SilentScream213 Stoner Metal remains one of the least compelling Metal subgenres to me. The slower stuff lacks the emotion and atmosphere of Doom, for example, while the more energetic takes can’t match the riffs of tried-and-true Heavy Metal. And far too often, it just sounds like Hard Rock/Grunge with just a bit of extra heaviness. The vocals are uncompelling, though not nearly as much as the lyrics, and the instrumentation ranges from boring to serviceable.

Corrosion of Conformity fall into the statement I’d have to make “good, for a Stoner band.” They’ve got good energy and decent riffs… for a Stoner band. Wiseblood is pretty by the numbers for them. A large number of tracks that could easily be found on a Grunge album or heard on Classic Rock radio and no one would think anything of it. Every track good enough, but never standing out or packing anything memorable.

I guess the demographic is… people driving trucks, lifting weights, or getting turnt on the substance of the day. Not me.

Kingcrimsonprog Wiseblood, Corrosion Of Conformity’s second album with Pepper Keenan on vocals, was released in 1996 and saw the band on the verge of really breaking into the big leagues of Rock and Metal stardom.

Released two years after their classic 1994 album Deliverance; Wiseblood featured the track ‘Drowning In A Daydream,’ which was nominated for a Grammy Award and the track ‘Man Or Ash,’ which featured a guest appearance from Metallica’s James Hetfield when the band’s popularity was universal.

Unfortunately the band didn’t fulfill the promises of mega-stardom that this record seemed to predict, and many Metal fans these days may know the band more as the source of the Phil Anselmo fronted super-group Down’s guitarist than as a huge band in their own right, but you can easily forget all that when listening to this masterfully crafted album.

The band who recorded Deliverance; Pepper Keenan on vocals and guitar, Woody Weatherman on lead guitar, Mike Dean on bass and founding member Reed Mullin on the drums, return for their second of three records together in what has come to regarded as the band’s classic line-up.

The record is strong from beginning to end, opening with the catchy ‘King Of The Rotten,’ and ending with the musically complex seven minute closer ‘Bottom Feeder (El Que Come Abajo)’ which completes itself with pig samples and jazzy sections alongside its powerful Black Sabbath inspired stoner riffs.

Stylistically, the album primarily features straight up of Southern-tinged Heavy Metal and Stoner Rock tracks with a little variety now and again to break it up, such as the powerful semi-ballad ‘Redmption City,’ and the almost hardcore punk sounding ‘Fuel,’ as well as the aforementioned eclectic album closer ‘Bottom Feeder (El Que Come Abajo)’

Overall; Wisblood is certainly one of the band’s best ever albums and arguably by extension one of the best rock and metal albums of the 1990s. If you like the band then you need this album, if you like Down, Stoner Rock or just metal from the 90s, then Corrosion Of Conformity are a proposition you may wish to seriously consider checking out.