Obedience thru Suffering

It may seem counter-intuitive, but more often than not the earliest offerings of a newly born musical style will tend closer to what is common practice. The overall game of musical evolution is mostly a gradual one, and this goes doubly so for Kirk Windstein and Crowbar's earliest contribution to what became known as sludge. Having existed for several years prior under a couple of differing names prior to adopting their present moniker, this is a band that very much aware of how doom metal had developed in the earlier 80s thanks to the efforts of Trouble and Saint Vitus, along with the more epic strain offered up by Candlemass. As such, it isn't without some degree of precedence that the worlds of doom metal and hardcore would eventually collide, especially given the close association that Saint Vitus had shared with Black Flag years back, but as with most developments, the newly born hybrid style sneaked its way in rather than smashing down every existing wall like the enraged giant that would personify the sludge sound.

Obedience Thru Suffering was essentially the right album at the right time, beating Eyehategod's debut by about a year, as well most of the doom and groove bands that have since become associated with the Nola scene. Having said that, given that Crowbar was basically out on their own on this one, the musical results stick closer to the doom style, and results in an album that quite close in proximity to the traditional efforts of Trouble, importing the same sort of slow yet thrashing punch to the guitars, and throwing in some occasional dreary harmonic themes between the guitars that are somewhat reminiscent of the latter days of eighties Candlemass. The overall tone and tenor of the atmosphere is a tad bit heavier and muddier compared to said offerings, but apart from Kirk Windstein's gruff-obsessed yells paying direct homage to Discharge, this is the sort of album that would be mistaken for a pure doom metal affair.

The general pacing and feel of this album is about as slow and sluggish as could have been expected at the time, trudging forth with all the speed of an old school zombie film. There are occasional bursts of speed to be found on a few of the heavier and meaner numbers on here such as "Waiting In Silence" and "Vacuum", but there isn't really any sort of jarring shifts in feel that goes beyond what was heard during the days when Scott Reagers was fronting Saint Vitus. The drums are possessed of such a dense body and depth that they serve to make things feel a bit like a throwback to about five years before, whereas the guitars have all the force of a typical Scott Burns production of a death metal album (he was not involved), making otherwise minimalist and repetitive riffs like the ones heard on the punishingly heavy stomping machine "Feeding Fear" and the near funeral doom paced crawl of the title song "Obedience Thru Suffering" well worth the effort of experience a four-minute song that feels like it's twice that duration.

In some senses, this is a groundbreaking album in that it veers away from the typical eighties practice of augmenting slow-paced doom metal with flashy guitar solos and operatic vocals, as well as abandoning the old stereotype of emulating Ozzy Osbourne's nasally bellows. It reeks of a working class mentality that manages to crossover into a sort of atmospheric mystique that is just about as compelling as an offering out of Solitude Aeturnus. Then again, it is not with out a heavy degree of similarity to what came before it, pushing the envelope gradually in the heaviness and grittiness department while still sticking close to home. The visual of the towering hulk on the album art (who is assumed to be Atlas) being crushed under the weight of the load he's carrying is a fitting one for this album, an album that stands in contrast to subsequent works where a greater emphasis was put on up-tempo elements as if this same giant were shrugging off his load and leering on at the destruction it causes. Obedience Thru Suffering is, in the end, a sludge album for traditional doom metal fans, and it isn't surprising that most core fans of this band have taken more to their subsequent offerings.

Although Crowbar hail from the characteristic NOLA scene, I've always found their delivery closer to the doom metal fraternity occupying the middle ground, where sludge, stoner and all other sub-branches should be residing, between the traditional doom metal reverberations of Saint Vitus and Pentagram, and the more officiant epic landscapes of Candlemass and Solitude Aeturnus. The faster-paced hardcore-ish outbursts by all means put them more or less squarely within the sludge community, yes, but these are deviations rather than a norm, so let's put the "southern doom" tag to this captivating stuff and leave it at that.

