Corrosion of Conformity
WISEBLOOD
ALBUM REVIEW
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MORE COC EPISODES
Corrosion of Conformity
Pepper Keenan: lead vocals, rhythm guitar
Woody Weatherman: lead guitar
Mike Dean: bass guitar
Reed Mullin: drums
Additional personnel: James Hetfield – background vocals on "Man or Ash"
Released 10/15/1996
Label Columbia
Producer John Custer
1 King of the Rotten
2 Long Whip / Big America
3 Wiseblood
4 Goodbye Windows
5 Born Again for the Last Time
6 Drowning in a Daydream
7 The Snake Has No Head
8 The Door
9 Man or Ash
10 Redemption City
11 Wishbone (Some Tomorrow)
12 Fuel
13 Bottom Feeder (El que come abajo)
Released 10/15/1996, WISEBLOOD, the 5th studio album from CORROSION OF CONFORMITY, is the perfect soundtrack to October and everything that goes with it, including shag carpeting, wood paneling, and fresh greens.
Filled with driving metal riffs and all of the sonic textures that made the 70’s the best decade for music, the “Skynyrd Fried Sabbath” infused 70’s jam band stylings of WISEBLOOD evokes a “super-heavy fuzzy 70’s” vibe that pairs well with the flower of your choosing.
Go fix yourself a PB&J (or a P&BJ) sandwich, relish the privilege of getting a Senior Discount for looking like a wizard at The Chick-Fil-A of burgers, and remember that “pre-AIDS poon is the best kind” when you JOIN US for a dose of retro southern metal with CORROSION OF CONFORMITY and WISEBLOOD.
KING OF THE ROTTEN
In a strange way, this sounds like what Metallica was going for on The Loads but didn’t quite make it. It’s like they were close, but COC was closer. It’s the sound of autumn, October, fallen leaves, shag carpeting, and wood paneling, combined with the 70’s and infused with just enough stoner metal sensibilities to take you back in time after you’ve set some flowers on fire and inhaled their intoxicating fumes.
Very much a 70’s vibe to this album. A ton of Sabbath worship, ZZ Top, and Lynyrd Skynyrd…basically ALL of the good shit from the 70’s.
Note the number of all seeing eyes on the front cover (it’s 7, btw) along with a Black Sabbath “Born Again” looking pig.
LONG WHIP/BIG AMERICA
This is the most distorted riff in the history of riffs to start things off. Pepper not only has great riffs, but his lyrics have quite a bit of depth and are definitely worth reading.
It feels like a cool October day, leaves blowing around in the gentle fall breeze, and everyone is gathered on the patio barbecuing some meats, drinking some cold beers, and passing around some flower infused relaxers.
The 70’s effects and vibe are part of what makes this album sound so classic and timeless. It came out nearly 30 years ago (in 1996), yet it has a sound that would be right at home 20 years before that, say around 1976.
The up-tempo shift toward the end and the harmony guitar solo is so 70’s that it screams bell bottoms, Big Wheels, and pool halls.
“Just another old man,
Tryin’ to pass the buck with his dirty hand,
Good thing he knows his Bible…”
WISEBLOOD
This has those elements of classic Sabbath with the isolated drum fills and bass along with it. Listening to this is truly a time-traveling experience that takes you back to the 90’s and, to some extent, the 70’s as well. In the 90’s, it sounded a bit out of time, and even now it doesn’t really have a 90’s sound so much as a 70’s sound.
GOODBYE WINDOWS definitely has a more Sabbath, doomy vibe to it. Whereas the prior songs had more of a 70’s and southern rock feel, this feels more distinctly doomy and darker. Even the chords sound like something you’d hear from Master of Reality.
“One might make you lazy, two might make you crawl, three might make you crazy, and four ends it all…”
Basically, it’s better to be high and happy, enjoying life, than it is to be trapped in a life that feels like a prison.
COC always has the tastiest harmonies. Both this album and Deliverance are the kind of albums that A: must be listened to in their entirety, B: must be listened to during the fall (especially October) and C: to be fully (and properly) enjoyed, must be listened to under the influence of relaxers.
“Past regrets and future fears,
Turns a boy to a man sooner than planned…”
BORN AGAIN FOR THE LAST TIME has a shuffle feel to it, and there IS a DOWN song with a similar groove that escapes me at the moment. Ironically, the pig on the album cover (the red pig on the album cover with the yellow eyes) is reminiscent of the baby on the cover of Black Sabbath’s “Born Again”, so this almost has a tongue in cheek vibe to it.
