Review by Andy Valentine
When I was 16 years old, I waited patiently outside a New York record store the morning of September 19, 1995 for the moment I could get my hands on Down’s debut, NOLA. The notion of a supergroup with members of Pantera, Corrosion of Conformity, Crowbar, and Eyehategod was goddamn fucking amazing. All my favorite musicians in one band. Nothing like it had ever been done in metal, and truly, ever since. And the they album is nothing less than phenomenal. The bluesy southern tinged guitar hooks were backed by Phil Anselmo at his vocal peak. To this day, the track “Stone the Crow” exemplified what American Heavy Metal should be. NOLA remains a mainstay in my regular cd rotation 12 years later.
Seven years later, at the age of 22, I waited outside for the record store to open once again. It was the unleashing of Down II: A Bustle in Your Hedgerow. While not the classic that its predecessor was, Down II still managed to stand on its own two feet. Killer tracks like “Stained Glass Cross,” “Dog Tired,” and “Where I’m Going” still rocked the dirty southern rock sound and carried the otherwise underwhelming. With A Bustle in Your Hedgerow, fans were looking for down to top their classic, and it didn’t happen.
And now it’s 5 years later, and Down has released Down III: Over the Under, and the fans are hoping that it would match if not surpass the original debut.
It hasn’t.
This is a much different Down. I wouldn’t so much say that the magic is gone, but it has certainly changed. The album feels forced, in places, like the band member are tired of the gig, and just want to get done with it. A point of much contention on the message boards and fan groups was Phil’s new singing voice. And after listening through the album several times now, I hate to admit that the fears were all justified.
On this album Phil sounds like he’s consistently out of breath, like he’s straining to pump the notes out. Anyone who’s been a metal fan any time during the last fifteen years knows how beautiful Phil’s voice is. The man was blessed with metal pipes by the Gods that he had blessed up with time and time again. Here, his voice still carried much of the beauty, but it just sounds like it’s, … strained.
Whether or not that vibe was intentional by the band, I don’t know.
All that said, there are some very respectable tracks here. For my money, “On March the Saints” is the best tune on the record. It’s a real shit-kicker in the vein of “Dog Tired” from Down II. The track immediately following, “Never Try,” carried some of the same downtempo trippy vibe that “Jail” had on the first record. Good stuff indeed.
This is not a bad album, by any means. The worst music that Down puts out is still a thousand times better than the best stuff that say, Five Finger Death Punch put out. It’s just that with all the talent behind this band, I suppose I wanted more.
In another ten years I will no doubt still be listening to NOLA. Whether I’ll ever take Over the Under for a spin post 2007, I’m not really sure.