This came out in 2001 – or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
Heavy is as heavy does. And New Orleans bruisers Crowbar — not to be confused with the ’70s Canadian blues-rockers — are four of the heaviest customers on the sludge-metal scene.
Hell, the shirtless picture of these man-mountains on the CD booklet of this album is ample proof of that. And the high-density grooves of this eighth grim opus back it up in spades. Driven by massive, slowly pummelling beats and thunderously grinding guitars — the sonic equivalent of having somebody wallop you repeatedly with a shovel while cutting off your fingers one by one with a chainsaw — funereal-paced ditties like Suffering Brings Wisdom and Repulsive in its Splendid Beauty plow a furrow of malevolence and brutality through the fields of Sabbathy sludge and Type O negativity that these lads call home. And as singer Kirk Windstein bellows like a moose trapped in a forest fire, all you can do is bang your head as you realize that sometimes, size does matter.