US doom metal grew into a formidable force literally overnight, in the early-90’s, with new formations like The Obsessed (operating earlier on a demo stage), While Heaven Wept, Penance (a sequel to Dream Death), Solitude Aeturnus and Crowbar springing up, giving the Swedes and the Brits a really strong opposition. The latter were a good alternative to the two mentioned styles with their harsher, hardcore-prone delivery also coming from Kirk Windstein’s hoarse, intensely emotional vocals. With the scene acquiring an expressively angrier, aggro shade in the early-90’s, the album reviewed here came as a logical reflection of those tendencies, marginally modernizing the doom metal field, keeping it up with the passing trends.

There’s nothing like the good old doom with a thunderous bottom so well exemplified by “Waiting in Silence”, with Windstein’s inimitable emotional vocals topping the sombre musical setting. A lot of ships will sink in New Orleans port after “I Despise”, the ultimate doom metal hymn with nearly funeral-like atmosphere with the seismic, patiently woven riffs which become livelier and bouncier on “A Breed Apart”, and even turn to a more dynamic hardcore-ish exit. The title-track is an officiant ultra-volcanic cut with earth-shaking guitars, it’s amazing how much heaviness the guys can generate from mere 5-min; and “Vacuum” livens up the setting with a livelier, more volatile rhythm-section the latter going one notch up with a brisk speedy passage on “4 Walls”. “Subversion” establishes the staple doom metal hegemony which doesn’t get broken for the last string of tracks that carry on in the same unflinching, slow motion manner.

Like in the case of Candlemass' “Ancient Dreams”, the bass is also put up front making it the dominant instrument on quite a few times although in the Crowbar case we have a frequent crude, brash interference from the four strings rather than the omnipresent glass-breaking miasma created by Leif Edling. The core link also sides them with another outfit, the Germans End of Green, who applied hardcore in a very similar, albeit more depressing manner, on their earlier efforts, and even came up with the “depressive subcore” tag for their music before embracing the gothic metal/rock idea on more recent recordings. Unlike them, though, our friends here have been sticking to their guns, seldom changing the formula through the years, improving it gradually with each subsequent release, the supposed culmination reached on the excellent “Odd Fellows Rest “(1998). Surprisingly, they’ve never really sounded stale being a fairly regular presence on the field all these years, also with other outfits recently like the sludge/metalcore hybriders Kingdom of Sorrow, some of the band members also helping Phil Anselmo in Down… I guess it’s this tangible core connection that keeps the element of surprise in place, and the fans on their toes every time a new Crowbar opus looms on the horizon. In other words, whatever trends and vogues come and go, the scene will always find a place on it for the good old doom spiced with the casual more aggressive dash of hardcore.

CROWBAR's debut full-length release came to be hailed as one of the band’s defining albums and in the end as one of the definitive works in the history of sludge metal. Now two decades after "Obedience Thru Suffering" was first released, CROWBAR is bringing fans back to the nostalgia of the old days by re-releasing this gem, propelling the old crowd into a pool of contentment and new listeners into a flash of the history of sludge.

Although many critics and fans alike do not acknowledge "Obedience Thru Suffering" as being CROWBAR's best release, the album still holds an immense place within the history of the genre with the importance it brought with its new style. "Obedience Thru Suffering" is to sludge metal what "Kill ‘Em All" is to thrash metal. Forget hinting, forget subtleties, forget “stylistic influences and experiments”, "Obedience Thru Suffering" was full-on sludge. The band masterfully combined the sounds of doom metal and hardcore punk, producing a record unlike any the music world had encountered before.

What CROWBAR managed to do that set them off from bands playing doom metal and hardcore punk was not immediately identifiable. What kept people from saying that this is just a slowed down version of death metal or a more riff-based version of doom metal? The answer is simple. CROWBAR knew exactly how they wanted to be different; they married the sounds of all their influences together and added a kick of true grit into the execution, never compromising the exact atmosphere and mood they were aiming for and never compromising the musicality and style they were so good at bringing out. The riffs are refreshingly simple, yet heavy and crunching and solid to the core. There is no question that the craft of riffing is safe and evergrowing in the very capable hands of Kirk Windstein, whose riffs are all given a meditative and atmospheric edge that adds to the pensiveness of sludge metal music.

