Down - NOLA
(Elektra
Records, 1995)
Buy the album
here
I
turned over the CD case of Down’s debut album in the old Virgin Megastore in Glasgow, and was met with an image that would burn itself in to my brain. A thorn-crowned Jesus figure with a joint
hanging casually from his lips with dark shadows for eyes, nearly drowned in
monochrome roughness. A relatively
mainstream metal fan in those days, I found the extreme metal scene to be foreign,
out of reach, and filled with noises my ears couldn’t understand. I was intrigued by what I heard, but I didn’t
know why, and ended up backing away from it for years. While Down aren’t extreme metal, this picture
on the back cover of their first album, NOLA,
generated the same subconscious response. This was not my usual fare. It had an underground feel to it despite the
familiar and influential names involved.
While Down was comprised of Pepper Keenan of Corrosion of Conformity,
Kirk Windstein and Todd Strange of Crowbar, Jimmy Bower of Eyehategod, and Phil
Anselmo of Pantera, something about the independent, DIY image that the artwork,
logo, and track listing conveyed had me questioning if it was going to be something
I could handle. Problem was, I was
hooked on the band already, I just didn’t know it. I anxiously walked by the CD several times
until my curiosity completely consumed me, and I ended up laying out £15 for it
in 2000. That’s £400 new money. I had entered a new world.
As
“Temptation’s Wings” filled my room with 60s and 70s-inspired, metal-edged hard
rock and Phil Anselmo’s growl, I was simultaneously relieved, disappointed, and
incredibly excited. Relieved that this
wasn’t some bizarre, experimental side project that I might have to pretend to
like; disappointed that it wasn’t exactly that and a bit more; and excited that
I had just found a band that represent everything I’ve ever wanted from
music. The riffs are big but aren’t
trying to be heavier than they need to be.
The drums are concerned with feel and gentle details as much as getting
your head banging. The leads and
harmonised guitar parts are about emotion and storytelling rather than showing
off any technical prowess. The vocals
are aggressive but with a crooning quality to them that provides this stoner rock
with punch and melody. This is all
wrapped in the swampy production that has become associated with the Nola scene
in general, and more specifically with the self-generated lore of band
production base, Nodferatu’s Lair, to create a sound that nods to influences
but is stirringly unique.
By
the time the final riff of “Temptation’s Wings” blended into the sharper opening
of “Lifer”, I was committed. I remember
nearly breaking my neck on first hearing this song. Bower’s insistent percussion mandates ferocious
headbanging, and to this day I consider “Lifer” a pit-starter with soul. It’s familiar lyrical and thematic territory
for Pantera fans, but with this Southern Rock setting the edges soften, the
puffed-out chests deflate, and honest emotion starts to seep through. It’s heavy metal that wants you to snap your
neck, but look after your soul and the souls of those around you.
My
memories of hearing these first two Down songs are so strong that I often
struggle to look beyond them for my favourite tracks, but “Stone The Crow”
steps right up and demands its place alongside these tracks. If anything, it ups the Southern Rock vibe,
gently caressing you with its lilting down home guitar, while simultaneously
hitting you hard with lyrics that only hint at the strain in Anselmo’s heart
regarding his Southern upbringing, identity, and his place in a culture that is
inherently racist. While Anselmo’s
racist outbursts have tainted Down’s career, the band’s identity is not
entirely caught up in false or blinded notions of the Good Ol’ South. For some, it’s more about Black Sabbath, Led
Zeppelin, guitar riffs, and a lot of weed.
While crushing odes like “Eyes of the South”, with its incredible
jammed-out intro, gigantic bass sound, and unstoppable twin guitars, revel in
imagery of the South and love of it what it offers to some of its inhabitants, Down’s
true identity is found in “Hail to the Leaf” and Nola’s defining track, “Bury Me In Smoke”. In the former, the sound of a bong bubbling
away undercuts the heavy riff and more aggressive and direct drumming to
intertwine with Anselmo’s tortured lyrics and create an atmosphere of clouded
judgement and self-hatred. In the latter,
we find Down’s declaration of greatness.
“Bury Me In Smoke” is a huge and confident song fuelled by weed and
driven by brilliant guitar riffs. It
brings together all the elements Down displayed in the preceding songs, but
knows where this album’s, and this band’s, heart truly lies: In allowing the
main riff to fade away then briefly reprising it before the album finishes,
Down remind us that at its core, this is music for people who love heavy and honest guitars. All the drugs, self-hatred, and
ideas about the South can step to one side: Hail to the riff.
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