The Formative Years – Corrosion of Conformity
Corrosion of Conformity started out in 1982 as a classic hardcore punk band and eventually evolved to create their own brand of slowed down, blues influenced crossover metal.
COC’s debut full-length Eye for an Eye was released in 1984 and delivered twenty well-thought out trashers.
Things got interesting in 1985 when Corrosion of Conformity released their second album Animosity, issued on Metal Blade’s Death Records and demonstrated how different they really were from all the other contemporary bands like D.R.I., Raw Power, Dr. Know that were lumped into the “crossover” genre.
While COC was clearly influenced by the same ground-breaking early-1980s metal bands, they were not merely inspired by first generation metal bands like frantic era Bad Brains and the more sinister elements of Black Sabbath, but lifted their riffs, played them in an accelerated manner to then add sludge and doom nuances in their brooding breakdowns and topped their hectic tantrums off with demented vocals.
Animosity created a wonderfully greasy, violent bass driven link between punk, thrash, crust core and metal in a way that was no longer about speed but heaviness. The fact that the cover artwork was created by Pushead did not hurt either.
A brutally effective album that was far ahead of its time, which is why it is not further wondrous that bands like Metallica and Mr. Bungle keep covering songs from it.