This is an immense first release for a band that would go on to become one of the legends of sludge. Despite sludge being a slow-paced genre, there is no shortage of extreme aggression and anger with tracks such as “Waiting in Silence” and “My Agony” being such fierce examples of the band’s character, with band members all putting tasteful and graceful flavour into music that overflows with personality and reflection.

While "Obedience Thru Suffering" is an album that is far from perfect, with few standout tunes and being slightly difficult to get into with some overlong tracks that border on absent-minded jamming, it cannot be denied that this New Orleans quartet have produced an album instrumental in the development and coming of sludge metal.

Originally written for http://www.metal-temple.com.

Although Obedience Thru Suffering is far from Crowbar's best album, this is a very important record. This marks the first release of a full-fledged sludge metal album. While The Melvin's early recordings were certainly hinting at sludge, this is the first full length to take the leap into the void. This album is a marriage of hardcore punk and doom metal. Many things were pointing to this merging of styles. In fact, the roots of sludge can be traced back to the B-side of Black Flag's 1984 release My War. This side of the album can be seen as proto-sludge as it slowed down hardcore punk, showed a Black Sabbath influence and extended song lengths. With this album, the doom element is even more prominent and Crowbar add a hell of a lot of grit.

The production here really isn't all that good. While it is definitely a good thing that Crowbar sought out a higher quality of production with later releases, the abrasive recording quality here certainly has it's charm. Sludge is generally a filthy genre and this is a fitting start. The bass is very high in the mix; in some parts it is as loud as the guitar, most notably in "The Innocent". The drums make up an important part of the sound, with many interesting fills complementing the slow riffs.

While these riffs certainly can't hold a candle to the band's best, it is evident from the start that Kirk has a gift for riffcraft. The riffs here are all dead simple, yet they are damn solid. Although this is pretty rudimentary for the band, it lays the groundwork for the sound that would persevere throughout the career. Sure, they would go on to experiment and occasionally add different flavours to their sound, but at the core this is what Crowbar is all about. The vocals here aren't as good as they would come to be, but this does features some of Kirk's angriest moments. Album opener "Waiting In Silence" offers some particularly memorable vocal lines. While later albums would offer a glimmer of hope through the hardships of life, this one is all about a crushing sense of depression with no end in sight and those times where life just gets the best of you and it really feels like there is no hope. Little sense of overcoming the hardships is offered:

"The pain I feel
It's stronger than life
It's taken control
My mind is gone
I'm dying inside
I'm falling apart"

While this might not be Crowbar's finest hour, it sets up a solid building block upon which they would go on to do incredible things. This also is a very important album in the development of sludge metal, marking the first time a full length sludge album was released. Along with Eyehategod and the Melvins, Crowbar is considered to be one of the founders of sludge. This release pales in comparison to future releases such as Sonic Excess In It's Purest Form and Odd Fellows Rest. However, that does not mean that this lacks the strength to stand on it's own legs.

New Orleans' Crowbar was not always a well known name amongst metal circles. That wouldn't really occur until 1993 with the self-titled album, and subsequent publicity via Phil Anselmo. Yet from the depths of obscurity lies "Obedience thru Suffering," one of the more difficult of Crowbar albums to really get into, much less thoroughly enjoy.

As most probably know, the whole sludge movement was essentially born out of a number of influences, one of the largest being Black Sabbath and The Melvins. You can definitely get a grasp for that here, as the album has a tendency to simply plod along in sludgey doom with few variations. This does lead to some repetition, not to mention a fairly unspectacular listen as a whole. At least its better than the garage hardcore that "In the Name of Suffering" was in the same year.

