Crowbar – Lifesblood For The Downtrodden

A Crowbar DVD is on it’s way, but meanwhile, here it is “Lifesblood for the Downtrodden”, Crowbar’s latest record.

I believe most of our visitors don’t know Crowbar. Well, you should. They are one of the heaviest bands on the planet. Kirk‘s riffs are heavy as shit. He’s the heavy-riff master! He also has one of the most original voices out there. Maybe not in a good way [you might not like it at first] but he’s one of a kind.
Crowbar’s style is a kind of sludge metal but not as doomish / stoner as EyeHateGod, for instance. Crowbar is more direct, HEAVY and, sometimes, has some punk roots [mostly on the early albums].

“New Dawn” opens the record. It’s a typical Crowbar song. It’s slow, heavy and with memorable riffs. Pretty much in the vein of Crowbar’s latest records.

“Slave No More” follows in the same style. Maybe a bit more catchy tough. Ends up with a very cool heavy riff. This is one of Crowbar’s trademarks. Head banging all the way!

“Angels Wings” it’s one of my favorite tracks. Hell yeah! Old Crowbar style! Starts up with an aggressive pace, kind of punkish and then ultra-heavy chorus. God I love Crowbar… The middle section has a evil sabbath feeling. Great track.

With “Coming Down” the other side of Crowbar steps in. It’s a kind of ballad, but an heavy ballad. Throughout the albums, Crowbar always had some tracks like this, and most of them are pretty cool.

“Fall Back to Zero” starts with clean arpeggios. Very calm… But as soon as the chorus comes in, the head banging begins! Nice track, with very cool heavy-to-clean passages.

“Underworld” reminds me those “Broken Glass” days. And that’s a good thing “Broken Glass” rules. This track could, in fact, belong to that album. Heavy playing with a more punkish pace.

“Dead Sun” rocks. Starts up with one more memorable heavy riff. The chorus is very well conceived. Melodic but heavy at the same time. Kirk really knows how to do it.

“Holding Something” reminds me of the melodic tracks on “Broken Glass” record. One more cool track.

“Moon” has that ballad vibe again. The chorus it’s pretty damn heavy. I’m Repeating all over myself, I know. But this is Crowbar’s style,“ there’s always an heavy passage that make you head bang! It finishes up with another heavy riff. Crowbar style.

“The Violent Reaction” is another favorite track. Starts with a demonic Black Sabbath kind of riff. Then, oh my god, what an heavy riffing. Kirk shows, once again, who’s the riff master. The pre-chorus it’s punk paced – “Broken Glass” style again. The chorus reminds me of “Like Broken Glass” track chorus and you know what that mean… Hell of a slow heavy chorus. This track is great and finishes up with the starting riff, doing that classical rallentando thing.

“Lifesblood” is the closing track. It’s a calm, acoustic track. Crowbar has some of this kind of tracks on the other records. I don’t enjoy them very much tough. Their nice tracks but I don’t see the purpose of them on the context of the record.

Final notes:
It’s another Crowbar album. Has a bit of more “melodic” then “heavy” tracks. I prefer the heavier ones. My favorite albums still remain “Broken Glass” and “Odd Fellows Rest”. They are the heaviest ones. Nevertheless, it’s a good album and probably a nice one to get into Crowbar. Try the predecessor “Sonic Excess In Its Purest Form” also, very good record and heavier then “Lifesblood for the Downtrodden”.

Crowbar – Slave No More

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