Review by Phil Rozier for MPM
Corrosion of Conformity releasing an album on Easter weekend feels like the most CoC thing imaginable. Forget chocolate eggs. This is fourteen tracks of resurrection level riff worship.
With CoC you can expect raw. Expect loud. On this holiest of days, I’d expect the noise to be capable of waking the dead. Maybe that was his secret? ‘Tell you what guys, pop me in here for a few days and when CoC release their new album, crank it loud!’ And after an eight-year gap, a lineup shift, and the return of Stanton Moore behind the kit, Good God / Baad Man arrives like a thunderclap over a Louisiana.
It’s also their first album since Technocracy (1987!) not produced by John Custer. Instead, Warren Riker steps in. The man who’s helped shape the sound of Down and clearly knows how to bottle Pepper Keenan’s guitar tone without the bottle melting.
Add in new bassist Bobby Landgraf, stepping into the role after Mike Dean’s 2024 departure, and you’ve got a band that sounds refreshed and reloaded.
It’s a double-disc experience:
- Disc 1: Good God
- Disc 2: Baad Man
Two sides of the same snarling beast, but with very different personalities.
Let’s take it for a digital spin.
DISC ONE – GOOD GOD
‘Good God? / Final Dawn’. It doesn’t explode out of the gate. It feels like the initial few seconds, the track is lurking. A clean, twangy guitar line that makes you pause mid coffee pour and think, “Oh, something’s coming.” And then it does. The drop hits (see, down with the kids), and the detuned clean tone turns to immediate volume.
Stanton Moore’s drumming? Good grief. It’s like he’s been waiting 21 years to remind everyone he’s a force of nature. This man can hit the tubs for sure.
Pepper’s vocals are as gravel marinated as ever, and Landgraf’s bass tone is thick enough to spread on toast. It’s classic CoC: stoner metal swagger, bluesy grime, and riffs that feel like they’ve been dragged through a swamp. A killer opener.
‘Gimme Some Moore’. You’ve heard this one already. If you haven’t, go fix that.
It’s a battering ram of a track, reviewed previously on MPM, so I’ll spare the sermon and simply point you to that review.
‘Bedouin’s Hand’. Here’s where things get interesting. This instrumental detour is not what you expect from CoC, and I think that’s exactly why it works. It’s dusty, atmospheric, almost cinematic. A wandering, desert-tinged escape that feels like someone handed the band a hookah pipe and said, “Go weird.” And they did.
‘Run For Your Life’. The opening riff has a ‘Type O Negative’ shadow hanging over it, that slow, doom-laden churn that makes you instinctively nod along like you’re in a black leather trench coat. Then the sludge kicks in. Thick. Chewy. Head bangingly irresistible. Pass the bourbon.
Without going track by track, even though I nearly have, and not in order either, (very pro of me) the remaining cuts on Disc 1 keep the energy high and the riffs filthy. There’s groove. There’s grit. There’s that unmistakable CoC “we do what we want” attitude.
DISC TWO – BAAD MAN
“Baad Man” kicks the door open with Pepper Keenan fully unleashed. Wait for the theatrical interlude to finish, and this track sweats. It’s got grit, swagger, and the kind of attitude that makes you want to drink whiskey out of a chipped glass in a back-alley rock club. And those unexpected “ooooh” backing vocals? Did not see that coming. But they work, adding a weirdly catchy lift to a song that otherwise sounds like it was recorded in a garage (in a good way!).
Disc 2 leans harder into the blues metal, groove laden, whiskey-stained side of CoC.
It’s looser. It’s grimier. It’s got that “played live in a room with no air conditioning” vibe.
‘Lose Yourself’ is a faster paced, but still full of grime, as it races through Keenan’s ‘losing all control’ lyrics. ‘Mandra Sonos’ is a wild mix of what feels like Sitar inspired guitar, wallowing distorted bass lifted by a Wah pedal, and the devil’s voice. Just as I was beginning to wander if I was still listening to CoC or whether something more sinister had happened, track 10, ‘Asleep on the Killing Floor’ kicks in and reminds me to stand firm.
For any other music, this might sound like a weird combination of listening experience and emotions, but, with Coc, it’s just them being them. Don’t be alarmed.
The remaining tracks incorporate the recognisable sound of US trains thundering along, police sirens, funk guitar, bourbon dripping swagger and downright heavy assault of the senses. Like a chef wanting to incorporate ‘their roots’ into what they cook, CoC have clearly been inspired by life itself. This album has pace, noise, swagger, weirdness, but with equal balance of sensitivity and late-night darkness influencing the feel and emotional power of the record.
Good God / Baad Man is recognisably, undeniably, gloriously Corrosion of Conformity, but with enough new flavours to keep things fresh. The return of Stanton Moore elevates everything. Bobby Landgraf fits like he’s always been there. Warren Riker’s production gives the band room to breathe and explore. The two-disc structure keeps the experience varied and engaging.
This album will slot into their live set beautifully, rubbing shoulders with the classics without feeling like an imitation of past glories.
And on this holiest of resurrection days, they’ve delivered an album loud enough to wake your head.
Find all Good God / Baad Man album at THIS LOCATION
CORROSION OF CONFORMITY:
Pepper Keenan – guitar, vocals
Woody Weatherman – guitar
Stanton Moore – drums
Bobby Landgraf – bass
