Corrosion of Conformity - Deliverance (1994)Release ID: 5719
On Deliverance, Corrosion of Conformity finally settle into the style now known as Southern Metal and deliver one of the first and finest cuts of the genre. After dancing with Crossover Thrash and Groove Metal in the past, their fourth effort sees them abandon nearly all of their aggression for a more laid-back rocker filled with anthemic vocals and simple but effective riffs.
Stoner Metal is usually one of my least favorite subgenres of Metal, but Corrosion of Conformity play it very well here, and have an eclectic mix of styles going on over the album. Some songs are fast, some groove slowly, and some are entirely outside the Metal umbrella. It’s a fun album most of the time. For an album with 14 tracks and a good variety in sound, it stays shockingly consistent.
At the end of the day, it’s still a style I’m not a huge fan of. I like it, but I don’t love it, and most of the album falls around the decent-to-good category for me. Case in point, my favorite track is Without Wings, a beautiful acoustic piece with string accompaniment that sounds nothing like the rest of the album.
Had a tough time with this one. 1980s C.O.C. Is some of my favorite shit ever, and I think “Animosity” is the best crossover record of that era (that I’ve heard, at least). The three guys responsible for that record are on this as well (guitarist Woody Weatherman, bassist Mike Dean and drummer Reed Mullin) but we also have singer/guitarist Pepper Keenan, and I DO NOT like that guy’s voice. Also, at this point they changed their style completely to stoner-metal. Now, obviously I’m biased, but I’m open minded enough that I think I would appreciate this on its own merits. But I honestly don’t think it’s that good. I can’t help but compare it to the first Down LP, because they came out around the same time, are similar in style, both have Keenan’s involvement, and I wasn’t expecting to like that either, but that one won me over, this didn’t. It’s just too watered down. It’s like a cross between classic rock, Black Album era Metallica, and 90s alternative. I seriously expect to hear someone yell “Spoonman” at points. “Clean My Wounds” is total Thin Lizzy worship, but just comes across as fake. “Seven Days” actually has a cool dual guitar riff and “Shake Like You” is okay, but that’s about it. “My Grain” is just butt rock. I saw C.O.C. a year or two ago and remember the material being at least better than this (maybe I couldn’t hear the vocals), so I’ll give the later records a chance, but I’m not getting my hopes up.
