Next up on Batty's list is this one
Deliverance --- Corrosion of Conformity --- 1994 (Sony)
You nevr know what you're gonna get with the mischevious jester of Music Banter, but this time it seems like maybe he's going easy on me, as this album is reported to be a move away from the thrash and even hardcore sound of Corrosion of Conformity's three previous ones, evincing a more straightforward metal style, and I'm told two of the tracks were even radio hits! Well, we'll see. It opens on “Heaven is not overflowing” --- surely as true a statement now as when it was written --- and there's a good hard biting guitar to kick us into a sort of boogie style, almost ZZ-worthy in ways. The vocal is rough but very understandable. Good punch to the song, then “Albatross” (not the Fleetwood Mac instrumental, I hasten to point out!) is one of those radio hits. Apparently. Sounds a bit heavy for the radio, but sure what do I know? Kind of a seventies hard rock feel to this.
The next one was also a hit, and “Clean my wounds” has a nice sort of semi-commercial idea about it, with a stuttering guitar and a sort of shouted chorus, but I'm more interested in the shorter “Without wings”, an instrumental which sounds like it rides on acoustic guitar and seems to have keyboards in it, though I don't see any credited. “Broken man” rocks everything back up with some serious guitar and what I think may be talkbox; really like this one. There's more than a hint of Aerosmith's “Walk this way” in “Señor Limpio”, while “Mano de mono” (what's with all the Spanish?) is a really nice little instrumental that definitely has piano in it and leads into a powerful grinder in “Seven days”. Another short instrumental and we're off again with “My grain”, which sort of fails to make any impression on me.
Not so with the title track, which has a nice dark feeling about it, sort of anthemic with a powerful vocal . Not mad about “Shake like you”, sort of reminds me of the experience I had with System of a Down in 2013. Urgh. Don't care for the sort of mechanised vocal here. It's a completely different story for “Shelter”, where they go all Country, even bringing in a pedal steel to complement the acoustic guitar. Like this a lot, and absolutely love the closer, “Pearls before swine”. Great strong finish to an album I'm really not sure if I like or not....
TRACKLISTING AND RATINGS
1. Heaven's not overflowing
2. Albatross
3. Clean my wounds
4. Without wings
5. Broken man
6. Senor Limpio
7. Mano de mono
8. Seven days
9. #2121313
10. My grain
11. Deliverance
12. Shake like you
13. Shelter
14. Pearls before swine
It's okay Batty: I'll save you the trouble...
