Customer Reviews

Sonic Excess in It's Purest Form

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As soon as the mammoth "The Lasting Dose" kicks in, this Album by Crowbar, "Sonic Excess In It's Purest Form", will leave you wanting to listen to it again and again. This Album, i think, is up there easily with their debut "Crowbar", "Equilibrium" and also their latest release "Lifesblood For The Downtrodden". This CD is one of their heaviest, yet still melodic, Albums to date. With extremely strong vocals by Kirk Windstein, Crowbar follow up from "Equilibrium" with a devastating display of power.

Like some other Crowbar Albums, there is an acoustic/instrumental song by the name of "In Times of Sorrow" on this CD. With the rest of the Album being extremely heavy and brutal, this adds a break inbetween the powerful riffage and it sounds very well done. "Failure To Delay Gratification" is almost a throwback to the old days of Crowbar, when they almost made Hardcore music but fused it with sludgey riffs that just have defined what Crowbar is about. This song is probably the fastest sounding song on this Album (At least at the start of the song), but slows down after about a minute, and delves into a slow riff that carries on pretty much until the end of the song and leads into "Empty Room", the dramatic almost epic and massive-sounding finisher, perfectly.

"Awakening" is almost in the same vein as "Failure To Delay Gratification", starting off pretty fast then slowing down into Crowbar's trademark extremely-heavy sludgey-riffing. I think "Counting Daze", "To Build A Mountain" and "The Lasting Dose" showcase Crowbar's sound perfectly. Those 3 songs are probably the heaviest on this Album, but the whole Album as a whole is one heavy beast.

My favourite songs would be "The Lasting Dose", "To Build A Mountain", "Thru The Ashes (I've Watched You Burn)", "Repulsion In It's Splendid Beauty", "Counting Daze", "In Times of Sorrow", "Failure To Delay Gratification" and "Empty Room". I think "It Pours From Me" and "Suffering Brings Wisdom" are extremely good too, and add alot to the overall tremendous heaviness to this Album.

If you like Crowbar, but haven't yet picked this up for whatever reason..Don't miss out on this Album. This Album is one of their most heaviest, melodic, mature and intense Albums to date. You just can't be disappointed in it. To new fans of Crowbar, i seriously suggest you try this first. I think this Album is a great way to get into this talented band, and you'll be hooked from then on. This Album is definitely 5/5.

if you want real slow, fat sludgy metal ... this is it.Kirk is the best frontman ever and after all these years he still can come up with the most
brutal riff on this earth.All songs is solide, listen to the 1st song and the 5th one back to back and you could go throught brick wall.Been a fan
since 92 and cant get enought.They are finaly coming out with a dvd in 2007.Recomend ODD FELLOW REST, these are the 2 best albums (even if all the albums is worth buying) Go ahead, buy this...

In 1968, Blue Cheer was the heaviest band on earth. In 1970, Black Sabbath dethroned them. In 1985, Pentagram dethroned Sabbath, but in 1986, Pentagram abdicated the throne of the heaviest band on earth and Candlemass acended the throne. Their reign lasted until 1992 when Crowbar invaded the heavy metal scene. To this day no one has been able to conquer or subdue these sludgey, doomed juggernauts. they are ultimately slow and HEAVY, brain-crushingly so. If you do not like slow and heavy, Crowbar will crush you. If you are strong enough to aproach the throne through such gravity, then you will be rewarded with killer heavy metal!

This album is the epitome of fat metal. Make no mistake about it, the slow riffs and deep sludge that accompany every song are meant that way! Crowbar has done it for years and they continue to do so. BUY THIS RECORD! Then upon listening, go and bludgeon yourself at an all you can eat buffet! Fat Metal Is Here To Stay!

This album is worth buying just for the song "The Lasting Dose". That song is off the hook. 10 times in a row is not enough. However, every other song on the disc is standard Crowbar, albeit with a bit more speed here and there. Crowbar is one of the best of all time. More people need to recognize!! Pick this one up AND "Odd Fellows" and go on from there.

Is it possible that, contrary to popular belief, CROWBAR are actually advancing themselves musically, album by album, though by infinitesimal degrees of the sort that are as impossible to chart on a human scale as Darwinian evolution? The skeletal dirges that litter the band's back pages may eventually line up end to end in a fashion that sees their Neanderthal primitiveness stand erect, though it may also take several generations of their trudging anti-thrash before any such aimless second guessing can be confirmed. Regardless, this latest baby step forward is yet another dreamlike state of sleepy aggression, mired hopes and veiled fragility, quite a far cry from the bratty rage of the korn generation (whose Jonathan Davis has a lower vocal register akin to Kirk Windstein's most reaching falsetto). Once again CROWBAR achieve a kind of beauty belied by the bared and ink stained guts spilling out over the CD booklet. In film and in print, we like our demons to be personified in incendiary plot devices which inevitably result in either an explosion or an exorcism of the soul. The ten year tenure of this New Orleans quartet has never made it that easy. It's in a slower, simmering manner that CROWBAR plies our wounds, choosing to reopen the same scrapes and blisters over and over again rather than struggle vainly to inflict that mortal blow, as so many ragemongers of the day seek to accomplish. In this, they manage to convey the haunting doubt that plagues our subconscious long after the momentary tantrum subsides.

Well being the huge fan of Crowbar that I am, I figured that my high expectations for Sonic Excess would be too high, but yet again Crowbar never ceases to amaze me. this CD is somewhere between Broken Glass and Equilibrium in style to me. it's got more of an upbeat than Odd Fellows Rest, and it's just as brutal as the last 6 albums they've put out. PS, I'm the new "official" Crowbar webmaster, .... you'll be just as happy with this CD as I was (and still am) This CD has gotten better with each and everytime I've listened to it, and I've listened to it alot. if you even remotely like Crowbar, this is most definitely a must buy CD!! Highly HIGHLY recommended

Crowbar managed to sneak a new album by! I hadn't heard anything at all about their new album until I saw this on the rack. I felt so lucky to just find this by chance on the very day it was released! This album continues the progression that started with Odd Fellows Rest, and continued with Equilibrium. The Lasting Dose, and Awakening stand out immediately. If you're in to HEAVY, HEAVY, Sludge, This album is a can't miss.

Ill second the guy above who said this CD is all about the opening track. Its the only song from the CD that I put onto my hard drive. Its one of those songs you can listen to 10 times in a row and not get tired of. The rif is hypnotic, huge and beautiful. The vocals convey what the best crowbar songs always convey, they speak to you from the depths. This is not their best album though. Equilibrium, Odd fellows rest and Time heals nothing are what crowbar is all about. Intense melodies, great songwriting, vocals you cannot take your ears off of and a guitar tone that seems layered 1000 times and has a width and density that defies audio gravity. If youre looking for songs like "feel the burning sun", "glass full of liquid pain", "planets collide", "behind the black horizon", "times heals nothing", "still I reach", "embracing emptiness", the part of crowbar that is about soul wrenching intensity and incredible and organic songwriting then youre not going to like this album much, aside from "The lasting dose" which is probably worth [dollar amount] on its own. Check out Time Heals nothing. Every song on that album is great. Ive had that album since 1995 and I still listen to it and its one of my fav albums of all time. Also equilibrium and odd fellows, both incredible albums. I hope the next crowbar record goes in that direction as thats what makes their records transcend the genre like no other band.

Kirk Windstein can come up with some of the coolest riffs out there. That's what I like about sludge- the riffs. This is slower than what I usually listen to but the heaviness is there. At times, these guys almost remind me of Pantera. "Awakening" is the best song here.