ALBUM REVIEW: Good God / Baad Man – Corrosion of Conformity
North Carolina sludge legends CORROSION OF CONFORMITY have had a rollercoaster ride of a career. Their four decades of existence have seen a fair share of line-up changes, fallouts, make-ups and tragedy. 2020 saw the tragic death of founding drummer Reed Mullin, followed shortly after by the departure of linchpin bass player Mike Dean. Amidst the turbulence, one thing has remained constant: Every few years they will dust themselves off, get in the studio and write a beast of an album. Their latest – and the first since 2018’s No Cross No Crown – is a double album entitled Good God/Baad Man.
The bulk of the songs were written by Pepper Keenan and Woody Weatherman, one of the finest songwriting partnerships in all of riffdom. They recruited the powerhouse rhythm section of Bobby Landgraf and Stanton Moore, and with producer extraordinaire Warren Riker at the desk the group pulled up at BEEGEE Bobby Gibb’s mansion/studio to lay the tracks down on wax. As you can imagine, the results are spectacular.
In an attention economy, the prospect of a double album may be daunting to some listeners, however, at just over an hour long in its entirety Good God/Baad Man is still manageable in one sitting and there are enough twists, turns and surprises to keep you in your seat as it progresses. As the title would suggest, Good God / Baad Man as a double album represents two distinct sides of the band, the yin and the yang coming together to make the whole. On the most part the songs that make up Good God have a spirituality to them, whereas Baad Man is much more raw and carnal. Each half of the double album starts with a title track of sorts that sets the scene for what’s to come. Opener Good God? / Final Dawn is a sprawling psychedelic stoner metal anthem, with guitars awash with effects and existential lyrics.
There’s SABBATH worship across the whole record, but none more so than on You Or Me, which lovingly borrows the main riff from Wheels Of Confusion, while Pepper’s vocals suggest he may have a future as an Ozzy impersonator should work with CORROSION OF CONFORMITY ever dry up.
Gimme Some Moore is the most pissed off they’ve sounded for a long time. A brawling ode to bar room fights, leather, chains and spikes. Replete with some backing “yeah yeah yeahs” from MINISTRY’s Al Jourgenson. Eastern melodies and tumbling percussion drive the instrumental interlude of Bedouin’s Hand, conjuring up images of dusty deserts in blazing sunshine. It segues nicely into Good God’s closer, Run For Your Life, a languid, ZEPPELIN-esque tale of escape and nomadism that features some of the record’s finest lead playing from both Pepper and Woody.
Having come from a hip-hop and R&B background, Warren Riker has imbued a masterful directness to the recordings, especially the drums, while also adding buckets of flavour with the clever use of samples and other bells and whistles peppered throughout the record. In the second half for example, Baad Man opens with a sample ripped from an infamous YouTube clip of Jamaican dancehall artist Ninjaman referring to himself as a “reeeeaaal bad man” before kicking into an irresistibly funky groove. Both halves of this album fizzle and pop with life and vitality, but this song in particular is the sound of a band revitalised, having fun and ripping ass for the sheer joy of it. Asleep On The Killing Floor is one of the real highlights of the second half, with its frenetic pacing, bubbling bass lines and snarling attitude. It’s everything you want in a CORROSION OF CONFORMITY tune and more.
From here things take a detour into the seedy part of town, with the one-two of Handcuff County and Swallowing The Anchor. On the former, Pepper channels his inner Billy Gibbons, both on guitar and vocally, with a bluesy shuffle and braggadocious lyrics straight out of ZZ-TOP’s playbook. Swallowing The Anchor stays in that same lane and its opening line of “She had the t*ts of a witch and the soul of liar. She was a neighborhood trick girl, she’ll set your soul on fire.” tell you all you need to know about its subject matter.
After the party, comes the come-down, in the form of the acoustic drug-ballad, Brickman, which sounds like it could have been conceived late at night around a campfire in the desert. Closing out the album as whole is Forever Amplified, a soaring tribute to fallen members of the band. A dramatic intro gives way to a pile driving riff, which doesn’t relent for the next five minutes of the song, with all members getting deep into the pocket to bring it home. For the last few refrains they’re joined by gospel singer Anjelika “Jelly” Joseph, who puts in a performance that tingles the hairs on the back of your neck, adding oodles of soul to an already soulful song.
Given their track record, Lord knows it could well be the best part of a decade before we get another CORROSION OF CONFORMITY record, but there’s certainly enough quality on Good God / Baad Man to keep fans satiated for quite some time.
Rating: 8/10
Good God / Baad Man is out now via Nuclear Blast.
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