Category: Interviews, News
Tags: corrosion of conformity

When it comes to the history of heavy music, there are veterans, there are legends and then there is Corrosion Of Conformity. Arguably the ultimate crossover band, they welded hardcore to metal in the eighties, before mutating into a Southern- flavoured hard rock behemoth, after the inclusion of guitarist / frontman Pepper Keenan in their ranks. Keenan is currently busy as a member of southern metal supergroup Down, meaning that COC are now a trio, for the first time since the time of their epochal album “Animosity”. Their new, self- titled album is a blend of punk fury and sludge- encrusted, Sabbath groove and they left the rest of the Crows ‘n’ Bones Team speechless when they saw them in Hellfest last Summer (an occasion I unfortunately missed). We caught up with bassist / vocalist Mike Dean.     

(Interview by Dimitris Kontogiannis)

Left to right: Woody Weatherman, Mike Dean and Reed Mullin

CnB: The new record is quite different than In The Arms Of God. The hardcore influences are more pronounced, but it does retain a certain Southern feel and I think that that differentiates it from, say, Animosity as well. Did you know what you wanted to sound like from the beginning, or did the band dynamics come together gradually in the studio?  

MD: We knew the bar has been set pretty high for us so we knew we had to keep making creative progress. But at the same time we really wanted to do some songs that were influenced by “Animosity”, which we dusted off and started playing live in the summer of 2010. We found that it held up well. That being said, that was along time ago and we’re different people now with a lot more musical experience, so we decided to just use that as a starting off point and do what came naturally. As you can hear, things progressed in many directions, hopefully in a good way.

CnB: What music have you been listening to during the creation of the album?

MD: A lot of very old music and really making a point to sit with a lot of the things that were turning us on way back when we were a three piece the last time. Black Sabbath, Bad Brains, early Metallica, Deep Purple, Jimi Hendrix, old Judas Priest such as ” Sad Wings of Destiny” and on and on. There were some attempts to explore more current tunes but I find it better to go farther back in history for inspiration.

CnB: Is Pepper still sort of a member- at- large who might return in the future? Or is he now permanently in Down?

MD: I like that title “Member at Large”! I think that’s an apt description of the situation. We would like to make a record with him at some point for certain. Probably by the time we were ready to record this one he would have been available but we had  already made a big deal about the trio etc, so we stuck to the plan with this approach.

CnB: In the past, your lyrics have touched on both political and personal subjects. Would it be accurate to say that this is an angry album? What did you focus on lyrically this time?

MD: It’s not what I would call an angry album compared to what passes for metal these days. I think there’s a more complex range of tone and emotion. There’s a touch of general abandon here and there. The songs that have and anger about them have a touch of melancholy and other overtones. This isn’t the type of anger that will wear you out. It’s the kind of anger that is in the process of transcending the conditions that triggered it.
CnB: You collaborated once again with John Custer. What did he bring to the table this time around?

MD: He brought the really good judgement to let us go and do our thing and not really intervene with suggestions except where appropriate and then step up with right suggestion. He helped a lot with capturing the right vocal performance and also with pushing the guitar solos a bit farther.

CnB: Did you guys enjoy touring with Clutch and appearing in the Maryland Deathfest and Roadburn over the course of 2011?

MD: Clutch are good people as an organization and musically just continue to grow and grow. That’s always a good time playing out with them. Maryland Deathfest was really a diverse and very awesome lineup last year that to me owes a lot to the type of bill that you would see at Roadburn. Roadburn has been looking like fun for a few years now and I was glad to be invited last year. The only bad thing was that a tornado basically leveled my street while we were over there playing Roadburn. Fortunately the trees fell away from my house and not on it.

CnB: Do you have any specific plans for the band’s 30th anniversary?

MD: Not really. I’m not so big on nostalgia and things like that. Our general plans include play a lot of shows and letting the music speak for itself.

CnB: What is the next move for the band?

MD: We are planning to tour a lot. Also we might try to get some free t-shirts from the Torrent sites that sell merchandise promoting their site but give our album away for free. I think we deserve some free pirate themed t-shirts in return for the free music.

About the Author: CnB