Tongue in cheek…hmmm, has that phrase always been about analingus or is it just me? (“The One Who Eats Below”…“Bottom Feeder”…get it?)
(What’s that spoken word part in the left channel? Is that in the lyrics?).
DROWNING IN A DAYDREAM has a trippy, heavy, groove. The rawness of the mix and the sound add a lot to the authenticity of the COC sound in that it’s not polished to perfection, it’s just real, unapologetic southern metal with riffs and feedback and flubs here and there, warts and all.
It has an extremely LIVE sound to it, like you’re in the jam room with them listening as they play. It’s almost a shame that more modern albums aren’t made like this, to really give you the experience of being “in the room” so to speak.
I didn’t know there was a video for this one.
“Now you get so low that you can’t say no
And you wonder if you’re really where you want to be…”
THE SNAKE HAS NO HEAD has some weird, subdued laughter in the background before that creepy, slithering, slinking intro riff comes in. That guitar is very much Jimi Hendrix “If 6 Was 9”.
Drug metal? Could that be a new genre of stoner metal, where instead of exclusively weed, it’s expanded to include ALL drugs?
THE DOOR has that up tempo, ZZ Top swing to it that bludgeons you over the head with the same kind of brutal heaviness that Blackfoot had on “Train, Train”, with killer grooves, killer heaviness, and killer riffing.
“You tell me where I can go and I’ll betcha that I’ll see you there…”
How about where the bass completely drops out and it’s just guitar and drums? Didn’t notice that before…
MAN OR ASH starts out with more maniacal laughing in the background before that solid, beefy riff.
At the time, there was no reference or credit to the backing vocals on the chorus (courtesy of the mighty James Hetfield) but anyone with ANY familiarity with Metallica knows that signature Hetfield growl and could pick it out of a lineup with zero problem whatsoever.
“These are primitive times…”
The Hetfield surprise was one thing, but if you give that guitar solo a listen (especially the first part), you’ll notice that it sounds an awful lot like Kirk Hammett. The phrasing, the delivery, the tone…pretty sure that’s Kirk, and also pretty sure that he was uncredited on this album as was Hetfield.
REDEMPTION CITY has that lonely, off in the distance sound to it, resembling No Quarter to some extent, but with acoustic guitars and droning harmonies instead of the keyboard work of John Paul Jones.
Very stripped down and isolated sounding, like walking in the woods by yourself and it’s nearing sundown and you’re not really sure where you are or where to go, you’re just aimlessly shuffling along through trails of dead leaves, listening for any sounds of civilization and looking for signs of life. It evokes a beautiful, heavy sadness that’s dark, weathered, and weary…a far away, lonesome feeling of emotional void.
“The soul is tired and you wanna go home,
And close the curtain on everything you know…”
WISHBONE (SOME TOMORROW)
A nice change of pace from the melancholy pace and mood of the previous track. Up tempo and peppy, filled with good time 70’s vibes (remember, you can’t have the 70’s without 7’s).
It cannot be emphasized enough that John Custer (the producer) helped Pepper and the boys create a timeless thing of brutally heavy, 70’s infused southern metal.
FUEL is the song that Metallica should have opened Re-Load with…I mean, it WAS the song they opened it with, but it would have been a whole lot cooler if they opened it with THIS one instead!
This is straight up, super distorted, southern fried thrash delivered the way that only COC can deliver: loud, uncompromising, and distorted as all fuck!!! That’s gotta be like 7 distortion pedals, all turned up to 11 and plugged into 7 heads, also all turned up to 11. No guitar solo, just a breakdown and then even MORE distortion as it heads back into the main riff…this might be the most distorted COC song, if not the most distorted metal song ever recorded!!!
BOTTOM FEEDER (EL QUE COME ABAJO)
This is an instrumental (and also the longest track on the album) but it’s got a nice infusion of the opening and closing tracks from Blind as well as classic Sabbath.
“The One Who Eats Below” sounds naughty…
There’s a nice little trippy breakdown before things kick into high (or should I say “higher”?) gear, with that chiming, cricket-like feedback.
They could have stopped with Fuel and that would have been a fantastic way to close things out, but this just taps into all of the things that make COC one of the finest examples of 70’s infused metal in existence.
