Down-right heavy (Nola - Down)

Member Name: Dezza

Product:	Nola - Down
Date:	27/04/01 (312 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A riffy wall of beautiful noise

Disadvantages: Not too varied

DOWN are a group made up of some of the best American heavy band members.
Pantera’s Anselmo fronts them, displaying his full soft/growling/screaming style as he does with Pantera. COC’s Pepper Keenan plays guitar, and Crowbar members make up the others.
The album, NOLA, (New Orleans, Los Angeles) came about from the group having spare time and jamming.
And what they’ve come up with is just a riff filled, heavy as sludge MONSTER.
Well, what do you expect from these artists??

Most of the song subject is alcohol, weed and just being your daaamn self.
They’ve hit an intense, aggressive vibe which anyone into basically anything like COC, Pantera, Soulfy, The Sabs, oh anything heavy, should dig.

Temptations wing starts the album, quite a fast guitar lick compared with some on NOLA, with Anselmo screaming the chorus in his own style. What I love is that, as well as some thundering drums; the backing guitar is just a wall of noise. Beautiful!
Then come Lifer, Under Everything with it’s “poverty is not for me but I’ll take her back again” message, Losing All, all continuing the heavy, heavy theme, but all with a song and a vocal that you can’t help sing along to.
Pillars of Eternity builds an angry vocal into a huge, chugging riff that just wallops your ears, and seems to keep pounding for an age. In case you’ve not guessed yet, I love this!

There is only one soft track, the near-acoustic Prey For the Locust, a Sabbath “Planet Caravan” soundalike. Seems every heavy album has one of these!
After which the album ends with Swan Song, then Bury me in Smoke.
I can say nothing more for this than, just when the track seems to be finished, the band just starts the riff again.
Oh God, it’s good, and they knew it!
To finish, I’ve got loadsa stuff by the other bands mentioned above which I listen to occasionally, but I keep putting
on Down. I rate it that highly.

Summary: