Crowbar was my Metal band of choice today. Sludge Metal with a healthy slice of Doom Metal at it’s very best is Crowbar. I gave another listen to Sonic Excess In It’s Purest Form and have walked away with the same Metal satisfaction as always – ultra Sludge Metal satisfaction that is. The slow trudging and heavy duty guitar riffs combined with the slow paced rhythm section, makes me scream in Metal glee that Crowbar has taken Old School Heavy Metal to a more dark and doom ridden place. The lyrics heard in the songs on Sonic Excess In It’s Purest Form are gloomy, mournful and visits the realms of self suffering, doubt and infliction. Well, that is what Doom Metal delves into, topics too touchy for the faint at heart mainstream. These lyrics explore what it must feel like when one is truly suffering from extreme mental anguish. Now, if you are to look past the psychologically driven lyrics, the Metal Music is an ear crushing experience and/or escape that seems to come at me from all sides. Crowbar plays their Sludge Metal like it surrounds me, repeatedly encircling my space like a slow marching invasion of Metal giants from a far away and spooky place. Cool.
Kirk Windstein on guitar and vocals is in my Metal opinion, a true non-glamorized hero of Metal. Kirk Windstein does not need any damn red carpet to walk down on… his blue collar Metal ethic is too good for that crap. Besides, hearing is believing, listening to Kirk play guitar is dark, creeping and heavy – a wonderland of gray clouds amidst a stormy sky over a bayou. His vocals are dominant and angry enough to be considered Hardcore, the enormity of emotions that are heard when he bellows out the lyrics are mesmerizing. Plus, Kirk Windstein is one hell of a riff enthusiast, he must have millions of dark and scary riffs recorded in his mind that are still waiting to be let out. There is nothing plastic about Crowbar, no artificial ingredients to be heard on this album. Unreal. All eleven songs on Sonic Excess In It’s Purest Form are a journey into the Doom and Sludge Metal world of Crowbar, a journey I find worth repeating. Hey, it is like the melancholy movie that grips you, a mood intense book that you don’t mind reading again and again… each time you catch onto something that you may have missed before.
* Sonic Excess In It’s Purest Form was released on August 21, 2001 on Spitfire Records.
Crowbar are they appeared on Sonic Excess In It’s Purest Form:
Kirk Windstein on guitar and vocals
Sammy Pierre Duet on guitar
Jeff (Okie) Okoneski on bass
Tony Costanza on drums
Sonic Excess In It’s Purest Form Track Listing:
The Lasting Dose
To Build a Mountain
Thru the Ashes (I’ve Watched You Burn)
Awakening
Repulsive In It’s Spendid Beauty
Counting Daze
In Times of Sorrow
It Pours From Me
Suffering Brings Wisdom
Failure to Delay Gratifacation
Empty Room
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