CROWBAR — Obedience Thru Suffering (review)

CROWBAR — Obedience Thru Suffering album cover Album · 1991 · Sludge Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
3.5/5 ·
UMUR
"Obedience Thru Suffering" is the debut full-length studio album by US, New Orleans based sludge metal act Crowbar. The album was released through Grind Core International in September 1991. It wasn´t an album that gained them international attention (that would come with the next couple of albums), but it did put them on the map. Crowbar was formed in 1989 under the Slugs monicker, but changed their name to the current one in 1990. They are often refered to as one of the seminal sludge metal acts.

Stylistically the music on "Obedience Thru Suffering" is a combination of crushingly heavy doomy riffs and rhythms, and the aggression of hardcore (especially the vocals point in the direction of the latter style). The material is very basic vers/chorus structured and solely feature basic instrumentation of bass, guitars, drums, and vocals. If the heavy music didn´t convey it, the depressive lyrics dealing with pain, loss, betrayel, and other dark human emotions and actions, make sure that the listening experience is bleak beyond bleak. When Kirk Windstein sings it´s like being dragged into a dark hole of depression and despair. He is a very expressive and passionate vocalist, who is able to convey both aggression and despair through his raw yet still melodic tinged vocals.

The material on the 10 track, 43:00 minutes long album are generally well written and quite consistent in style and quality, and there are few standout tracks but a couple of tracks into the album things start to flow together a bit too much. The tracks simply sound too much the same. It´s not a major issue as there are no bad quality tracks featured on the album, but "Obedience Thru Suffering" surely could have prospered from more variation between tracks.

"Obedience Thru Suffering" features a fairly well sounding and very heavy sound production, which is raw and powerful, and suits the music well. So "Obedience Thru Suffering" is in many ways a very promising and for the time rather original sounding debut release, and while the songwriting could have been more varied, and it´s a slight issue that it isn´t, I still think a 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.
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