This came out in 2002 – or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
Pantera. Corrosion of Conformity. Crowbar. Three of the most brain-crushingly powerful bands in metal. What could possibly be heavier? How about an all-star band with members of each?
If you haven’t already heard them, you need to get acquainted wtih Down, a superloud supergroup with Pantera singer Phil Anselmo and bassist Rex Brown, COC guitarist Pepper Keenan and drummer Jimmy Bower, and guitarist Kirk Windstein of Crowbar. When you put them all altogether, they sound like … well, a southern-metal version of Black Sabbath. Despite the Led Zep line in the title, the sludgy death-metal of Ozzy and co. is what drives Down’s sophomore CD, A Bustle in Your Hedgerow. Dinosaur-stomp drumbeats, rubbery low-string riffs and crashing power chords, lung-busting vocals, paranoid, aggressive lyrics about The Man That Follows Hell and Ghosts Along the Mississippi — it all fuses into a wall of thundering old-school stoner metal that destroys all in its path. Including many of the albums its members make with their other bands. Do quit your day jobs, boys. Please do.
