Customer Reviews

Blind

5 star:		(29)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

c.o.c. is one of the few hardcore bands that didn't crossover in the 80s but after 89s barley listenable "technocricy" they had to do somthing ."blind" is one of my favorite c.o.c. albums .it was the tinkering w/ what would become their sound today.karl agell gets a bad rap for his lean toward a mainstream vocal style ,but its no more mainstream than what phil from pantera & kyle from exhorder were doing at the time.i personally love it.it fits the music.the entire cd jams from beggining to end but i must say the highlights are tacks 9 "vote w/ a bullet" (pepper keenan on lead vox) & 10 "great purification" an anthem w/ some trance elements. i highly recommend "blind"

To call this album a rock album would almost be an insult. Some people call it punk/hardcore, but to me it will always be metal. And now that I've pigeonholed this CD to death, I'll move on to the music. Corrosion Of Conformity serves up some unforgiving, politically motivated anger with Blind. The guitar tone has a punishing crunch that has been hard to parallel in my mind. With the bass pushing that crunch, this is one heavy listen... I love it! Nothing will guarantee you a speeding ticket quicker than 'Dance Of The Dead' or 'Mine Are The Eyes Of God'. 'Vote With A Bullet' spells out COC's political views very clearly, and also manages to wrap it up in one awesome tune! Even the slowest song on the CD, 'Echoes In The Well', manages to churn out some dark and brooding overtones. Every single song on here is heavy and uncompromising. The lyrics are very poignant and intelligent. Amidst so many bands who, lately like to pose as revolutionary, Corrosion Of Conformity take a shot at 'The Man' that is, without dispute, the most real and profound yet. A lot of bands have come and gone, taking some inspiration from Corrosion Of Conformity, yet these guys continue to go on (granted under a different style). This CD represents the high point of their songwriting and musical career.

This is a transition album for COC. It's nothing like their previous work and merely a sign for things to come. Dark chugging riffs with their old vocalist Karl Agell. If you can get past Karl's voice, then you've got an awesome metal album. Awesome opening instrumental stuff.

When God first conceived of serious, intellegent, subversive, and loud hard rock music, She/It had this album in mind. If you want to help create a new and better world while thrashing your head out, buy Blind early and often!

After reading some reviews I've noticed a lot of people didn't like the vocals. Personally, I think they fit perfectly. All songs are A+ and the musicianship is excellent. Listen to the drums. WOW! "Mine are the eyes of God" and "White Noise" are such a great showcase for the drummer. The guitars bleed of Black Sabbath. Even if you're not a BS fan (what?!) it's so well done that I find myself saying "Damn!" after nearly every track. There are only a few C.o.C. Cd's I would recommend and this is definitely one of them. Crank it up & enjoy.

It was 'my first' C.O.C (I discovered this one in 1992...). Thus, "blind" is definitely one of my favourite (with "Animosity" and "Eye for an eye"...). In all honesty, I consider it as one of the best heavy metal album ever issued (I know it sounds 'cliche' but I really think it's a true masterpiece). Just listen to these amazing songs. It begins with a terrific intro and it continues with hauting heavy metal anthems. It's a pure Black Sabbath oriented album... And the lyrics are still vindicative and political (as usual with C.O.C...). Too sad that C.O.C didn't finally get the mainstream audience that Metallica got with their "black album". To me, "blind" could easily be compared, with great advantage, to the four horsemen's best seller... Another essential so, you exactly know what to do...

Before Corrosion of Conformity found they're perfect lineup with 1994's "Deliverance", they released "Blind" in the early nineties with the lineup of Karl Agel on vocals, Pepper Keenan and Woody Weatherman on guitar, Reed Mullin on drums, and Phil Swisher on bass. Agel's vocals go on a scale of grating to annoying (those who never listened to early C.O.C. and only C.O.C.'s later albums will not get used to his voice) but thankfully the lyrics hit the right political note (something C.O.C. has always managed to accomplish) and the music itself has a great thrash vibe to it. "These Shrouded Temples", "Dance of the Dead", "Buried", and "Great Purification" are standout tracks, but it's "Vote With a Bullet" that makes "Blind" worth purchasing alone, and features vocals by Pepper and some of the best and heaviest musicianship to ever come from C.O.C. Three bonus tracks are included; "Condition A/Condition B", "Future Now", and "Jim Beam and the Coon Ass". All in all, if you never listened to C.O.C. before, this is a good place to start, but if you've only listened to later C.O.C. then you might not like this.

Semiphore is the communication with flags of course. Everyone knows that the "peace sign" is a combination of the semiphore letters for nuclear disarmament (N.D.). Not everyone realizes that C.O.C. (through the influence of drummer Reed Mullin) is political in nature.

Despite their various lead singers...

Pepper
Karl
Mike
Simon Bob
Eric
Robert T (who always had a band-aid on his nose)
Benji (who quit the band and started a pizza parlor)
Garrick Francis (the original Singer)

..they remain true to the roots of the band. The original line up:

Mike Dean, Reed Mullin, Woody Weatherman, and Garrick Francis were the original line up. This album illustrates this so well.

Blind is fully in the spirit of the original work by Garrick Morris. Garrick was a tremendous seminal influence in the introduction of Dake-Bonoist Pentecostal Christianity in the early hardcore punk movement. There are Dake-Bonoist sentiments expressed in almost every song on Blind. They resonate in the political expressions of Reed Mullin. They also resonate in the skinhead sentiments of Phil Swisher. Don't ignore this wonderful Dake-Bonoist work. Don't negate the roots of C.O.C.

Even if they were once known by the silly name "etheroid and the sacred cows" they are worth experiencing.

This album *is* critical to the history of C.O.C. in that is has pivotal bass player Phil Swisher (former Guitar Player for Bloodbath, Unicef, and A Number of Things; also former Guitar player for No Labels [ as a replacement for Ricky Hicks who left the band to sell soap for AMWAY of all things ]. Blind represents a pivotal period of Corrosion of Conformity. Your history is pretty much true to the evolution of C.O.C. You're aware, of course, the "EyE for an EyE" wasn't there first released recording. It was actually their fourth recording. Their third recording was a compilation EP called "WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?" that also included area bands like "BloodMobile" from Statesville NC. Their second release came out exclusively on cassette tape and it was called "NO CORE." "NO CORE" also included area bands like No Labels and COLCOR. Their first recording (on which the lead singer was a nerdy african-american magnet school student by the name of Garrick Francis). Garrick predates Benji and was (i'm pretty sure) the first lead singer for the band. The only public shows that Garrick actually did, that I'm aware of, took place on Turner Street. This recording was released as a 45 (EP) with 6 very short songs on it. It was typical thrash. This EP was called "Mommy" and only a very few were actually released. I'm sure that anyone owning a copy of "Mommy" is guarding it with his life because it is worth a pretty penny.

BTW: in terms of the evolution of things. Before Reed Mullin was kicked out of the band it was rumored that he wanted to release an album that was a successor to "Eye for an Eye" that would be called "We've got an Eye fot the Aye-Aye (Daubentonia madagascariensis). The proceeds were going to go to the primate conservation center at Duke University. The rest of band never really shared Reed's political convictions and they figured that he had just gone too far with this idea. It's too bad really. This is unstantiated to take it with a grain of salt.

It's okay, but not nearly as good as any of the Pepper Keenan sung albums...which means I listened to this album once and put it on a back shelf somewhere. If you want to listen to the GREAT, heavy, COC albums, check out "Deliverance", "Wiseblood", and "In the Arms of God"...those are elite heavy metal albums. "America's Volume Dealer", another Keenan lead album is pretty darn good, too.