Crowbar is like the treasure there for that audience to discover as they made their way deeper into the cavernous world of sludge and doom. For me, it’s among the reasons I’m most glad to have been a part of Generation Beavis.
As always, I hope you enjoy. If you want something more recent from Crowbar, their latest outing is 2022’s Thanks for reading.
—
Limping to the finish this week, I admit. I had intended to have a Mammoth Volume review up today — release day for them, also Delving and some other cool stuff — but I got no time to write yesterday beyond an initial four sentences, and that was it. I ended up putting together today’s Howling Giant and Ken Wohlrob posts stoned on the couch later in the evening, largely braindead just from the drain of the day (if not the gummy), and that was it. I did my best. The Mammoth Volume might get reviewed Monday or might get stuck in the next Quarterly Review.
That, I was hoping would be early September, but looking at the calendar this week I realized that was both dumb and impossible. The kid goes back to school day after Labor Day, so that week is out because it will be insane — she’s starting first grade, and if it’s anything like the start of kindergarten, which I very much hope it isn’t, my attention will be needed in supporting that — and then you get into Desertfest New York and other things I’ve already committed to. I’ve currently got two weeks slated for the next QR; the week starting Sept. 30 and the week starting Oct. 7, and it’s mostly full. If that’s when it ends up being, fine. I could maybe do the week before? I don’t know. I’ll look at it again today if I have two fucking seconds and any energy whatsoever. Which is a maybe.
All of that has inevitably led me to the question of how much I still need to be doing this, how much I need to dedicate the time I have to The Obelisk as opposed to, say, being a more engaged parent right at this very moment I’m typing, or doing or thinking about any number of other things throughout the course of a day. I know for a fact that I could very easily go the rest of my life without ever looking at my email again. I don’t think I’d mind that. But I’m still here, and I think if I didn’t feel like I needed to be here, I wouldn’t be so bummed out about not having the time in the first place. Maybe it was my own navelgazing that put Crowbar’s “weak man weak mind” in my head this week. Or maybe I just thought about what to close the week with yesterday at the playground with The Pecan and decided to roll with it since I hadn’t done it before. You decide.
It’s starting to be cold at night and in the early mornings as of this week. Fall is coming. Sending The Patient Mrs. off to a new semester and The Pecan, as noted, off to first grade will alleviate some of my temporal concerns — not that I sit around all day on the laptop, but when I’m home alone for upwards of six or eight hours, somehow writing time comes more easily; go figure — but there’s another week before that happens, and The Patient Mrs. was out every night this week between Board of Education meetings, her own work, and social obligation. I don’t know what’s on for next week — for her, anyhow; here I’ve got premieres for Vast Pyre, Wall, maybe-Stöner and Free Ride slated, and I’m going to try to review either that Mammoth Volume or some Psychedelic Source Records jams for Monday — but as always I’ll do my best to do as much as possible, even if I find the results of that effort disappointing by my own, probably unreasonable standard. I wish I wrote more. Tattoo it on my fucking forehead. Or maybe wrap it around my mostly-bare skull since I did manage to get the clippers out last week and tame the mess on my dome that, sad to say, is the only part of me doing anything closely resembling ‘thinning’ at this point in my life. Don’t get me started.
I hope you have a great and safe weekend. Drink water, find solace, whatever you need to do, do it as best you can. I’ll be writing and trying to catch up on email, feigning relevance for anyone other than myself as I do. Thanks for reading.
