Search - Crowbar :: Lifesblood for the Downtrodden

In a Word - Brutal

Mono-Grind | Here | 04/22/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Crowbar's music is heavy. There's no question about that. But in my opinion, with this album, they've taken their own sheer heaviness to a new level. They've captured something so unreal with this album. I, like many other Crowbar fans all over the world, was anticipating this new album alot. Wondered how they'll be able to top their previous release, "Sonic Excess In It's Purest Form", and wondered if i'd be blown away at all by this new album. And i have to admit, i am alot more than just blown away..



From start to finish this album is fantastic. I wouldn't say it's their best, as i don't own all of their albums, but out of the collection i do have ("Crowbar", "Time Heals Nothing", "Equilibrium" and "Sonic Excess..") it comes mighty close. There is not one song i'm able to skip on this excellent CD. 5/5 stars hardly gives it the praise it deserves.



Crowbar have taken a very mature approach to this release it seems, with songs like "New Dawn", "Slave No More", the truly outstanding "Fall Back To Zero" and "Moon" just to name a few. "Dead Sun" which they did a video for, is heavy on the riffing, as is "The Violent Reaction", "Underworld" and "Angel's Wings". On the track "The Violent Reaction", it has some of Kirk Windstein's best vocals. Very powerful, and aggressive.



"Lifesblood", the 7 1/2 minute finisher, is an excellent piano, mixed with a bit of a solo, track that shows their talents elsewhere, other than creating some of the most heaviest riffs around today. Kirk sings, but after about 2 minutes, the music takes over and it just goes in and out of a dreamy atmosphere that, after the song and the album finally finish, you really have to sort of wake yourself up from.



Crowbar are such a talented group, and although the line-up seems to change around alot, the creativeness as a group always stays the same. They create the most brutal riffs, and execute them with total power, and they can also create beautiful piano pieces that show a totally different side to them. I suggest fans of bands like Down, Eyehategod, Corrosion of Conformity and Pantera, who haven't yet checked out Crowbar, to pick this, or any of their other albums, up immediately. This album will have you listening to it again and again. It's that good."

Lifesblood for the Downtrodden

d | fort worth tx | 02/12/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"After spinning through "Lifesblood For the Downtrodden" a few times, there is one overwhelming idea that comes to my mind....this would have been the perfect follow up album to Corrosion of Conformity's "Blind" album. And it's not so much that this album is derivative or based in someone else's ideas; "Blind" was a defining album for both COC and for this entire genre of Metal. Southern, slow, heavily blues influenced, slightly doomy. For me, being called a good follow-up to "Blind" is about the highest compliment you can pay an album in this category.



LFTD took hold of me with the video they released for "Dead Sun". Starting off with maybe the least "sludgy" riff on the album besides the opening of "Angels Wings", it descends into the most, with a ghostly screaming effect washing in and out of the chorus that is odd enough to stand out and interesting enough to actually work. The album is filled with inventive riffs and agile ideas which break up the staleness of the "sludgy" moniker: the bounciness of the initial "Slave No More" riff, the raucous thrash of the verses of "Angels Wings", the epic pull of "Coming Down".



COC still hasn't been able to manufacture an album as strong or captivating as "Blind", but Crowbar manages that and then some with LFTD. I wasn't convinced that the genre was really worth paying any more attention to until now. If you have ever liked any peice of this genre, run and get this now. If you haven't, this is a great modern place to start."

Crowbar keep crushing

A. Stutheit | Denver, CO USA | 06/03/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"When thinking of the word "consistency," only two examples come to mind: vanilla pudding and Crowbar (or sludge/doom metal in general).



Ever since Crowbar formed and released their debut album in 1991, this southern quartet have always been in one niche: making slow, low-key, brooding, and ultra heavy sludge/doom metal. Despite several lineup changes (Pantera alumni Rex Brown played bass on this album), Kirk Windstein and his boys have never "sold out" or strayed far from their roots. Hence, the band's eighth studio album was no exception; "Lifesblood For The Downtrodden" serves up a new batch of pulverizing, bone crunching, mind numbing, speaker destroying, Southern flavored metal.



Granted, there are a couple of curveballs thrown into the mix here and there: "Fall Back To Zero" is a dreary, mostly melodic semi-ballad, and the album closer, "Lifesblood," is an acoustic strummed song with piano by former drummer Sid Montz. But every other one of the nine songs on here are absolutely bludgeoning. Some examples of this are the slowly churning, grinding, sledgehammer riffs on the album opener, "New Dawn," the faster-than-most fourth track, "Angels Wings," and the pounding skull cracker, "Coming Down."



Even if you're a metalhead, sludge/doom metal may or may not be your thing, so you'll definitely want to hear this album before buying it. But most metalheads will tell you "Lifesblood For The Downtrodden" is yet another tasty, satisfying treat from this Bayou-based band. And, quite frankly, Crowbar seem incapable of creating anything else."