Corrosion of Conformity – Blind

Corrosion of Conformity – Blind

(Relativity, 1991)

“Some man recently asked me how it was possible for me to speak of disparity and injustice in the world when I’m a middle-class, white male. You don’t have to eat shit to know that it tastes bad.” K. Agell

I Corrosion of Conformity dei primi anni '90 sono una band nuova. Solo la batteria di Reed Mullin e la chitarra di Woody Weatherman sono rimaste al loro posto. Eppure l’energia violenta e l’assenza di compromessi tipiche dell’hardcore e del thrash metal degli esordi sono ancora presenti, e non solo nei testi del nuovo cantante Karl Agell (“cercasi cantante via di mezzo tra James Hetfield, Ian Gillian e H.R. dei Bad Brains” diceva l’inserzione). Adesso, però, hanno una forma completamente diversa. Sono compresse e condensate in macigni sabbathiani di matrice blues e in sfuriate degne dei quattro cavalieri. Questa elevatissima pressione ne ha modificato i contorni fino a generare riff nei quali l’energia non riesce ad esser contenuta, schizzando via incontrollabile. Il risultato è un groove portentoso, che corre all’impazzata tra i mid tempo della sei corde del neo arrivato Pepper Keenan. Groove che rappresenta il seme dal quale nascerà gran parte della musica pesante degli anni '90 (sia che si parli di stoner, sludge, groove metal o grunge). Abrasivo, acido, incazzato, potente e travolgente, Blind è tutto ciò che i Metallica post Black Album avrebbero voluto suonare, senza però riuscirci.

[R.T.]

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Corrosion of Conformity – Blind

(Relativity, 1991)

“Some man recently asked me how it was possible for me to speak of disparity and injustice in the world when I’m a middle-class, white male. You don’t have to eat shit to know that it tastes bad.” K. Agell

In the early 90s Corrosion of Conformity are a new band. Only Reed Mullin's drums and Woody Weatherman's guitar remained in place. Yet the violent energy and the absence of compromises typical of the hardcore and thrash metal of the beginning are still there, and not only in the lyrics of the new singer Karl Agell ("we are looking for a singer halfway between James Hetfield, Ian Gillian and H.R. of Bad Brains" the ad said). Now, however, they have a completely different form. They are compressed and condensed in Sabbathian blues-style boulders and in outbursts worthy of the four horsemen. This very high pressure has changed the contours up to the point of generating riffs in which energy can not be contained, bolting away uncontrollably. The outcome is an extraordinary groove, running wildly through the mid tempo of the newly arrived Pepper Keenan's six-string. Groove which represents the seed from which most of the heavy music of the 90s will be born (whether you are talking about stoner, sludge, groove metal or grunge). Abrasive, acid, pissed off, powerful and overwhelming, Blind is all that post Black Album Metallica would have liked to play, but without succeeding.

[R.T.]