MAY 2005

Corrosion of Conformity
In The Arms Of God
By Bunny Matthews

The difference between Stanton Moore, drummer for funk-rock band Galactic, and Stanton Moore, drummer for heavy metal band Corrosion of Conformity, is the difference between Clark Kent and Superman. Or perhaps a Dodge minivan and a Ferrari 612 Scaglietti. Or impotence and a boner. Those who have compared Stanton’s drumming on this CD to John Bonham’s on the various Led Zeppelin albums are close to the truth. Except Stanton is much more inventive, much more rhythmically clever than Bonham ever was.

Now if you like the kind of music performed at the Jazz Festival you probably won’t dig this. It’s hardcore, angry, apocalyptic music. The inner sleeve illustration of nuclear bombs festooned with a Maltese cross pretty much tells the story: explosive electric guitars meet explosive percussion. Vocalist/guitarist Pepper Keenan sings like his vocal cords were charbroiled in Hell. The songs are not about having a good time: “Kill to remember, this war is a knife which will never surrender…infinite war.” The supporting cast of guitarist Woodroe Weatherman and bassist Mike Dean keeps the program intense and incendiary.

A little bird told me that this is the music Stanton truly prefers playing, news that should come as no surprise to anyone raised in New Orleans, a place where metal—and not funk or jazz—has always been the preferred soundtrack for cruising the lakefront, engaging in fist fights, submitting to tattoo artists, picking up chicks and destroying brain cells. For many of us, the provocative sounds of Corrosion Of Conformity are our jazz and heritage, our middle finger salute to middle class values.