Show Notes:
(00:01): “It’s gonna be a good show…All 7’s…” / #SiriusXM / “Doesn’t that mean #TheLord though?”/ #TheNumberOfCompletion / #markthetime / “Somebody left a lipstick in here…freshly used…”/ “Siri?” / Be careful what you say because Siri is ALWAYS listening…and always active…ALL the time…/ ***WARNING: #listenerdiscretionisadvised ***/ #RayBanSkynetMeta sunglasses / #RepeatedReflections / “I get it!”/ ***WELCOME BACK TO THE METAL NERDERY PODCAST!!!*** / #SeniorDiscount / “I love #Culvers because they’re like the #ChickFilA of burgers…”
(7:30): #RussellsSausageReflections / “Now I want sausage…” / “Y’all knew about the gout attack…”/ “Back to the sausage…” / #markthetimeagain / “They’re just bun length hot dogs…” / A “brief” review of the #NIN show at Gwinnett Arena / “Here’s what the really cool thing was…”/
(15:55): EMAIL US at metalnerdery@gmail.com & leave us a rating and a review wherever you download our podcast, FIND US on the social media at #Facebook #Instagram #YouTube and #TikTok at #metalnerderypodcast and PATREON US at patreon.com/metalnerderypodcast / PATREON SHOUT OUT / ***You can VOICEMAIL US at 980-666-8182!!!*** / That time when Axl Rose filled in for Brian Johnson in AC/DC / “I thought it was only a couple of shows…”/ #cashgrab / “Bad Axl: that should be the name of his solo band…” / #MyHonk / “Pre-AIDS poon is the best kind…”
(24:15): Psychic Slayer of the episode / “There was so many rascals…”/ #Slayer BEHIND THE CROOKED CROSS (South of Heaven – 1988) / A misspoken Slayer factoid/observation that wasn’t so recent.
(28:16): #TheDocket / “By the time y’all hear this, it’ll be Rocktober…Metaltober…The soundtrack to weed, shag carpeting, wood paneling…”/ METAL NERDERY PODCAST PRESENTS: CORROSION OF CONFORMITY - WISEBLOOD / Released 10/15/1996 /
“There’s 7 illuminati pyramids…”/ KING OF THE ROTTEN / “It goes from driving metal riffs into total 70’s vibes…like southern rock on steroids” / #SkynyrdFriedSabbath
(34:10): LONG WHIP/BIG AMERICA / “You can’t have the 70’s without 7’s…”/
“If this album came out today, would it be bigger now than it was then?”/
“I hear that, and it’s shag carpeting, wood paneling, fall, and weed…” / #Sativa vs #Indica / WISEBLOOD / “It’s just super heavy fuzzy 70’s…”/ GOODBYE WINDOWS /
#SmogMountain / “The coke line inventory is very good, across the board…”/ “I just need like $500,000…”
(45:54): BORN AGAIN FOR THE LAST TIME / The problem with being constantly reincarnated with no memory of past lives / “The snooch looks like a #StarCrunch bar…don’t put your dick in it!”/ DROWNING IN A DAYDREAM / “Godzilla!” / “I’m having a hard time between this and Deliverance right now…” / Lightning vs Puppets
(50:50): THE SNAKE HAS NO HEAD / #MrSnuffleupagus / “It’s like #BlackSabbath meets #JimiHendrix…” / THE DOOR / “Originally, Mr. Hetfield was not credited on this…” / MAN OR ASH / “These are primitive times…”/ “A Lot…”/ REDEMPTION CITY / “Break out the relaxers…all the coke lines…”/ “No Quarter…” / “Imagine my face is an acoustic guitar…that’s how they mic it…”
(1:03:53): WISHBONE (SOME TOMORROW) / “That almost sounds like a #DOWN song but I can’t think of which one…”/ “Put your seatbelt on…put your helmet on…and get ready…”/ FUEL / “It’s like 5 distortion boxes all set to loud…you can’t have too much distortion…” / “I am curious to know what the Spanish on this next one translates to…” / BOTTOM FEEDER (EL QUE COME ABAJO) / “The One Who Eats Below” / “It sounds like the new #Iommi sound…not from the 70’s…like modern…”/ “70’s jam band…”/ “It’s like PB& J…or P…and BJ…” / #BirthdayBeej / ***GO CHECK OUT OUR HALLOWEEN SUPER SPECIAL TO FIND OUT ABOUT “THE RUSS MASK”*** / #BOLTH / “Go fix yourself a PB&J or a P&BJ sandwich and THANK YOU FOR JOINING US!!!” / “Check him out with his meats…”
#SwizzleSticks #untilthenext #outroreel