Down recently returned to being an active band thanks to a handful of tour dates around the world. Among them was an appearance at Hellfest 2022, which you can check out in full above thanks to the ARTE Concert YouTube channel. The show was very NOLA-heavy (and heavy in general), and featured the following setlist:
- "Lysergik Funeral Procession" 01:38
- "Hail the Leaf" 05:20
- "Lifer" 09:33
- "The Seed" 15:13
- "Ghosts Along the Mississippi" 19:46
- "Losing All" 25:09
- "Pillars of Eternity" 30:22
- "Swan Song" 35:14
- "Eyes of the South" 39:50
- "Stone the Crow" 46:23
- "Bury Me In Smoke" 52:49
Touring and prior commitments with other projects has slowed up the production of Down's long-awaited covers EP, said guitarist Kirk Windstein in a recent interview. When speaking about the possibility of a new Down album of original material, Windstein said, "That's another thing that needs to be discussed at some point…. I'm sure that we'll get around to it. We're not getting any younger and it's something that we enjoy, and I think that the fans would love it as well. So, I'm sure at some point we'll get around to it."
"What's been happening," Windstein continued, "is Down is kind of now as it started, which was a side project… We love doing it and it's a ton of fun and we love it—we love the band, it's an amazing band—but everybody's back to doing their other bands. Pepper's [Keenan, guitar] doing C.O.C. full-time, Jimmy's [Bower, drums] doing Eyehategod, I'm doing Crowbar, Phil's [Anselmo, vocals] got a lot on his hands and a lot of projects, as he always did and always will."
Down's last release of new music were a pair of EPs in 2014—Down IV: The Purple EP and Down IV: Part II, that ranks among some of the metal supergroup's best work. As for the covers EP, Windstein says, "We really haven't, to my knowledge, agreed upon the songs a hundred percent yet. Right now we're more concerned with just being properly rehearsed for the shows that we have coming up at the end of May. And we have three festivals in Europe at the end of June that we need to be prepared for as well. So we're kind of concentrating on that, and maybe after that we'll see where we're at with the cover-song EP."
