Crowbar-Lifesblood For The Downtrodden (2005)

 

Artist: Crowbar

Title: Lifesblood For The Downtrodden

Label: Candlelight Records USA

Format: CD

Cat #: CDL0158CD

Year of Release: 2005

Country and Year of Edition Issue: US 2005

Listed Condition: VG+/VG+

Sell Date: 3/23/25

Sell Price: $9.21

Discogs Last Sold: 3/22/25 NM/NM $10.00

Low: $2.17

Median: $6.26

Average: $6.54

High: $11.96

Current low price: $4.55

Current Number on Sale at Discogs: 3

Have/Want: 335/45 

Where Sold: Cordova, AL

Time it took to sell: 1 year

Where and When Bought: facebook $2 cd lot

Gwiz-gau Letter Grade: B+

Sad To See It Go: No

New Orleans doom stalwart Crowbar have been around since 1989.  People have talked about them over the years but somehow, I never got around to seeing them or buying any of their stuff or even really hearing them.  With this in mind, I added this to about 30 or so CD's that someone was unloading online last year on Facebook marketplace.  This particular album, Lifesblood For The Downtrodden is their 8th and their most recent was their 12th in 2022.  They are still active, touring Europe this year and the US last year.

I have to say the people are right about the band and I enjoyed this album.  I zoned in on the riffs and appreciated the prog left turn on the last track of the album, "Lifesblood."  It's really as simple as that, there's really no point in discussing it further.  This is genre music (stoner rock), the vocals are strained in either yells or melodically sung, but not quite fully suffering Alice In Chains-itis.   After a few listens I didn't really gain any more great insight and still liked the album.

When I say genre music, it implies you really are dedicating most of your life and time to knowing the music inside and out.  You may even play it.  You are buying 5 albums a week minimum of this type of music and seeing at least a few shows a week of those bands.  You have been doing this for years and decades.  A quarter century passes and having a handle on a bands dozen albums is nothing because you have been following that band all along.  You've seen the band at least two dozen times, maybe missing them here and there because they were up against a slightly better show or you were out of town.  There are many many, many bands like this of varying degrees of quality, but you really need a handle on them all to feel "right."  Somehow, I lost the plot on this level of obsession and let quarter centuries go by without paying attention even with things I like.  And STILL most of my free waking hours are consumed by some sort of music.  I look at a band like Crowbar and I feel bad that I'm not up to date but then I'm like fuck it there are so many hours in the day.  The more you know, the less you know.

Dropping in at random on a 20 year old album 16 years into a 35 year career is like dropping in on a 5-year running Netflix series you've heard friends talking about and starting randomly with the 6th episode of the third season.  You either like the show and go back to the beginning and watch everything start to finish or maybe you say I liked that, I'll watch it again if the opportunity arises or you say fuck it, not for me.  I'm kind of in the middle here.

Crowbar remains on my bucket list to see live.