[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=457-Y8GYVtg[/youtube]
Back in the day NO band was heavier than Crowbar, pun intended! The obvious jokes aside, the early 90's were a very strange time for the metal genre. You had your legends such as Metallica, Megadeth and Anthrax peaking in attention and sales. You had loads of bands try to scale back their aggression, speed, and distortion in order to try to appeal to a larger, tamer, grunge happy audience. Then you also had the bands that didn't give a fuck what was popular, and played by their own rules. One of these bands was New Orleans based Crowbar.
Just yesterday I was having a discussion with our brohammers at MetalSucks concerning new age trends of slow jam metal. Running the gamut of today's slew of sleepy sub-genres such as metal gaze, hipster metal, stoner metal, fuzz pedal metal, drone metal, flannel metal, I-Wish-I-Was-Born-Down-South-Metal (you get it) I came to the conclusion I'm just not that into the slow metal craze and their endless attempts of copycat hooks. However, before the internet revolution, before flannel was sold in the trendy aisle of Macy's, and way before the southern sound was even remotely thought of as interesting, let alone cool; Crowbar emerged on the scene with possibly one of the most influential sounds of the decade. Devastatingly crushing, and disturbingly slow for a non-doom band, Crowbar shined a whole new light on what the south had to offer. Often described as "fat music for fat people" by frontman Kirk Windstein, it was no secret Crowbar did not concern themselves with image, and fancied themselves as average as the rest of us. Who would have known 20 years later they would inspire hundreds of bands, many start up labels, and entire sub-genres?
The band is still kicking and a new album is expected soon.
– Frank Godla
