By 1996, Corrosion of Conformity had travelled a long way from their hardcore beginnings. Deliverance had established Pepper Keenan as the band’s frontman, bringing their Southern rock influences into sharper focus. Wiseblood pushed things further. The grooves were still there, along with the thick guitars and blues-soaked riffs, but the songs had become more unpredictable. How far could C.O.C. stretch that sound before it started coming apart?
Working again with producer John Custer, Keenan, guitarist Woody Weatherman, bassist Mike Dean, and drummer Reed Mullin built an album around the interplay between their instruments. Weatherman’s bluesy leads often wandered across Keenan’s grinding rhythm guitar, while Dean found room to move beneath both. Mullin tied everything together with a loose, swinging approach that could turn sharp and aggressive whenever the arrangement demanded it.
“King of the Rotten” establishes that chemistry early. Its distorted opening riff drops into a lurching groove, with Keenan delivering the lyrics in a sneering, almost conversational rasp. The guitars occasionally separate, creating little pockets of tension before locking together again. Some of the band’s old punk attitude survives in the performance, even if the music has moved well beyond those roots.
“Long Whip / Big America” takes that rhythmic interplay somewhere considerably stranger. The Southern-flavored guitar work moves through shifting patterns and extended instrumental passages, giving Weatherman room to bend notes and pull unexpected phrases out of the blues. There’s plenty happening beneath the solos, too. Dean and Mullin keep adjusting the groove as the guitars move between riffs, making the song’s changes sound natural despite its sprawling arrangement.
“Drowning in a Daydream” brings the melodic side of C.O.C. into focus. The guitars settle into a cleaner, more direct progression, leaving space for one of Keenan’s most accessible vocal performances. His rasp remains, but the melody takes precedence over the usual grit. The chorus is immediate, and the rhythm section keeps things moving without crowding the vocals. It’s a reminder that the band could write a straightforward rock song when they wanted to.
Elsewhere, the mood turns considerably darker. “Goodbye Windows” lets its guitar phrases hang in the air between heavier passages, while “Born Again for the Last Time” pairs religious imagery with grinding riffs and Keenan’s increasingly agitated delivery. The latter has an uneasy quality, as though he’s confronting the words while singing them. That friction between the lyrics and performance gives the song much of its character.
“Man or Ash” adds another familiar voice, with Metallica’s James Hetfield contributing backing vocals. His presence fits comfortably into the arrangement without becoming its main attraction. The guitars twist through a series of muscular riffs, while Dean and Mullin introduce enough rhythmic movement to keep the slower sections interesting. Even with Hetfield involved, the band’s own chemistry remains the focus.
Custer’s production gives those performances room to breathe. Keenan and Weatherman’s guitars have considerable weight, but their individual parts remain distinguishable. Dean’s bass cuts through the distortion, and Mullin’s drums retain a natural snap. There are moments when the arrangements become crowded, particularly during the longer instrumental sections, but the recordings preserve the details that make the band’s playing interesting.
Then comes “Bottom Feeder (El Que Come Abajo),” an extended instrumental that leaves conventional song structure behind. The band works through repetition, atmosphere and gradually shifting guitar textures, ending the record somewhere far removed from the opening attack of “King of the Rotten.” After an album full of detours, it’s fitting that the final track takes one more.
So how far could Corrosion of Conformity stretch the sound they’d established on Deliverance? Wiseblood answers that through the contrast between its songs. The melodic directness of “Drowning in a Daydream,” the wandering guitar work of “Long Whip / Big America” and the instrumental exploration of “Bottom Feeder” share little in structure. What connects them is the way Keenan, Weatherman, Dean and Mullin respond to one another. They could take the music in almost any direction because, underneath all those changes, the four musicians still understood how to find the same groove.
Written by Rob Joncas for DeadNoteMedia.
Artist information and music courtesy of the band.
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