Crowbar - Lifesblood For The Downtrodden

Lifesblood For The Downtrodden, the eighth album from the legendary American sludge metal band Crowbar.

Crowbar stalled out after the 2001 LP, Sonic Excess in Its Purest Form. Leader Kirk Windstein was dealing with Down, membership was in flux, and Crowbar’s infamous label woes were a constant headache. But the long-running New Orleans sludge metal outfit weren’t going to go out like that, and Windstein started the resuscitation process in summer 2003. He tapped original drummer Craig Nunemacher and Pantera vet Rex Brown offered to handle bass and production. Down II producer Warren Riker also signed on.

The result was Lifesblood For The Downtrodden, a typically pummelling tribute to the art of the riff, but an album that also finds new methods of mayhem. Windstein’s vocals never waver from a raging and vengeful wronged-soul growl, but his guitar work searches out tense melodies amidst the animalistic main riffs, and Nunemacher and Brown are relentlessly rhythmic without sacrificing dynamics.