Prior to forming Crowbar, guitarist and vocalist Kirk Windstein joined the band Shell Shock alongside drummer Jimmy Bower. When the band’s guitarist Mike Hatch committed suicide, Windstein and Bower carried the band on as Aftershock and experimented with a more doom metal sound. After a series of name and personnel changes, by mid 1991 the band was renamed Crowbar with a line-up consisting of Windstein, bassist Todd Strange, drummer Craig Nunenmacher, and lead guitarist Kevin Noonan.
Crowbar’s debut came in 1992 with the album “Obedience Through Suffering” and signed with Pavement Music. Crowbar’s subsequent self-titled album in 1993 and “Time Heals Nothing” in 1995, were issued by the new label, the former of which earned national promotion on MTV’s Headbanger’s Ball. After the release of “Time Heals Nothing” Nunenmacher left the group, and was replaced by Jimmy Bower for the albums “Broken Glass” in 1996 and “Odd Fellows Rest” in 1998. Choosing to focus on his other project Eyehategod, Bower left shortly after and was replaced by Sid Montz who recorded drums on 2000’s “Equilibrium”.
In 2001 with a line-up consisting of Windstein, Sammy Duet on lead guitar, Jeff Okoneski on bass, and Tony Constanza on drums, Crowbar released their seventh studio album “Sonic Excess in its Purest Form” on Spitfire Records. The band supported the album with an extensive touring schedule, and with Crowbar plagued with tumultuous line-up changes, often members of other bands needed to fill in. The band has subsequently released the albums “Lifesblood for the Downtrodden” in 2005, “Sever the Wicked Hand” in 2011, and “Symmetry in Black” in 2014.
I’ve been to many metal shows, and listen to a lot of music in the genre, but Crowbar are the only sludge metal band I follow, and I know that some people are put off the slow pace of some of the tracks, but the way that the band intertwine their sound with the fast paced hardcore punk sections keeps it fresh and exciting. When I saw Crowbar perform most recently, it was just after the addition of Jeff Golden on bass, and he totally rocked it, and the entire band looked like they’d been playing together since their beginnings in the early 90s.
One of the tings that stands out for me every time I see them perform live, is the way that they command the stage. Although they’re often facing away from the audience to play their music to each other, the way that they jump and throw themselves around the stage is electric and massively contagious, and had everyone dancing from start to finish.
They opened their set with Self-Inflicted, which had everyone singing along right away, and getting really into the music. They played a great combination of their old and newer material, catering for all the fans there. The show was nearly 2 hours long, and I don’t think the band stopped for a breather once, switching between epic solos and playing awesome tight sets together, but their energy didn’t drop once. For their finale, they played a mash up of some of their hits, and it was mind blowing. They were shouting out to us in the audience, and it was great to be so involved with the end of the show.
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