Even at this early stage the band fires out a good dose of great depressive, sludgy riffs. I’m a big fan of Craig Nunenmacher’s drumming and his playing is just as cool and interesting here as on any other release, with plenty of neat little flourishes and fills. It’s interesting to hear the bass more prominently than on later releases and the playing is still pretty great. Kirk hasn’t quite perfected his signature growling howls and the production feels a bit thin, with the guitars not adding the weight that’s typical of the band.
It’s a mark of CROWBAR’s consistent high quality that while their debut is almost certainly the band’s weakest, it’s still pretty damn good. Given how consistent the band’s been from one album to the next, ranking their releases might seem a bit redundant, but we all kind of like lists don’t we? I don’t see anyone ranking CROWBAR albums anywhere else, so why not me? Here goes then, ranking each CROWBAR studio album, building that mountain all the way to the top… There’s a lot more to this band than brute force Kirk has a great ear for melody, whether it’s delivered in the most crushing terms, or via something more softly melancholic and understated. Certainly there are many memorable CROWBAR tracks that could fit into one of these two categories, but you could probably fill out a full album with their more contemplative and melodic material. This is a lazy oversimplification and doesn’t do the band justice. I’ve seen music writers fall into the trap of describing CROWBAR as only having two sides, torturously slow and maniacally speeding. Spanning almost 3 decades and 11 albums, the only constant has been guitarist and frontman Kirk (also notably of DOWN and KINGDOM OF SORROW), CROWBAR have remained incredibly consistent in quality and while their sound might seem fairly straightforward at first, there’s a surprising amount of variety and subtlety to be discovered by those who care to bury themselves in amongst the band’s catalogue.
Having discovered them via the PANTERA home videos, CROWBAR have gone on to be a band I love dearly. Rightly considered by some to be up there amongst the heaviest bands ever, a challenge for me will be to see if I can get through this article without using the word “heavy” 40 times. If you had to describe CROWBAR in one word that word would surely be “heavy”, sonically, emotionally, tonally, CROWBAR deal in huge down-tuned riffs, themes or torment and struggle and with Kirk Windstein’s instantly recognisable rasping howls, have one of the great frontmen of heavy music.
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