Shocking admission: Up until last year, the only thing I knew
\nabout Crowbar was that Beavis & Butt-Head liked them.<\/p>\n
It’s embarassing, but it’s true. So many bands come through the
\npipeline each year, and I only have so much time I can devote to
\nlistening to music, that inevitably someone falls through the
\ncracks. In Crowbar’s case, they took a header through one until I
\nreceived
\nEquilibrium<\/i> in the mail. At that time, I learned something
\nnew about Crowbar: this was the kind of group you either love or
\nhate. There is no middle ground.<\/p>\n
And while I’m playing catch-up with this band through their MP3s
\non EMusic.com (relax, it’s
\nlegal<\/i>), I still find myself not quite knowing what to think
\nof these guys after listening to their best-of
\nSludge – History Of Crowbar<\/i>. On one hand, Kirk Windstein and
\ncrew are able to put a new spin on their doom-and-gloom style of
\nmetal, including moving away from constant open-chord progressions.
\nOn the other hand, you’ve heard one spine-stomper, you’ve heard ’em
\nall.<\/p>\n
Crowbar do follow a different drum, and they’re not afraid to
\nattempt to plow new musical ground – something I admire in this
\nband. Who else would dare to try their hands at a metal ballad
\n(?!?) on “Existence Is Punishment” – ironically, the track that
\nBeavis & Butt-Head singled out. Who else would have the balls
\nto cover a ’70s dinosaur like “Dream Weaver”? Who else would dare
\nto throw in a little melody and turn a good song like “Glass Full
\nOf Liquid Pain” into something extraordinary?<\/p>\n
The live tracks on
\nSludge – History Of Crowbar<\/i> help to seal the effect of this
\nband’s power. “I Have Failed” and “Fixation” are two powerful
\nexamples of just what this band is capable of doing – namely,
\nreaching into your chest and snapping your ribs like they were
\nmatchsticks.<\/p>\n
Yet I’m still not totally convinced in Crowbar. Tracks like “All
\nI Had (I Gave),” “Planets Collide” and “Subversion” all fail to set
\nthemselves apart as something different from numerous other metal
\nbands I’ve heard over the years. It’s not that they’re bad, but
\nthat they’re almost formulatic. I guess my disappointment kicked in
\nafter hearing the outstanding tracks on this disc; if Crowbar can
\nhit the bullseye with those, why can’t tracks like “Waiting In
\nSilence” have the same power?<\/p>\n
\nSludge – History Of Crowbar<\/i> is a disc which should tie up
\nloose ends for anyone who came into Crowbar mid-journey, and will
\nbe a nice collection of favorites for the diehard fan. But it also
\nshows a band who could be uneven at times – disappointing only when
\nyou hear just what they’re capable of.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25741,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6520],"rating":[5614],"class_list":["post-36947","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-crowbar","rating-rating-c-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36947"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36947\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36947"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=36947"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=36947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}