While the drum sound is certainly competent, it sometimes becomes a bit much. While on its own the drums sound nice, they do have a tendency to get a little loud and compete for the listener's attention with the guitars. This was present to some extent on later albums, but the riffs were more varied and the songwriting more interesting so the issue was not as evident as it is here. In addition, Crowbar's bearded leader in Kirk Windstein seems a little out of touch with the band. His vocals aren't nearly as impressive nor as deep as on later works. Windstein often sounds like he's on the other side of the room, and his work here doesn't leave much of a lasting impression. Not only that, but his performance is almost completely zapped of the gloomy emotion he would give the audience in droves in years later.

As far as stand-out songs go, they're few and far between. The crunchy "My Agony" throws in an interesting riff during the verses but its a bit overlong. Its only four and half minutes, but due to the lack of variations here the songs seem longer. "4 Walls" is also stands among the best here as it foreshadows this band's ability to throw in tempo changes over the course of one song. This would revisit us later on in more familiar tracks like "All I Had ( I Gave,)" "Scattered Pieces Lay," and "No More Can We Crawl." I would also have to agree with the other reviewer here in saying that "Waiting In Silence" is an excellent song, one of the best on this album and a great song from Crowbar in general.

"Obedience In Suffering" has since been re-released and I don't know if its re-mastered (I have the original with the cartoony artwork) but the sound quality isn't that great here. This also takes away that unique experience Crowbar often gives with its albums, such as the thick, chunky riffs and feeling of impending doom. Still, its pretty decent because it is rather hard to find these days, but I wouldn't recommend shelling out a good deal of green for it, even if it is a rarity. Crowbar have done much better in their later albums, and I can definitely recommend any of those over this one. Despite that, there are a few redeemable moments here, just not enough to really go out of my way to promote the album as a whole.

This humble debut from Kirk Windstein & his merry men is probably the first Sludge album released along with Eyehategod's "In The Name Of Suffering".

As a genre it draws direct influence from the "Melvins" and like the "Melvins" is a more hardcore influenced take on Doom Metal, lyrically & musically as opposed to the epic, traditional style of bands like Candlemass & Solitude Aeturnus.
Here they show all the promise & sign of potential they would later achieve on the self titled album released the next year & on "Odd Fellows Rest" & alerted the attention of a certain Phil Anselmo who the following year was at the production helm for the follow up to this.

The mood of the album is pretty obviously downbeat but as with all Crowbar releases they are able to shift between higher & lower tempo changes, be them more angry or more sensitive, with a lot of skill and also the drum sound on here is stunning as well, piercingly intense & helps build & decrease the atmosphere with a great sense of timing and skill.
One of the greatest factors in their sound on the first 3 albums down to the maestro on the stool, Craig Numenmacher.

Although the drum sound is pretty solid, the production of Kirks vocals doesnt give the big man a lot of justice. The sound is a bit hazy & distant which is a shame as he probably gives his most emotional performance on here, more than later releases, but the upside to the sound on here and for me elevates them above other sludge groups is that their sound is more clean and polished (and I don't mean that in a "the black album" way).

You can hear & enjoy the different elements to the band clearer than their peers such as say Eyehategod or Iron Monkey who have a very grating, merged together, aggressive sound musically and specifically vocally, which is pretty much the same as your average Death Metal "razor blade hacked throat" vocals.
Kirks vocals display a lot of melody and emotion as well as gruffness & overall I think have made Crowbar over time the most attractive and popular band from the sludge pool because of it & also because they are generally more technical & have more varied songwriting.

Although the sound on here does show a lot of promise, a lot of the album does sound samey & the songwriting & riffs lack a lot of the variation and creativity they'd reach on later albums.
Saying that tho, the opener "Waiting In Silence" is one of their greatest songs from their discography, lumbering around in a great doomy setting with one of Kirk's best vocal performances, great lyrics & solid drumming & although the album goes on to sound pretty samey, the quality of the first track can keep you reeling for a while.

Another highlight is probably "4 Walls" which starts off really slow and speeds up frantically towards the end and best displays their good knack for tempo changes.

Overall this is by no means "GREAT" & I wouldn't highly recommend to anyone but you could do a lot worse musically & if you're interested as to the roots of Sludge, this album along with the Melvins and Eyehategod is what spawned the imitators.