Crowbar - Lifesblood for the Downtrodden [2LP]

Crowbar's Lifesblood for the Downtrodden is sludge metal at its most crushing and most heartfelt, spread here across two LPs so every slow-motion riff has room to land.

Released in 2005 on Candlelight, the band's eighth album ended a long silence after Sonic Excess in Its Purest Form. Kirk Windstein rebuilt the lineup with drummer Craig Nunenmacher and Pantera's Rex Brown, who played bass and co-produced alongside Warren Riker, with sessions at Noizelab and Piety Studios in New Orleans. Its working title was You Don't Need an Enemy to Have a War, and the finished record was dedicated to Dimebag Darrell, who died after it had been recorded.

Windstein's voice has rarely sounded so raw. "Slave No More" grinds forward with a groove thick enough to stand a spoon in, while "Dead Sun" and "Coming Down" balance sheer weight with a strange, mournful melody. The closing title track stretches past seven minutes, bringing in slide guitar from Steve Gibb and piano from Sid Montz for a finale that feels like a funeral march and a sunrise at once.

For fans of Down, Eyehategod and the whole New Orleans heavy scene, this is essential listening, and the double vinyl pressing gives its oceanic low end the space it needs to shake the floor.